Best Review Sites for Companies in B2B Commerce
Brand reputation management is one of those aspects of running a business that doesn’t always get enough respect.
With only so much time to carry out all your company projects, it’s easy to forget about managing feedback you get from your B2B customers.
But not investing in brand reputation is a major mistake.
Your average prospect will 100% seek out reviews from your past customers.
So for this article, I’ll help you choose the right online review platform for your company.
Some of the benefits of investing in managing customer feedback are:
- Building Credibility: Your customers will vouch for the value that you bring.
- Earning Trust: Customers will trust doing business with you when you have a great reputation.
- Cost-Effectiveness: You can think of review platforms as an add-on to your digital marketing strategy at a low cost.
All these things go hand-in-hand with skyrocketing your sales.
Ready to start paying closer attention to what your customers are saying about you? Let’s begin by understanding why customer feedback is so crucial to the success of your business.
Why Are Reviews Important in B2B Commerce?
Your B2B target audience are hesitant consumers.
According to FocusVision, your average customer will consume 13 pieces of content before choosing you as a final purchasing decision.
And 77% of them find their purchasing decisions complex or difficult, as found by Gartner.
But this hesitance all makes perfect sense.
There’s a lot at stake with a business purchase. Not only is it expensive, the individual’s reputation is one the line too.
No one wants to be known as the person that chose the wrong brand for a business problem.
That’s a surefire way to lose trust within a company and mostly likely lose out on more responsibility and promotions in the future.
Being in business yourself, you can probably understand these concerns.
If you look at it from your B2B buyers’ perspective, they need proof that your company will deliver.
That’s why investing in reputation management is crucial to your success.
It’s natural to want to see how like-minded people evaluate a product or service. Wasting money on a product or service that won’t be of value isn’t on anyone’s agenda.
Luckily for you, reviews work very well with your target audience of business decision makers.
In a report from B2B review platform G2, 92.4% of B2B buyers are more likely to purchase a product or service after reading a trusted review about it.
Yet only 1 out of 5 of companies think adding reviews to their marketing mix is on the to-do list.
By investing more time on reputation management, you’ll find your company will have an advantage over your competitors.
In case you haven’t noticed, business buyers have similar consumer behavior to regular shoppers in B2C commerce. And in both, people have high standards of social proof when it comes to purchasing something.
But one thing that you may differentiate the two is that most B2B buyers want to see negative reviews — even for products and services they intend to buy.
That way, they can evaluate an offering more in-depth.
G2’s report says 39.5% of buyers think negative reviews build more credibility for a product.
So don’t be too upset when a customer leaves some unpleasant feedback for your company.
That should catch you up with the importance of online reviews for your B2B firm.
Now it’s time to look at some of the best platforms to allow for customer feedback.
Best Platforms for B2B Customer Feedback #1: Capterra
Best For: SaaS
Capterra helps companies in B2B commerce find the best software for their needs.
And according to Software Advice, 63% of B2B software buyers look at reviews when they’re building a shortlist.
With its platform, businesses can see what kind of feedback customers are leaving.
That way, B2B buyers can get a better sense for the pros and cons of your software.
Best Platforms for B2B Customer Feedback #2: Amazon
Best For: Info Products
As you probably know, there are hundreds of millions of Amazon users worldwide.
And on average, between 5%-10% of customers leave a review on there, according to an Amazon seller discussion. Sometimes, it’s as high as 20%.
You might not think of Amazon in a B2B context since it’s virtually all retail products.
But info products such as eBooks and guides are hot commodities for businesses looking to learn new things.
What makes Amazon’s platform stand out from other platforms is the ease of use.
Anyone that makes a purchase on Amazon can leave a review through their account.
Best Platforms for B2B Customer Feedback #3: Tripadvisor
Best For: Travel Services
Tripadvisor is one of the largest review platforms in the world. According to Statista, there are 884 million reviews on the platform.
Every day, people turn to trusted reviews on their platform when they’re looking for anything from restaurants to cruises.
Some of the services that a B2B buyer would check customer feedback for on Tripadvisor are:
- Hotels
- Airlines
- House rentals
- Vehicle rentals
- Restaurants
- Travel agencies
What’s so great about Tripadvisor is that it ranks so high in search engines.
For example, when I Google “hotel reviews,” Tripadvisor is the first organic result.
And for Microsoft Edge, it ranks second.
Best Platforms for B2B Customer Feedback #4: Yelp
Best For: Local, Small Businesses
Yelp is incredibly influential in local commerce.
As reported by a blog post from Yelp, 97% of consumers that visit the review platform make a purchase.
Generally speaking, Yelp is mostly associated with local B2C commerce, such as dining.
But there’s still going to be plenty of businesses that require the same local services as regular consumers.
For example, a bank needs flooring installed.
A limousine company needs auto repairs.
Companies that are traveling to your town need rental cars.
You get the idea.
Yelp will still provide valuable customer feedback to your B2B prospects too as they see how other customers review your business.
Best Platforms for B2B Customer Feedback #5: Better Business Bureau
Best For: All Businesses
Better Business Bureau (BBB) is a household name.
Even if people don’t know exactly what the platform entails, they’ve heard of it and view it as a form of social proof.
And if you have good enough ratings, you can pay to get accredited by BBB. You can then use it as a “stamp of approval” on your company website, if you choose.
BBB is known not only for consumers to leave reviews but also for complaints.
There are 7 key aspects that go into your BBB rating:
- Business complaint history
- Type of business
- Time in business
- Business transparency
- Failure to honor BBB commitments
- Licensing and government violations
- Advertising issues
BBB is also one of the oldest customer feedback platforms out there, being founded in 1912.
According to its website, there are 5.4 million business profiles on BBB.
Best Platforms for B2B Customer Feedback #6: Clutch
Best For: Professional Online Services
Clutch is a little lesser-known than some of the other platforms on the list.
But it’s super targeted for B2B customer feedback.
Clutch offers ratings for professional services such as marketing, UX design, IT, accounting and more.
According to the homepage, Clutch has over 98,000 client reviews.
It’s likely that your company falls under one of the many categories.
Best Platforms for B2B Customer Feedback #7: Google Business Profile
Best For: Local Businesses
Just like with Amazon reviews, Google is an easy platform to provide B2B customer feedback since a lot of people are already signed into their Google accounts when surfing the web.
So customers eliminate one area of friction to provide a review for your business.
And Google reviews is the most popular place for consumers to rate businesses.
As found by a Bizrate survey, 59% of consumers use Google to look for customer reviews.
Moreover, before visiting a local business, 63.6% of consumers will check out Google Reviews, as per ReviewTrackers.
Having a Google Business Profile also helps increase website visitors for you.
According to Google, Business Profiles generate 35% more clicks to their website than businesses that don’t have a Business Profile.
And Google allows you to make replies to reviews.
In a report from Womply, it was found that businesses that respond to reviews earn 49% more revenue than businesses that don’t.
Best Platforms for B2B Customer Feedback #8: G2
Best For: SaaS and Productized Service
Ranging from customer service to supply chain logistics and everything in between, G2 is a place where your company can be reviewed by your customers.
For your company profile, there’s a host of information for users to uncover.
That information includes:
- Overview
- Features
- Top industries represented
- Pricing
- Media
- Comparisons
And of course, the 1,500,000+ customer reviews.
Best Platforms for B2B Customer Feedback #9: Trustpilot
Best For: Every Business
Every month, over 4 million reviews are shared on Trustpilot.
And 87% of U.K. and U.S. consumers are more likely to trust ads that have the Trustpilot logo and star rating included than ads without.
On Trustpilot, there are company reviews for every category you can possibly imagine, starting with animals and pets and concluding with vehicles and transportation.
One of the best things about Trustpilot is that it’s the best review platform when it comes to removing low-quality reviews from unverified sources.
Other platforms seem indifferent to sketchy reviews. So Trustpilot differentiates itself in that regard.
Unfortunately, there’s one major drawback with Trustpilot.
In order to maintain a good rating, your customers need to consistently provide reviews.
See, Trustpilot’s “TrustScore” considers older reviews less valuable. So you could have a hundred 5-star reviews, but if no one has rated your business recently, then your score won’t reflect the positive feedback as well.
Another thing that isn’t great about Trustpilot is the users themselves. For the most part, it appears that its user base is more pessimistic than the average reviewer.
Often, you’ll find incredibly successful companies with disproportionately low review scores.
It’s your call whether you think it’s worth it.
Conclusion
We know that in the B2B world, your reputation is everything.
And there’s no better way to get a pulse on your business than by using the right platforms to see how your customers feel about your brand.
In this article, we’ve outlined 9 of the best platforms for customer feedback in B2B commerce — so you can start winning over the hearts and minds of more consumers in your industry.
With the more reviews, and hopefully positive ones, you’ll earn more trust from those hesitant B2B buyers that so often stall in the purchasing journey.
But if you don’t have the time or manpower to monitor your online brand reputation, consider trying AutoGrow’s 7-day, free trial to see how we can help you.
Start Delegating All Your Brand Management Projects Today
With our help, you can be sure to get your messages across clearly and manage what people say about you online.
Before you head out, let me ask you something.
Which customer feedback platform are you going to use for your brand? Or which ones are you already using?
Let me know in the comments below.
Keep AutoGrowin’, stay focused.
Mark
