Not too long-ago word of mouth recommendations were worth their weight in gold. Doing a good job for a customer and exceeding their expectations not only made them happy, but it turned them into a walking, talking advert for your business.
Now the world has changed, with the majority of businesses requiring at least some form of online presence. With that change, word of mouth recommendations have been replaced by online reviews. Unfortunately for businesses, these reviews are harder to get and have the potential to cause far more damage.
For online casinos the stakes are even higher (forgive the pun), because of just how crowded the current remote gambling marketplace is. A plethora of 5-star reviews can be rendered useless by a cutting 1-star review from an embittered player who is simply angry at themselves for losing, rather than the online casino itself.
In this article we take a look at how the world of reviews work specifically in regard to online casinos and reveal a key target area for ambitious companies.
Why Reviews are Important to Online Casinos
Typically the majority of customers ignore reviews. The online casino industry isn’t typical though. Unlike other areas of remote retail, the marketplace is so densely populated and saturated that customers quite often find themselves confused as to who to play with.
In addition to that, many see signing up to an online casino as an atypical transaction. It isn’t akin to a one-off purchase of goods online, instead it’s a long-term investment that is going to see potentially large exchanges of money over a prolonged time.
Which is why even the greenest of online casino users tend to pay some heed to online reviews, whether that be simply by asking friends or consulting the Google business star rating of a company. More experienced users however, always make sure to consult an online review site, much like they would if they were buying car insurance.
Why Review Sites are Important
If you want to join an online casino to play blackjack and your main concern is whether or not the game you’ll be playing is good or not, Google reviews aren’t much help. Read through them for the casino in question and you will find a whole plethora of reviews based on different criteria to yours.
Online review sites allow you to tailor your search to find casinos that suit your specific needs, by searching for example, for the remote casino with the highest rated blackjack offering. Beyond that though, good reviews on comparison sites are worth a lot more than Google reviews from disgruntled players and bots.
Finding an online casino with god reviews can be difficult however there are sites that use experts to recommend Casinos like the ones checked by Casino.org as they will navigate you though the best bonuses and sites at the time. Having their expert team check the sites and find you the best ones will save you time and it will typically mean that their typically savvier user base has agreed with that review.
Beyond the Surface: Why Reviews are Important to Long-term Ambitions
To many the purpose of online reviews is to build a reputation for good service and develop a strong reputation. The original purpose of reviews however was to garner feedback from customers in order to improve and grow as a company.
Sure, a lot of negative reviews are going to concern issues that are outside the control of a business. A wine company may receive a 1-star review online because a customer simply didn’t like the Shiraz that they bought on their last visit; or an online casino will receive a negative review because a player staked more than they originally planned.
Beneath those reactive reviews however, are those that can give a business insight into areas in which they are failing or falling behind the competition. The wine store may receive a number of negative reviews from customers not liking their purchase and use it either to stop stocking a certain wine, or by asking their staff to spend more time unearthing a customer’s likes and dislikes before processing their payment.
Similarly, the online casino in the example above may glean from linked reviews that they need to advertise deposit limits more clearly on their site and communicate more regularly with customers exceeding their usual spending habits.
It is also worth noting that you may come across fake reviews when online. Many are working hard to eradicate these so that the true real reviews are the only ones present but it would be worth to know the signs of when a review is fake and there to aid the business.
In Summary
Online reviews are important for a number of reasons. The first and most obvious is building a reputation and attracting customers, which is more important in the online casino industry than perhaps any other.
Secondly, reviews from reputable sources are important for not only attracting new customers but building toward long-term users as well as significantly boosting a sites reputation.
Thirdly, online reviews are an opportunity for businesses, not just online casinos, to review and improve their operations. It’s this reason that is so often neglected by poorly performing companies and so often utilised by good performing companies.