According to a new survey conducted by Dimensional Research, an overwhelming 90 percent of respondents who recalled reading online reviews claimed that positive online reviews influenced buying decisions, while 86 percent said buying decisions were influenced by negative online reviews.
The survey, sponsored by Zendesk in the early part of 2013, included responses from 1,046 participants. Respondents had to be in the United States, and had to have experienced a recent customer service issue with a midsized company, either as a consumer or in a business context.
Zendesk reports:
All survey participants were asked if they had seen online reviews of customer service. About two-thirds of participants (63% for negative and 69% for positive) reported that they did recall reading these online reviews. Review sites were the most common place to read a negative review of customer service (39%) where Facebook was the most common place to read a positive review of customer service (44%).
According to Marketing Land, the overall takeaway from the survey is that mid-sized companies create better customer experiences when they react quickly to a customer service issue.
Because a company's social media channels and website are managed most often by marketing, the study offers strong evidence toward the importance of customer service working hand-in-hand with marketing to respond quickly to online reviews and addressing customer concerns that are delivered via a company's site and social media channels like Facebook and Twitter.
This great information was found at this original article on Marketing Land!
