“Shoppers who read brand responses to negative reviews showed significantly higher product sentiment and intent to purchase” (Marketing Charts). True in financial services and healthcare, as well?
As a marketer, there are pros and cons to the online review. Because there are so many platforms designed to host them, customer reviews are tough to monitor and even more difficult to manage, since most of those apps and sites are not client-owned. Even the most positive of reviews are difficult to legitimize with the increasingly widespread practice of false-positive reports by invested stakeholders and, even, businesses paying customers to post about shining experiences… that may not have actually happened. So, what’s a retailer, restaurant or service provider to do? Lie sitting duck or spend countless hours scouring the internet for reviews – positive or negative – that may forever sit on a third party platform? Neither. Take control.