Summary: A Spiegel Research Center study reveals that having perfect 5-star reviews is causing you to lose business, how reviews influence buying behavior, but at what point does it influence and how much?<br><br> <a href="http://www.pestgeekpodcast.com/podcast/perfect-5-star-reviews-causing-lose-business/attachment/pgp-166-having-perfect-5-star-reviews-is-causing-you-to-lose-business/" rel="attachment wp-att-51996"></a><br><br> As products or services begin displaying reviews, conversion rates tend to escalate rapidly. The purchase likelihood for a product or service with five reviews is 270% greater than the purchase likelihood of a product or service with no reviews. On Product purchases having more reviews isn’t necessarily better, after a point. The marginal benefit of additional reviews begins diminishing rapidly after the first five reviews.<br> Reviews tend to have a greater impact on purchases for higher-priced items than for cheaper ones. The research found that when reviews they’re displayed for lower-priced products, the conversion rate increased 190%. However, for higher-priced products, the conversion rate increased 380%.<br><br> Are five stars “too good to be true”? According to the research, it is. Across many product categories, they found that purchase likelihood typically peaks at ratings in the 4.0 – 4.7 range, and then began to decrease as ratings approached 5.0.<br> Reviews from “verified buyers” are significantly more encouraging than reviews written by an anonymous source. They found that verified buyers are more likely to give 4 or 5 star ratings than anonymous ones. Conversely, anonymous buyers are significantly more likely to give 1 and 2-star reviews.<br> Based on Spiegel’s extensive research into how online reviews influences purchasing decisions, they recommend that you follow these six principles when creating an online review strategy:<br> 1. Display reviews and ratings on your product website: Businesses that choose not to show ratings and reviews risk losing customers to a website that does.<br><br> 2. Embrace negative reviews, nobody is perfect: While it may seem counterintuitive, negative reviews can have a positive impact because they establish credibility and authenticity.<br> 3. Prioritize generating reviews for with a low volume of reviews: Businesses should focus their efforts on making sure all products have at least a handful of reviews.<br> 4. Additionally, prioritize generating reviews for higher-priced products: Retailers can help consumers overcome the risk of buying expensive or unfamiliar items by sharing additional reviews for these products.<br> 5. Overcome the selection bias to improve the value of reviews: A larger pool of reviewer is not always more representative, particularly if it includes a large number of anonymous reviews.<br> 6. Identify reviews from “verified buyers:” Identifying purchasers with “verified buyer badges” enhances the credibility of a review and improves the odds of purchase by 15%.<br> <a href="http://spiegel.medill.norththeystern.edu/online-reviews/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://spiegel.medill.norththeystern.edu/online-reviews/</a><br>
