According to the old adage, there’s no such thing as bad publicity but new research from Podium shows that in the wake of COVID-19, good reviews are fundamental to winning Australian consumers’ business.
According to State of Reviews 2021, based on a survey of 259 Australian customers conducted by the software company, reviews have never been as important as they are now, with online reviews influencing 84 per cent of respondents when it comes to discovering a local business.
Respondents were asked to nominate the three characteristics they felt were most important when it came to choosing a local business, with location, price or promotions, reviews, personal recommendation, loyalty, appearance of the store, familiarity, social-distancing policies, popularity, traditional marketing and “other” making up the 12 available answers.
Of the top characteristics Australians cited as being most important, reviews placed third, with 40 per cent of respondents citing it as one of the most important three characteristics. Only location (58 per cent) and price and promotions (55 per cent) received more responses.
Reviews were more than twice as likely to be an important factor in choosing a local business than popularity (16 per cent) and more than four times more likely than traditional marketing (7 per cent).
The majority of survey participants (62 per cent) had read an online review within the last week, with 40 per cent having read a review in the three days prior to their response and 16 per cent reporting they had done so within the past day.
Almost half of those surveyed also said they would be willing to travel farther (44 per cent) and pay more (45 per cent) to engage with a business that had higher online reviews.
Five-star ratings are not the be-all and end-all for businesses, with Australian consumer behaviour around searching for and choosing local businesses online also becoming far more nuanced.
Businesses require a combination of highly favourable reviews, quantity, consistency, relevancy, and diversity to increase patronage.
That said, high star ratings are still important, with 36 per cent of respondents saying they would require at least a four-star average to consider engaging with a business and only 7 per cent saying they would consider engaging with a business that had a one-to-two-star average rating.
When Australian consumers do leave reviews, having a negative experience with employees is the biggest motivating factor to leave a negative review.
However, employee attitude was also most likely to be the driving factor for leaving either a one-star or a five-star review.
How businesses react to reviews is also increasingly important to consumers, with 51 per cent of people saying the responses have helped change their perspectives on a business.
Podium’s research also found Australian consumers used a variety of different search engines, social media platforms and review sites to make their decisions on which local businesses to engage with but they were twice as likely – at 75 per cent – to use Google as their first port of call.
Almost 65 per cent of consumers were more likely to be using a mobile device than a desktop computer.
On a positive note, customers’ increasing reliance on online reviews has led businesses to take proactive measures to gain a competitive edge in the online space.
Despite 67 per cent of businesses having an online rating of four stars or more, local business leaders are taking steps to improve public perception and businesses that were proactive, as opposed to passive, about their online reputations were 1.4 times more likely to have a 4.5 star review.
Almost all businesses – 94 per cent – that used reputation management software at least somewhat agreed that it provided enough return on investment to make it a worthwhile purchase.
In other good news for businesses, COVID-19 has created new opportunities to attract clients but it has also led consumers to have greater expectations.
Thirty-nine per cent of consumers polled said they had found a new business near their home since the pandemic that they did not previously patronise but 46 per cent of people said they were more likely to look at a business’s Google listing before visiting than they were in pre-COVID times.
