How do you go about #consumerreviews – part II

Diving deeper into the topic of consumer reviews I realised that there is heaps of information out there which is def useful for the discussion about consumer reviews. So hereby the first follow up with some more theoretical insights. Last year Bright Local did a research about local consumer usage & trust of online customer reviews as they believe that online reviews, ratings and opinions left by consumers are playing an ever increasing role in helping other, anonymous consumers asses the quality & trustworthiness of businesses, products and services.

Furthermore, they say that “online customer reviews put rich and subjective information at the finger tip of would-be consumers. They enable people to prejudge a business or product based on the actual experiences of other shoppers prior to deciding on which business/product to buy for themselves. In today’s interconnected world purchase decisions are based less & less on price, product information and corporate hyperbole, and more on the un-doctored opinions of friends, connections and strangers.”

The survey asked the 3 key questions beneath relating specifically to local consumer usage & trust of online customer reviews:

        1. How regularly to local consumers consult online reviews of local businesses?
        2. How do online reviews influence trust & purchase intent of local business services?
        3. Do local consumers put as much trust in online reviews as personal recommendations?

2 of their findings do give me the certainty that consumer reviews online are something we have to embrace and that’s the fact that 69 % of local consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations! Def. more than I expected. This together with the fact that 70 % used the internet to find a local business over the year leaves me no doubt.

Click here to see the overall findings of the survey and let us know what you think! We’ll be back soon with more information, follow us via @theinternetshow.

Or sign up for the free exhibition of the Internet Show in October, we look forward to a great real life discussion!

…images courtesy of Stock.Xchng.