Product and service reviews have been around for decades if not longer. Good reviews help to drive traffic and sales and have been shown to be a very effective marketing tool. Before the Internet, many popular TV shows and newspaper columns that featured reviews. These were known as critics back in the day. The critics were typically professionals that made a living offering their opinion on movies, products, food and more. 

Since mid 2000's, when recommendation websites first started to become popular, crowd sourced reviews have become integral in the purchasing process. These are reviews that are written by normal customers instead of professionals. These sites have penetrated almost every part of our personal lives to help us find restaurants, hotels, dentists, cars, schools, doctors, furniture, apartments, books, computers … even toothpicks.

One area independent reviews are not yet prevalent, but are rapidly penetrating, is at work. There are now review sites for employers, enterprise software, and even manufacturing vendors. While some companies may view this a bad thing, instead they should embrace the opportunity to have a new channel to brand their company, engage with customers and acquire new clients.  Click on the image below to see a slideshow of 10 reasons ways that reviews can and will help your business.

Are online reviews helping or hindering your organization yet? Let us know the role they play for your company in the comments section below.