NB: This is a guest article by Anthony Rawlins, managing director of Digital Visitor.
We’re often asked if there are any statistics to show how useful having reviews on your website can be.
The simple answer is "yes – there are many", so we thought we would round up some very recent examples, as they never fail to impress me and continually argue the case for building up reviews on your website, and quickly.
We researched the travel industry and beyond to bring you a collection of figures to help you convince your management team that reviews are the next thing your website needs.
Here’s how we got on…
1. Positive reviews are almost as important as price
When it comes down to making the decision to book online, a positive review is almost as influential as price or special offers. So, rather than reducing prices – showing reviews on your site can be equally as powerful at increasing conversions.
29% of consumers consider positive reviews as most likely factor to make them book a holiday
A recent online travel booking poll, conducted by Webcredible, revealed that 29% of consumers consider positive reviews as the most likely factor to make them book a holiday online.
The only factor identified as more important than reviews was price, with 38% of consumers identifying online prices and special offers as the factor most likely to make them book a holiday online.
2. Reviews are the most common form of online research, increasing browsing time on your website by 50 – 100%
Adding reviews to your website can double the browsing time. That’s a 100% increase!
According to Michael McCartan, COO of RateTiger-eRevMax, over 50% of all UK holiday bookings are researched online.
Across all industries, a study by Lightspeed Research found that 62% of customers read reviews online compared to 49% who researched competitor’s sites.
Here at Digital Visitor, we have provided review functionality to over 200 travel and leisure organisations globally. Our research has found that a good review system will significantly increase the browsing time on a website. In fact, on average, client’s see online visitor browsing time double. That’s a 100% increase in time spent on your site rather than competing sites.
3. Reviews drive additional traffic to your website from other social media sites
Travel companies that regularly share reviews with their Facebook page see an increase in traffic back to their company website. For example, one good review per day generated extra visitors up to 2.5 times their number of community followers per month.
So if you have a Facebook page with 10,000 "Likes", this can deliver 25,000 visitors to your company website from Facebook every month!
4. Consumers prefer to read reviews on company websites over magazines, forums, newspapers or social networking sites
Referring to the same study by Lightspeed Research, 47% of consumers prefer to read ‘reviews on a company’s website’ over magazines, forums, shopping comparison sites, newspapers and social networking sites.
The only other sources that were more preferred than reviews on a company website were ‘reviews on shopping sites’ (58%) and "via a search engine" (64%).
This highlights that consumers prefer to read reviews by real people over what a company’s marketing material states.
5. 46.7% of consumers have written a review
Participation in social commerce is now the accepted norm. More consumers have written a review than those that haven’t.
Research from Reevoo confirmed that currently, 46.7% of consumers do in fact write reviews compared to 46.3% who haven’t, and it’s becoming a more standard procedure as its popularity increases.
6. A negative review is not always a bad thing for sales
A review that may seem negative to one person can in fact be positive in another person’s view. Take for example a review of a hotel that describes it as "not child friendly".
A couple looking for a romantic weekend getaway would not see this as a deterrent for booking, and would most likely welcome this fact. What is seen as a negative in one customer’s eyes can in fact be a positive for another.
Travel organisations that really want to make the most of their customer reviews now and in the future, will be those that consider how to make them relevant for each online visitor.
The more relevant and appropriate the reviews included on your website are to the potential customer, the greater the influence is on the booking process.
Research by Reevoo also points out the importance for organisations to be wary of not sensoring all the negative reviews as 70% of people trust reviews more when they can see bad reviews as well as good.
Furthermore, 38% of shoppers are more likely to read the bad reviews than the good ones AND 95% of people said they will still buy a product with a bad review.
7. Reviews enhance sales by up to 18%
Statistics, also from Reevoo, confirmed that retailers and brands that have embraced reviews and recommendations into their online retail strategy see an increase in sales of up to 18%; 2% of which is from repeat customers.
Like it or not, reviews are positively influencing the volume of bookings and if you don’t jump on board, you will be left behind.
So what are travel companies doing, who has reviews on their website and who does not?
We decided to conduct our own research to discover how many of the top travel companies did in fact have some sort of rating or review about their products and services. In order to do this, we looked at 100 of the top travel company websites to see what review capability they offered.
This is what we found:
- 60% of the websites we looked at had a review system in place - Surprisingly, only 15% of these were from TripAdvisor. The rest used their Facebook wall to collect reviews and most had their own onsite rating and reviews features.
- 40% did not include any reviews - This highlights that there are many travel organisations that still haven’t taken advantage of the increased conversion reviews can bring.
Our top tips for making the most of reviews on your website:
1. Ease of use
Make it easy for your visitors to add review with slick uploading of their comments, photos and videos.
2. Display your reviews in the right place.
We suggest:
- A selection below the fold on the homepage
- A selection on secondary landing pages such as destination pages
- Specific reviews on product/tour/venue pages
3. Urge customers to leave a review in your marketing and promotional material.For example, you may want to include a link on your receipts, or on any email communications that go to your customers.
4. Incentivise.
Give your customers a reason to review your business or service. You might want to offer them the opportunity to enter a competition, a coupon or discount off their next purchase if they leave a review.
5. Proactive
If you have received a compliment from a customer, be it via email or verbally, take this opportunity to inform them that you appreciate reviews, and give them the website address where they can post a review and spread the good word.
6. Be helpful
If you spot positive comments about your brand, products or services on any other social networking sites, contact the user with a link to where they can add a review.
7. Responsibility
Make sure you work out which department or who in your organisation is responsible for responding to the comments.
8. Be nice
Respond in a professional and timely manner to every review, both the positive and negative ones. It will show your potential customers that you care about your customer’s experiences and especially about improving your services.
NB: This is a guest article by Anthony Rawlins, managing director of Digital Visitor.