Harnessing the power of reviews
May 5th, 2008 • Posted by Bill Bice • Permalink
SpaBoomers have been collecting reviews via Instant Gift Certificates since last October, now counting over 30,000 consumer reviews!
Today, they're a great way to get feedback on your spa. Every time you get a new review, it shows up on the Today page when you log in, and you can see your reviews in Reports, Reviews at any time. But, there's more to come!
Let's start by looking at why online reviews on sites like CitySearch and Yelp are so important. Just look at how Internet users use reviews (survey data from comScore):
- More than 75% cite online reviews as influential in their purchase decisions.
- 24% used online reviews before making a purchase decision for a service in the last three months.
- Purchasers are willing to spend at least 20% more for services that are top rated.
- 30% to 40% of review-informed purchasers will not purchase from a business with a 1 star rating.
But why make potential clients that have found you go searching for reviews? With such a big impact on your spa, we're working to help you harness reviews:
- We've recently changed Instant Gift Certificate reviews so that purchasers familiar with your spa can also review their overall experience with your business.
- In the near future, you'll be able to share your reviews on your website, if you desire.
- You'll also be able to garner reviews directly on your website (not just people purchasing Instant Gift Certificates).
- Unlike the reviews that appear in CitySearch, Yelp, etc., you'll have a greater degree of control and more fair approach to reviews of your spa.
How would you like to use reviews to help your spa?
• Trackback • Posted in SpaBoom New Features
Love the review process! My customers appreciate the ease of use when purchasing online and let me know just how much. I would like to publish the reviews to my website with my responses.
I would love to have this functionality. I have often wondered if the reviews submitted are available for other potential clients to read. Thanks.
Our state licensing board that regulates massage therapy will not permit advertising that contains a testimonial as they consider them to be "not readily subject to verification." So although reviews are good to have, we cannot have them on our websites.
I never knew this feature was there. It's great! It would be nice to have an option to display the reviews publicly like Debbi says. This is how I am doing it for now… if you go to the bottom of this link you'll see how I did it:
http://www.sensenailspa.com/testimonials
Any other suggestions?
I have been waiting for this feature — I'm so excited. Thank you!
It would be nice if there were some questions for clients to concider when writing their review.
Are you a current client of Blah Blah Spa? How long have you been a client of Blah Blah Spa? What service would you recommend to your friends and family? What is the best part of your experience at Blah Blah Spa?
Questions like this would make the reviews much more meaty. Most of the reviews I have through SpaBoom are pretty week to say the least.
To Tom Marchant regarding not being able to use testimonials in your advertising… that is an outrage. What state are you in anyway? People can readily verify the veracity of a review by going to get a massage from you! So sorry to hear that, as I use City Search reviews and reviews from other listings — like YellowPages.com on my website and I can't tell you how many people cited these very favorable reviews as a BIG reason they selected me over the rest. Of course I do provide a great massage experience for people so that ensures I get good reviews. But I agree with all the SpaBoom statistics above… showing good, truthful reviews helps. I just make sure I don't do anything to garner a negative review… I am a single LMT business and don't have to deal with crazy owners and inferior managers to screw anything up for my clients. Thanks, SpaBoom, for the changes.