How important are reviews or recommendations to you? How important do you think they are for others who are looking at doing business with you?

I agree reviews/recommendations are important for clients to get to know, like and trust your business. I am humbled by all the recommendations I received on Alignable in a little over a year and also on my BBB and other pages for both of my businesses. I just started asking for reviews with my other corporation a few months back, seeing it is a big ticket item, I asked that those who have worked with me and know first hand of my product that they would tell their story about my business dealing to help others make a decision. Good or bad I want to be accountable for how I conduct business and for them, to be honest. I am a huge believer in positively outrageous service,  so far that has been the key to my success in receiving positive reviews.

We feel that our reviews help to validate the level of service provided to our customers. They hopefully provide a glimpse of what to expect and should be thought of as a tool to help earn the trust of others. They are somewhat important given the prevalence of social media. If you see a business with 1000 positive reviews and another with 5, which one would you gravitate toward?

Reviews, Testimonials and/ or recommendations are tantamount to propel prospective clients to your website, blog or phone.

Be advised, were the Reviews, Testimonials and/ or Recommendations are exhibited is very important. Not all crowd-sourced forums are the same and vet posters.

Personally, I have a web page dedicated to client testimonials. https://montreal-home-inspecti...

Good luck with your endeavors.

I absolutely agree.  They are very important to your online reputation and your reputation as a whole.  This is also free advertising of your company!  Everyone I know and my clients use these to make most of their hiring decisions.  If they don't have someone who personally recommended them to a business, then they go to other means available to find what they need, like Angie's List, Yelp, Google just to name a few. If they can't get a personal recommendation then you go to the next best thing, which are people's reviews of your company!  That is the way it is now and you should always respond to a review be it positive or negative. 

 They  mean a great deal.  Without the trust from others , you are starting from scratch. A good recommendation is everything!

In the age of social media, reviews and referrals from sources like Yelp and Facebook are an important part of the "word of mouth" marketing that is key to both small and large businesses.  This is especially true with service type businesses.  

Reviews show the work and effort you do for your clients. You still have to do your research and ask questions. 

They are very important. Without a number of good reviews my business would not be where it is today. 

Referrals and recommendations (testimonials) are extremely important to myself as a business person and as a person looking for products and services online. I do a lot of shopping online, well not a lot, just most of the items besides groceries I get are from Amazon or direct from a merchant. I want to know what experience others have had, good or bad, with a product before i commit to purchasing it. If a large number of folks have had a horrible time with it, the shipping or follow-up support -  I won't even try the item/business.  While I do expect some bad marks, I don't rely on them absolutely - I take into account the response to the bad recommendation by the vendor. Are they willing to step up and back their product? If not.....back button! If yes and or they have great recommendations I'm all over their product/service. If not.....back button.

Bj

Did you know:
75% of users visit a company’s website after viewing a video – Digital Sherpa

Search engines made the quantity of reviews very important, where as recommendations from those consumers who have been the recipients of your service is most important. Very little can replace a phone call from the potential client/consumer.  There the business can understand how to best help from their stated requirements or concerns, the scheduling, as well as, the pointed specifics to know and answer to with the related pricing, as it may be, for their needs.  Otherwise, good websites  and S.E.O. services are pricey and that presentation should be more than adequate if a recommendation page is included.