Customer reviews.

Why reviews matter more than advertising

Before buying, people read not your website but what others have written about you. Reviews are the only part of your reputation you don't write yourself, which is why people trust them. And for the same reason they hurt more when nobody is working with them.

Reviews work in several places at once: they build trust in the brand, give you feedback on the product, retain customers who feel they have been heard, and add live user-generated content to your pages. A company that replies to reviews looks like it is open for business — a company that stays silent looks like it has closed down.

Where to collect reviews

• Maps and directories. Yandex Maps, 2GIS — this is where people look before a visit or a call.
• Review sites and aggregators in your niche. The platforms differ for medicine, services and goods — check what comes up when you search for your company name.
• Marketplaces and online stores, if you sell products.
• Your own website. Here you control the presentation, but such reviews earn less trust — they are easy to suspect of being cherry-picked.
• Social media. Comments and direct messages are the fastest feedback channel.

Start with the platforms a person sees when they search for you by name. That is the first page of results, and it is what shapes their impression.

How to ask for a review so that people actually write one

1. Ask right after the result. A week later the emotion has cooled, and the request works less well.
2. Give a direct link. Every extra step halves the response rate.
3. Suggest what to write about. One question instead of an empty field: what did you like, what mattered, what would you recommend to others.
4. Use email and messengers. An email asking for a review or a short questionnaire works better than a banner on the website.
5. Run surveys. A regular customer survey gives you not only reviews but also material for improving the service.

One thing to remember about rewards for reviews: on some platforms incentives are explicitly prohibited by the rules, and purchased reviews get removed by moderation. Before promising a discount, check the terms of the specific service.

What to do with negative feedback

A negative review is not dangerous in itself — it is dangerous when it goes unanswered. Silence reads as agreement, and one uncommented conflict outweighs a dozen compliments.

• Reply quickly — within 24 hours, while the thread is still being read.
• Reply to the point and without arguing: what happened, what you have already done, what you are offering.
• Move the details to a private channel, but leave a public trace that the issue is being resolved.
• Come back to the thread once the problem is closed — the next reader will see it.

Well-handled negative feedback is often more convincing than a perfect rating: people see what will happen if something goes wrong. For a detailed breakdown, see how to turn negativity into a benefit for your brand.

How to use reviews in marketing

Social proof is when a decision is backed by someone else's experience rather than your promise. Three forms work:

• Reviews and customer stories — on the website, on social media, in a commercial proposal.
• Numbers — how many customers, projects, years in business. Only real and verifiable ones.
• Case studies — what the task was, what was done, what came out of it. See how this is structured in our case studies.

Place the review next to the spot where a person starts to doubt: on the service page, next to the price, near the enquiry form. A separate “Reviews” page works worse — people rarely go there.

What to monitor regularly

Reputation management is not a one-off campaign but a habit of keeping an eye on four things.

• Mentions of the company name. This is how you find reviews on platforms you didn't know about — and reply while the thread is still live.
• Average rating on each platform. It shows exactly where your reputation is slipping: often one listing has four stars and the neighbouring one has three.
• Response speed. Unanswered negativity costs more than answered negativity: the reader sees only one version of events.
• Recurring complaints. That is no longer a reputation issue but a defect in the product or service.

The last point matters more than the rest. If three customers in a row write about the same thing, the task is not to reply nicely but to remove the cause.

Frequently asked questions

Can a negative review be deleted?

Only those that break the platform's rules get deleted: insults, spam, outright false statements of fact. Ordinary customer dissatisfaction cannot be deleted — you deal with it through a reply.

Do reviews affect search rankings?

Directly, through ratings on maps and in directories — yes, they affect local results. Reviews on the website provide additional user-generated content, but they should not be seen as a substitute for SEO.

How many reviews are enough?

What matters is not the number but freshness and regularity. Twenty reviews from the past year are more convincing than two hundred from five years ago.

What if there are no reviews at all?

Start asking. The absence of reviews reads just as warily as bad ones: the person has nothing to go on.

What to do next

Check what a person sees when they search for your company by name, and reply to every review from the past six months. It is the cheapest reputation work there is.

If your reputation needs to be managed systematically — collection, monitoring, replies, pushing down negativity: reputation management, ORM and PR.