Businesses can boost holiday sales and keep a good rapport with their customers by encouraging and responding to online reviews. According to a survey performed by BrightLocal, 93% of consumers say that online reviews influence their purchasing decisions.
A key differentiator in giving your business a competitive edge is making sure you respond to customer reviews, both negative and positive. Some businesses don’t respond to reviews at all, so by making an effort to reply, you’re already providing your business with an advantage.
How does BBB handle customer reviews?
Every customer review of a business that’s submitted through BBB.org is fully vetted by BBB staff to ensure its legitimacy, and that an actual interaction took place between the business and the consumer.
Here’s how that happens:
- The reviewer is required to provide an email address and then verify their review submission via email.
- The reviewer must certify that the review is truthful and accurate.
- IPs are tracked and monitored, and users can be prohibited from additional review submissions.
- Businesses can challenge the review if they believe there was no interaction with the reviewer. BBB will reach out to the reviewer and request substantiation of the marketplace interaction.
- If a customer files a complaint with the same email address about the same issue, the customer review is suspended. Customers cannot submit both a complaint and a negative customer review.
Learn more about the process BBB promotes when assessing and sharing customer reviews.
