The Social Influence of Reviews on Consumer Behaviour

Social influence on consumer behaviour is well-known and a stellar reputation will always help in developing your business. People want to read reviews of their peers, those that share their views and needs.

As a business, when it comes to reviews, those can be a bit tricky to manage. The best approach is to start building a positive reputation in order to neutralize any potentially negative ones.

A customer won’t take into consideration a single negative review if the brand is open and responsive to issues that arise. Here are a few suggestions on how to improve your online review reputation.

Start Building Reviews

You should encourage customers to leave a review. Oftentimes all it takes is asking:

• In person
• Through an online form
• Via email

Every business that cares about its online reputation should be offering your their customers a way to leave feedback for the brand — whether it’s on their website, or third-party platforms such as Google or Yelp.

With so many tools at their disposal, customers can now enrich their reviews with pictures or videos. These carry a higher weight because they allow for clear explanations of why a customer may complain or what they love about the product. With the help of supporting materials potential buyers can more easily make up their mind. A complaint about how something doesn’t work with an explainer video has an impact, and so do the ones where people show the product working for them.

Expectations towards Reviews

Buyers will also judge reviews by the general trustworthiness of the website. Generally, the most significant reviews are considered to be on websites with previous reputation, are recent, and help put the feedback in proper context.

There are four primary factors in product ratings and reviews that influence social behaviour:

• Recency — The newer, the more weight it has in overall assessment
• Consistency — If the product reviews touch on the same feature or issue, then it’s likely true
• Supporting materials — There’s an increasing emphasis on sharing images and explanatory videos that help the general review.
• Authority — Is the website authoritative? If prospects trust the review system, they place more value on the feedback.

A combination of constant feedback and product quality is the driving force behind sales, especially online. People still favor positive ratings, but they’re also looking at the details. Reviews with videos and images grab their attention, and they also do a deep dive into reviews looking for supporting or detracting information. As the overall picture of the product becomes clear to them, they are able to buy with confidence.