Become a FESPA Member
to Continue Reading

Become a Member Find Out More

Reviews can benefit or damage your business’s reputation. From spreading the word to social proof, here is why reviews matter and what you can do to manage your customer reviews to improve your brand’s reputation.

In business, standing out isn’t just about offering great products, something original or a great price point, it’s also about earning the trust of your customers. This is applicable for all industries including the print sector, customers want reassurance before choosing a supplier, and they often rely on online reviews.

Surveys demonstrate how important this can be. Research by PwC found that customer experience is a crucial purchasing factor for 73% of consumers, while brightlocal found that the majority (40%) of customers check at least two review sites before making purchasing decisions. Therefore, the experience customers have is not just determined by what you deliver, but also by what others say about your business. Customer reviews can significantly enhance your credibility and visibility – but they can also damage them. How can you use them to build trust, build your reputation and build your business?

The main review sites customers use

Whether you’re a local print shop or a growing online web-to-print service, the three main platforms where your customers are likely to leave reviews are:

Google Customer Reviews – Highly visible in search results and maps, these reviews can directly influence footfall and online traffic. Trustpilot – Widely used across the UK and often associated with e-commerce businesses, including online print shops. Facebook – Particularly useful for community-driven businesses and those with an active social media presence.

Each platform has its own value and, ideally, you should be collecting reviews across all three. This helps broaden your reach and ensure you’re covered wherever a potential customer might be searching. However, it’s also important to be aware of fluctuations in issues like trust. Google reviews are widely trusted, while Facebook reviews are seen as less reliable. That trust can erode when there are high-profile stories about fact-checking or the proliferation of fake reviews.

That’s one of the reasons people are also looking to find reviews from other sources too, whether that’s from bloggers, YouTube, Glassdoor, TikTok or Instagram. It’s worth keeping monitoring your reputation across everything, while focussing your time on the core review sites.
<Subhead> Why reviews matter for printers

Unlike big retail brands, SME print businesses often don’t benefit from…

...