Just a few years ago, if you wanted to read a movie review, you had to read it in a newspaper from a professional movie critic. Yes, as hard as it is for younger generations to imagine, not everybody was a “professional” restaurant or movie critic before the early 2000s. It wasn’t until the Internet became popular and smartphone use exploded that we witnessed a huge influx of user reviews.
Websites like Yelp and Google’s Local Guides are just two of the websites that allow users to provide feedback. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love reading reviews. They are extremely beneficial for me when I’m making a decision about where to eat, and they’re also useful for business owners. You can learn a lot about a product or a service by reading what other people have to say, and businesses can evaluate that information to improve their customer service.
And that is exactly what today ‘s infographic focuses on. There’s a lot of data about user reviews and how they affect businesses. Did you know that user reviews increase sales by 18 percent, on average? I was shocked when I read that statistic, but user reviews help me decide whether to patronize a business. But then again, I, myself, usually skip buying a product, which wasn’t reviewed by a trusted source. User reviews are important — find out why.