It is now essential for any small business owner to keep track of their online reviews. They not only offer great insights into the customer experience but also suggest various ways in which the business could be improved. If you haven’t viewed your online reviews as a valuable active resource before then read on. Around the country, all kinds of businesses are waking up to the realisation that they don’t have to sit passively back and wait for good or bad testimonials – in the energy market, for instance, Ovo reviews show the way that even small businesses can take on the big names and use customer feedback to improve their products and services.

The first way to use online reviews, of course, is to read what customers say about your business and, if necessary, act on their comments. This is a great starting point. If several customers point to difficulty in contacting you by phone or email, or if they consistently flag up your products or services as overpriced, then it may be time to step back and take a look at how you can improve your customer service or keep costs down.

But there is another way which small business owners can use online reviews and this is by looking at what customers have to say other companies in the field. This applies whether you receive bad or consistently wonderful reviews. If the former, then looking at the feedback your competitors receive can help to make you see where you’re going wrong. Compare what customers have to say about your company with their comments about others. Where are you going wrong? Where are other businesses succeeding? How can you become more like them in certain ways?

If, on the other hand, you generally get good reviews, you can still benefit from looking at competitors’ feedback. Customers writing positive reviews for you might have noted room for improvement but be unwilling to comment upon it publicly in the light of an otherwise good experience. It can be easy to think you’re the best in a particular field if you haven’t received negative feedback and are generally doing ok, but this could be misleading. Competitor reviews might give insights into what their clients appreciate and expect – how does this apply to you? They might also provide inspiration for special offers, products or other ways in which you could improve your company. Or customers might flag up things that they didn’t like about your competitors – how could you capitalise on this, or might customers be able to make the same complaints about your business?

When it comes to checking out the competition, you can start to develop some very real long-term strategies based on what other people are doing. How do things look if you take several of your competitors together? Are there any general trends in the way the market is going, in what clients say they’d like to see?

You can take things further, of course. Checking out your competition doesn’t have to end with review sites. Check them out on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites. Take a peek at their websites. Ask your customers what they like about your business compared to others. If you lose a client, do the same and try to identify what caused them to leave. Always remember that you don’t exist in a bubble – a savvy business owner always keeps a close eye on their competitors.

In association with Ovo.

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