The Power of Online Reviews
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Reviews play an essential role in influencing consumer purchasing decisions. A Power Reviews study found that 98% of shoppers rely on reviews to inform their purchases, and 45% hesitate to buy without them.
Positive reviews play a pivotal role in generating leads and increasing program enrollment, too. Organizations with even a single review can experience a noticeable boost in conversions. As the number of reviews grows, the conversion rate climbs. For example, businesses with 11-30 reviews may see conversion rates double compared to organizations with zero reviews. Accumulating over 100 reviews can lead to a staggering 250% increase in conversions.
Can your program afford not to have reviews?
By the numbers
Chances are your program audiences include Gen Z and Millennial readers. Here’s a breakdown of how each generation uses (and accesses) reviews.
- Gen Z’s use of TikTok for brand and product information has increased 104% since 2020.
- 95% of customers read online reviews before making a purchase.
- 49% trust online reviews as much as they do personal recommendations.
- Over 33% of consumers won’t make a purchase if reviews are 3+ months old, and 66% won’t buy if reviews are 12+ months old (including over half of Gen Z).
- 88% are more likely to buy when the company replies to its reviews (the good and the bad).
- 64% of consumers say they’re more likely to purchase with fewer, more recent reviews than if the reviews are higher volume but published three or more months ago.
- Over 50% of consumers read 4+ reviews before committing to a purchase.
- 68% of customers want more than a star rating. They want to see what people are saying.
Soliciting online reviews
How do you get reviews? Ask! After a program ends, send a follow-up email or SMS asking participants to share their experiences. Offer incentives for leaving a review — a chance to win a gift card or receive a discount on future programs. Posting these reviews on TeenLife is highly effective, especially when the experience is still fresh in their minds.
Leverage social media to encourage students and their families to leave reviews on TeenLife via Facebook, X, or Instagram. Posting regular reminders and links to the review page can increase the chances of someone providing feedback.
Send direct review links
You can send a direct link to your TeenLife listing so students and parents can submit a review.
- Find the listing you’d like a student or parent to review
- Add “?link=review” to the end of the listing’s URL
- Test the link. Once you verify its accuracy, send it out
- The link should look something like this: teenlife.com/l/summer/example-listing/?link=review
Anyone you ask to leave a review will see a form that requests their name, email address, membership type (student, parent/guardian, educator, advisor/other), country, rating (with a drop-down menu), and space to leave more substantive feedback.
Responding to reviews
Always respond to reviews — even the negative ones, which unfortunately are a fact of life. While you do everything to avoid them, sometimes your best isn’t enough.
Search engines favor businesses that engage with their customers, which includes responding to reviews. Stats also show that over half of customers expect companies to address negative reviews within a week.
Responding to reviews on TeenLife is easy!
- Navigate to your TeenLife dashboard and click “My Reviews.”
- Find the review you’d like to respond to and click “Respond to this review” in the bottom left corner.
- Type your response and then click “Submit.”
Addressing negative reviews allows you to redirect the narrative. This approach (rather than ignoring or deleting a poor review) can significantly enhance brand perception. How? Many consumers seek out these reviews, and 71% will change their brand opinion favorably when they see a response suggesting the company has acknowledged a concern and offered a solution.
Addressing less than stellar reviews:
- Acknowledge their unhappiness and apologize.
- If the review is in a public forum, like social media, encourage them to email you directly. Use a general email, like info@example.com — don’t send customers your direct email address.
- Depending on the reviewer’s reaction to your reply, you can offer various options, like a discount or partial/full refund.
A caveat: Offering compensation or pressuring reviewers to remove negative reviews is unethical. You can, however, ask people to remove reviews violating the Consumer Review Fairness Act (CRFA) if the review:
- Contains sensitive or private information
- Is defamatory, harassing, abusive, vulgar, sexually explicit or inappropriate
- Is unrelated to your organization’s program or services
Do you have terms and conditions (T&C) that apply to your program or service? If not, we recommend it! Make these T&Cs accessible on your website, and include them with the confirmations sent for purchases and sign-ups to ensure transparency between you and your customers. Also, link and refer to T&C in your responses to positive and negative reviews.
Final thoughts
Between 5% and 10% of customers leave online reviews, but according to Statista, 52% of Gen Z and Millennial global internet users post reviews online.
A Bright Local survey found that when asked, 12% of consumers will always leave a review; an additional 23% leave reviews half the time, and 30% leave reviews “sometimes.” Spiegel Research Center found that 80% of online reviews originate from follow-up emails.
In other words, requesting reviews from your program participants is a sound business strategy.
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