When UK online shoppers come across a product, service, or brand with no negative reviews, more than a third (34%) would delay their purchase while one in five (22%) would feel suspicious about whether they could trust any of the reviews they see, a study shows.
New research by consumer review platform Feefo sheds light on how shoppers perceive customer feedback and how businesses respond to negative reviews. The 2,000-consumer survey reveals that when brands show that they both value and are prepared to respond to customer feedback, they gain a significant advantage over their competition.
On top of this, 26% of consumers are actively reading these reviews before they make a purchase and nearly half (43%) believe businesses need to get better at responding to these negative write-ups.
Talking about the importance of how to deal with these reviews, Toby Whelbe, CEO at Feefo explains: “In the digital age, customers are consistently asked to leave feedback about the brands they buy from.
“Our poll of UK consumers suggests that brands have work to do. More than two fifths of people believe that companies have become less effective at dealing with negative feedback over the past 12 months. This should be a huge wake-up call for businesses as mishandling reviews will cause significant damage to a brand’s reputation. Almost two fifths of individuals who were unhappy with a brand’s response to their review refused to buy from the company again. But many businesses don’t realise that negative reviews also represent a golden opportunity to turn detractors into brand advocates.”
To find out more on how you can reply effectively to reviews, please visit the full guide on the Feefo website here.
