Small businesses are the heartbeat of America, but unfortunately, they are not all successful. The stats don’t lie either. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, one out of five small businesses fails in the first year, a staggering 20 percent. More concerning, up to 50 percent fail within five years. As a result, reputation management in today’s world is more important than ever before. Here are a few reasons why every small business should be utilizing review generation.

The Power Behind Positive Reviews

Positive reviews mean the company has made an excellent impression on customers, and they’re likely to return for future business. Not only is that feedback important, but having a system that optimizes reviews to be viewed at the top of search engines means more eyeballs will see them. Review generation can accomplish this important task and more for small businesses.

Review Generation Keeps Relevance To Your Company

It’s imperative for any company to truly know their audience for any business they’re involved in. Here’s an important statistic to consider: About 90 percent of people will look at online reviews before ever stepping through the doors. With negative feedback, the company has already most likely lost a customer. Consumers will also be considering volume and relevance. If they haven’t had any reviews in a while, that can also negatively affect business.

Review generation is essentially an automated process that will gather positive reviews from all your customers. These reviews can then be sorted effectively across popular platform search engines (such as Google, Yahoo, Yelp, and more). It’s a relatively simple yet masterful marketing plan: More reviews mean the business has the potential to reach more customers.

It’s essential to recognize the importance of a genuine review from an actual customer who has spent money on goods or services. More people will value that and look for authenticity, so there is such an importance in handling online reputation.

Every Review Matters- Positive Or Negative

Customers have everything at their fingertips for proper research more than ever before. Whether it’s their smartphone, tablet, or they’re browsing on their home computer, it’s almost guaranteed they know something about the company beforehand. Clients will spend even more time researching a new company or if they’ve never been there before.

As discussed earlier, having an insufficient number of reviews can also affect the business negatively. In essence, online reviews are information. It gives customers a chance to know how the company has helped others. Small businesses, if possible, can respond to reviews to show they’re doing everything possible to satisfy every customer they serve.

It’s not realistic to think that a small business will never have a bad review. Whether it’s hard to please the customer or they have had a poor experience, review generation can help more positive reviews flow in to offset the occasional bad one.

Ranking Higher Online For Small Business

The top online ranking is often seen as the pinnacle for small business success. However, more positive online reviews can help businesses get the edge because they often pop up next to an online marketing strategy. Think of positive reviews as the fuel to make the business soar to higher rankings online.

If it’s thought about in terms of the customer experience, consider the following example. Let’s say a customer is searching for a pressure washing company to clean their roof. As they type “pressure washing near me” into Google, they first see a company with 240 reviews with an average rating of 4.9. The second choice has a good overall rating, at 4.1, but only eight reviews. Which one is most likely to be considered for business? Consumers love results, and they want the numbers to prove it.

Other than personally knowing someone that has used the business, online reviews are technology’s spin on word of mouth advertising. A business that wants to be relevant also has a better chance of long-term success if they take them seriously.

Small Businesses Benefit From Review Generation

Online reviews are a proven strategy to help a company stay relevant in the highly competitive online world. Even if they don’t have many reviews currently, there’s always a way for improvement. Review generation is one of the most effective marketing tools out there. Not only does a business have the chance to make an excellent impression on customers, but it’ll also be ranking higher online where it matters the most.