Today, we pretty much don’t invest any of our hard-earned dollars into a company, service, or product without doing the research first. Whether it’s buying a new computer, booking a hotel room, or purchasing those running sneakers we’ve had our eye on, we place our money and trust in the hands of other consumers, scouring sites and online forums reading countless assessments. What are people saying about a service? What is their opinion about a product? Did they have a positive or negative experience? Was it money well spent? We study these reflections, hang on every word and each formulated opinion letting it influence our decision and investment, indisputably proving that trust and reputation in the form of online reviews have become a brand’s most valuable asset. So, if we as consumers are placing this kind of value in customer feedback and investing our time in the digital consumption of this information, shouldn’t more companies do the same by investing in the authenticated collection and publication of this digital content?

Trust is built upon reputation, and reputation is built upon what others say about a service, product, or company. Before the onslaught of social media, for every bad experience a consumer had with a product or service, they were going to tell 10 of their friends on average. Likewise, for every positive experience, consumers would share with up to 10 people. This was typically done over the water cooler, landline phone conversations, and in-person discussions. However, times have drastically changed making it easy for a company to garner trust with the public or have it shattered in milliseconds. For this precise reason, it is more imperative than ever for businesses to invest in the revenue model of the future: reputation capital via online reviews, but more crucially authenticated reviews. The future is here, and it is now. Reputation capital in the form of ratings and reviews is a company’s new financial stock commodity and the resulting generated transparent trust is the currency that consumers will bank on that will in turn ensure the growth of a company and its market value.

In a world where access to information is a keystroke away, it is simpler than ever for consumers to share opinions about companies. Currently, this is done via open online reviews and sharing platforms such as Yelp, Trustpilot, Facebook, Twitter or the like. The issue with these sites is that the reviews for the most part cannot always be traced back to an authentic experience or transaction, which is why investing in an independent, transaction-based reviews and ratings provider such as eKomi is more critical to a brand since customer experiences are validated by 100 percent actual interactions with a particular service or product on a company’s behalf and by proxy, the trust verifiable. Many companies currently invest in non-partisan software platforms, but even more businesses out there are not doing so at all, leaving their reputation capital open to unverifiable, anonymous experience rating portals. Reviews are now the equivalent of a person sharing their experience with someone via telephone or coffee talk banter, however the feedback is instantaneous and rapidly spread. Instead of reaching just handfuls of people, it now is reaching millions. It’s evident that this means reviews are the new currency for building trust with consumers which is why it’s essential businesses need to take critical action immediately to be a part of the ratings and reviews revolution.

Reviews are the new gold standard. We already know that 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations according to BrightLocal’s consumer review survey. This means that what people are saying about a business or website online is what defines the business. It only takes a consumer seconds to scroll through a company’s website or the plethora of feedback portals available and rule a purchasing decision out due to vapid positive ratings, poor reviews or lack thereof, further justifying the fact that not one single industry is safe from reviews as a currency of trust. Think about it. Even in the financial industry, people make decisions about stocks based on what other people are saying about them!

“88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.”

-BrightLocal

Reviews can and will continue to offer transparency, build trust, and bring in the real currency a company demands in order to exist. However, having the right kind of review is most important. A generic review that is one or two words is not going to be as effective as a review that is detailed and most importantly, authentic. With so many reviews and so many outlets for customers to provide them on, having the right kind of review is imperative to standing out in an oversaturated marketplace, and that is where the power of a third-party authenticated customer experience reviews collector and publisher can make all the difference, offering sovereign and objective ratings that achieve results, enabling brands to build trust with consumers and using those reviews as its digital revenue generator.

“By 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator.” — WalkerInfo

In fact, by 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator in a recent study conducted by customer intelligence consulting firm Walker. Customer ratings and reviews will be the definitive factor giving a company a competitive advantage in the Reputation Capital Age. Isn’t it time for companies to invest in authenticated reviews now and take a good, hard look at what that consumer currency of trust means to their bottom line? By not doing so in the current economy, businesses will undoubtedly pay dearly for it further in the future by lost revenues, consumer traction, and perhaps even extinction.