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One of the dominant trends in the marketplace is the growing influence of online reviews of products and services, whether those of online companies themselves, or traditional "offline" businesses such as hotels and restaurants. As more and more of the consumer population surfs the web to shop, research potential purchases and compare prices, online reviews have become a prominent forum for customers to sing praises and vent their frustrations. In today’s internet climate, everyone truly is a critic!

If your business hasn’t yet started using online customer reviews, you may be nervous about venturing into uncharted waters. But if you are confident in the value of your business and the products or services it provides, using customer reviews is a win-win. It is a good idea to research the websites of other companies in your industry. If many of them are using reviews, you must too, to keep apace with the competition. If they are not, you can gain a competitive advantage by using online reviews-it gives potential customers something to go on and sets you apart from your competitors.

(Statistics found above at eMarketer.com )

If you decide to allow customer reviews on your website, the temptation may be to cherry-pick only the good ones and discard the bad. Don’t be afraid to post bad reviews! Online consumers are becoming more and more sophisticated, and will likely be suspicious of a business with nothing but glowing testimonials. They know that no business, no matter how hard it tries, can achieve 100% customer satisfaction. The odd bad review will lend credibility to the good ones, and the fact that you are allowing negative as well as positive feedback will be a testament to the integrity of your business. Of course, if you receive mostly or many negative reviews you probably need to do something to improve the quality of your products or services anyway!

It goes without saying that when posting online reviews honesty is the best policy. Don’t make up reviews or, as mentioned above, include only the good ones. Again, consumers are sophisticated, and your credibility as a business is at stake. Maintaining customer trust is always of paramount importance. Consumers are smart enough to weed out spurious or malicious reviews. Provide some evidence that real customers provided the reviews, so visitors to your site don’t assume you simply wrote a bunch of blurbs yourself.

Remember, quality is often more important to consumers than price. Especially in customer service-oriented industries, such as hotels and restaurants, people will be willing to pay a little more for something if they feel more confident they will be satisfied. And few things inspire people more to take the effort to provide written feedback than bad-or good!-customer service. Online reviews are one of the best ways to build that consumer confidence every business needs to thrive on, and to give your customers the empowering feeling that they are being listened to and that their opinion matters.