SHOCKING poll results prove online reviews have a huge impact on business

Today we wanted to share some interesting poll results that we got. The question that we had was who people would call first based on their online reviews and ratings. They were given three options to choose from.

Poll: “Which business would you choose based on their online reviews?”

The three options were:

1. Dino’s Plumbing – they had a 4.8 star rating and 24 reviews
2. Pipe Dreams Plumbing – they had a 5-star rating and 1 review
3. Precision Plumbing – they had a 4.7 star rating and 129 reviews

(Note: we didn’t mean to pick on these plumbers – we just wanted to do a random poll on Instagram and Facebook to see what people would say. These are real numbers, these are real reviews and ratings, these are real businesses, and the following are indeed real responses.)

Poll Details

The screenshots you see above are from Instagram stories, which we posted on our Digital Slomads account. We had 51 voters between choices 1 and 2. (Because of Instagram’s poll limitations we could only put in two choices – the top one is for Dino’s and the bottom one is for Precision Plumbing.) What’s interesting here is that 7 to 1, they chose Precision Plumbing but Precision Plumbing only has 5 times more reviews than Dino’s.

We then posted the poll in two separate Facebook groups. We didn’t disclose what kind of service it was.

Pretty much every single person chose Precision Plumbing. One person in the first poll chose Dino’s. They didn’t leave a comment saying why they chose Dino’s, but we’re willing to bet that it was because they have a 4.8 star rating (slightly higher than Precision Plumbing).

It’s also interesting to look at the comments people left. Note that in the first poll the “I look at the negative reviews first” option wasn’t an option that we included – someone else added that in. Then that same concept dovetails in the second poll, where a few people commented and said they wouldn’t choose until they’ve read the online reviews.

One participant, Karen, said 129 reviews “gives me the impression that [Precision Plumbing] a very good establishment” and her personal metric is that anything above 4.5 stars is worth going to. As for us at The Dog’s Mohawk, we don’t buy anything on Amazon that has lower than 4 stars. So everyone has a different line in the sand, but it’s pretty much universal that you’re going to choose the one that has the most reviews the highest rating.

Results

98 people voted between Instagram and Facebook, and 88% chose Precision Plumbing.

This number doesn’t surprise us. But if that number surprises you, let’s help you put this into perspective. Think about your own buying behavior on Amazon for example – it’s most likely that you’re going to choose the product that has way more reviews and better star ratings. Well the same thing is happening here in this poll based on online reviews.

Now that’s online reputation in action for ya!