As you may have heard, the BOS Media podcast is called “Make it Matter.” So when the subject line asks, “does something matter?” it’s kind of a big deal in our world. Mattering matters to us. (not to mention, what’s the entire physical universe made of? That’s right, MATTER.)

The more we talk about reviews, the more I’m struck by the subconscious effect they have on me. If I’m comparing two options – whether it’s a restaurant, or a product on Amazon – if one has like 7 reviews, and the other has 1,400, I’m almost always going to go with the one that has more… but why?

I heard an awesome quote from a business owner on Reddit about this:

How do reviews change the way you look at a movie, product, or place?

“I kind of have some deeper understanding of reviews from the restaurant and hospitality business. Once you get past the BS filter, then you can see the real reviews. What you are looking for are the true positives and the true negatives. Consistency gives you the answer.”

The key word here is consistency, and how it helps lead us to “true” positives and “true” negatives. The more reviews you have, the more truth you can derive from it. That’s a strong statement but I really believe: Consistency gives you the truth.

No offense to the 7-review company, but how much truth can we really derive from that? (especially when everyone’s first couple reviews are usually from family members haha). The more consistency we see, the more credibility we give.

Consistency = Credibility

With all that said, let’s talk about what really matters to the entrepreneurs we work with: growing your business. I just heard an amazing case study about the transformative power of reviews. 

Eagle Beaver Moving is a small business who started a campaign of asking every single customer they got for reviews – the results blew me away:

Before: 4 reviews, 4.2 rating, 20 leads/month
After: 528 reviews, 4.9 rating, 350 leads/month

I know some of us might feel reluctant to ask customers for reviews – you may not want to bother them, or maybe you’re afraid of getting negative feedback we discussed last week. But I think we can all agree: if you care about consistency, credibility and growth, this does matter.

Next time, we’ll talk about how you can get more quality reviews. Our hope is that it helps you establish trust with people searching online, and ultimately ends up growing your business. Why is this so important?

Because YOU MATTER to us.

Related posts:

Online Reviews and a Bunny How Do I Deal With Negative Reviews? What Is A Good, Quality Review And How Do We Get Them? Your Online Review Solution