The Tendo View

Word of mouth has always been a powerful marketing tool. I learned this firsthand when I and my fledgling cheesecake business moved to a rural agricultural community several years ago. Customer reviews are just as important and powerful in the digital realm, as well. I can’t remember the last time I made a purchase, whether shoes or a major home appliance, when I didn’t consult customer comments online.

As it turns out, I’m like a lot of shoppers—50 percent, to be exact—who rely on online research for their purchasing decisions. According to a recent eMarketer report, customer reviews are the most important capability for a retailer to have on its site and a lack of reviews will cause almost as many visitors to leave a site.

Facebook pages are another way to solicit customer feedback but aren’t as influential as customer reviews in making purchasing decisions. Regardless, 91 percent of companies surveyed plan to develop a presence on the social networking site instead of implementing user reviews.

In terms of impacting customer behavior, Twitter falls behind Facebook and is considered to have little effect on buying decisions. However, Twitter follows closely on the heels of customer reviews among sharing capabilities planned for implementation in 2010.

Whether your company is in the B2C or B2B space, providing customers with the ability to review your products and services is a good marketing strategy with potentially powerful results. Have you implemented user-generated reviews on your site or do you plan to? Are you using social tools to help drive sales? We’d like to hear what’s working for you.