When we talk about online reviews, our minds often jump to e-commerce. It’s easy to picture someone scrolling, undecided on what to buy and comparing ratings and reviews to make the best purchase decision for themselves. And while it’s true that online reviews improve sales in the digital space, their influence goes beyond that of online transactions.
For brick and mortar businesses, your online reputation can be the deciding factor in whether or not someone walks through your door. In a world dominated by scrolling, consumer behavior is evolving. More and more people are turning to their phones and scanning through reviews before deciding if it’s worth turning up at a business. This means that your digital footprint, and especially your reviews, are now directly tied to real-world foot traffic and shouldn’t be overlooked.
Positive reviews and a strong brand reputation online make potential customers feel confident, reassured, and even a little excited before they ever set foot inside. The trust built through online reviews leads to more customers showing up in person, and carries more weight than we think. That’s why aggregated reviews and consistent review monitoring are now essential strategies for local businesses.
Why it works
Imagine you’re craving a coffee and a sweet treat, but don’t know where you should go. You grab your phone, look something up on Google, and you’re immediately given a curated list of options, ranked by location, rating, relevance, and reviews. And, you guessed it, the businesses that show up on top are the ones with strong online reputations.
When we say that online reviews improve sales, we mean that they do so at every stage of the customer journey. A well-reviewed business is more likely to appear higher in local search results. That increased visibility leads to more clicks, creates more curiosity, and encourages upwards of 88% of consumers to show up and try a local business.
Reading positive feedback also builds trust in seconds, which is crucial for those visiting for the first time. All feedback signals that you’re an active business. And when people see fresh reviews and thoughtful responses from the staff, it humanizes the brand, portraying it as more than just a business.
How to use online reviews for improving foot traffic
Google Business Profile
Google is the go-to place people check before visiting a new business. To make the best impression, keep your listing accurate and engaging. Ensure your business hours, address, contact details, and holidays are current. Upload high-quality photos that reflect the experience customers can expect. A well-optimized profile paired with strong reviews creates the best foundation for local visibility.
Encourage reviews
Happy customers don’t always remember to leave a review, but a polite and gentle nudge can go a long way. Consider placing QR codes at checkout counters, adding short reminders on receipts, or training your team to casually mention it after a great interaction. Follow-up emails get the job done as well, just be mindful of tone – the key is to ask for reviews without pushing.
Respond to reviews
When people see that you respond to both positive and negative feedback, they feel seen, and that builds loyalty. It also shows that your business values your customers’ experience and transparency, potentially encouraging more people to pay you a visit. Plus, reviews with responses are more likely to show up in search results, so online reviews can actually improve your SEO.
Analyze and learn
Aggregated reviews are full of insights. You need to monitor them closely, see what patterns stand out, and figure out what actions need to be taken. Review analysis is much easier with a review monitoring service like FeedCheck – we aggregate reviews from across the web into one dashboard, helping you identify patterns, discover areas for improvement, and highlight what’s working best. Book a demo to see our reputation management platform in action and get data you can actually act on.
Use reviews for marketing
Besides all the market research you can do through analyzing feedback, reviews are essentially free advertising. There’s no form of promotion that is more authentic than reviews, so repurpose those glowing comments for your social media, or as testimonials on your website. When potential customers see others having a great experience, they’ll want in on that action.
The psychology behind online reviews driving in-person sales
When faced with the unknown, or a difficult decision, people rely on the experiences of others, with as many as 91% of consumers trusting reviews as much as personal recommendations. Online reputation now acts as modern-day word of mouth, but on a much broader and more accessible scale.
Reviews do more than just advise people on which places feel trustworthy and which ones they should avoid. Google loves updates and fresh content, and every time you get a new review, your business gets bumped up. A great number of reviews and a great average rating, and Google is likely to highlight your business, making you more visible and improving foot traffic. If your business isn’t in the top of the search results, you’re missing out on a lot of potential walk-ins.
What to do with all the reviews
Now, as always, it’s not just about gathering reviews, because the real value lies in what you do with them.
When you monitor reviews across platforms, you start to build a clearer understanding of your customers’ needs and expectations. Are you getting more negative feedback in one location than another? Do your weekday customers have different feedback from the weekend crowd? These are the kind of patterns you can only spot with a proper review monitoring system in place.
The secret is to see all your reviews as a data source. Aggregate reviews, monitor feedback, and analyze the data to see broader trends, flag recurring issues, and highlight what’s really working. Only then can you make smarter decisions and come up with initiatives on how to improve the customer experience.
This is where a review monitoring service really proves its worth. Of course, there’s many options on the market, but a platform like FeedCheck lets you track all your own reviews, as well as your competitors’, so you never miss anything.
You get a centralized dashboard that monitors sentiment trends over time, compares how different locations are performing, and alerts you when new reviews appear. That means you can respond quickly, address issues before they escalate, and engage with customers while their experience is still fresh in their minds.
No more switching sites to see everything. You can respond directly, track engagement, and even assign reviews to specific team members – all from the FeedCheck platform.
Want to see how FeedCheck can help your business drive more in-person traffic? Book a demo with us and see what smart review monitoring can really do.