Customers trust recommendations from friends and family more than any other kind of online marketing and advertising. When these personal recommendations aren’t available, they turn to online customer reviews – making them more important than ever.

According to HubSpot, 60% of consumers believe customer reviews are either trustworthy or highly trustworthy. Businesses with a high number of positive reviews have a greater chance of influencing a client’s purchasing choice. Recent changes to the Google review system also mean that too much glowing feedback and too many 5-star reviews can harm your ranking. The idea is that no one is perfect, so bad reviews are an indicator that the business is authentic and hasn’t purchased positive reviews.

Regardless, getting your loyal customers to give legitimate feedback about your products will:

• Persuade others to follow their lead.
• Supply other consumers with reliable information about your brand.
• Boost your company’s Google rating.
• Increase website traffic.