— December 5, 2017
Remember when, back in the day, you had to know where you were going? Example: My wife and I were just talking about this on a road trip. “We used to come up to central California for surf contests all the time when we were kids. How did my parents know where to stay? What hotels were good? All that… Crazy.” I responded, “Crazy…” But it got me thinking, how did that work? In today’s digitally-inundated-hustle-hustle-burnout world, everything is available at your fingertips. It’s a formula:
- Pick up your phone
- Open Yelp, or whatever app there is
- Type in what you need
- Find the place you want
- Go to said place
- Enjoy.
No more guessing. No more, “I wonder…” Just the facts. From complete strangers across the globe that you will never meet but you trust (sometimes) more than your best friend. “Well yeah I know you said we should go to Alberto’s for tacos and you love that place but, Andy, check this out: 4297 reviews and 4.5 stars… We’re going to Umberto’s.” I’ve had this exact conversation with a buddy of mine…. who may or may not be named Andy.
What is the consequence of my action, though? To me, I got the best tacos in the city. Because I am like the other 88% of consumers who trust online reviews as much, if not more, than personal recommendations. And I enjoyed them thoroughly.
But what about Alberto’s? I just cost them some money. How? They had my business, but they didn’t have the best reviews. And a bad review means the world these days.
Let’s look at a few stats:
In 2016, US consumers spent a whopping $ 11.8 trillion. Now if you look at the fact that 60% of consumers would dip out on a product/company if they see 3 negative reviews, we’re looking at a combined total of $ 7,080,000,000,000 in lost revenue nationwide. So there’s that. It’s all summed up in this infographic from SOCi, “The Economics of a Bad Review.”
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