Consumer Online Reviews Strongly Influence Purchase Decisions
According to a recent survey by Deloitte’s Consumer Products group, consumers are
turning to online reviews in large numbers, and those reviews are
having a considerable impact on purchase decisions. 62 percent of
consumers read consumer-written product reviews on the Internet, says
the report, and of these, more than eight in 10 say their purchase
decisions have been directly influenced by the reviews, either
influencing them to buy a different product than the one they had
originally been thinking about purchasing, or confirming the original
purchase intention. [Read More Here]
If your still of the school of thought that dismisses the value of sites like apartmentratings.com, listen up. The feedback outlined in the brief above should move you to action as soon as possible. I truly think we all should open up our company websites to include a consumer and resident feedback mechanism. Instead of internal score keeping, make it completely transparent and thus authentic in nature. I would suggest that you have an editor just for the sake of carving out names and character attacks as we know they will come despite our best efforts. That in mind you have to be courageous enough to leave the meat.
I would speculate that over time the likes of For Rent and Apartment Guide will have a feedback component. Sound crazy? At the end of the day, traffic is king and if traffic goes to the consumer feedback site more often then something will have to change. I think the likes of For Rent and Apartment Guide will have no choice but to become even more “potential renter-centric” than they are now. I would love to be a fly on the wall in those strategic planning sessions.
I will be keeping an eye on this topic. Have an amazing Monday. M
Related post: Apartment Reviews – Reimagined
0 Responses
Hey Mike,
I ran into this blog today while doing research for a social communication strategy for Greystar. Hats off to you as you wrote this in 2007. I was not even thinking about review sites in this manner in 2007.
And here we are 2 years later with Rentwiki, Twitter, FB, and all the other platforms in which to engage in conversation. Nice work.
Melissa
M,
Thank you for the kind words and my apologies for the delay in responding to them. I have taken somewhat of a sabbatical from blogging and participating in the social media space. It's been rewarding to say the least. I hope the information was helpful – we try hard to come at from a different angle and far in advance of the masses.
Take care and come back and see us – we love good dialog.
M