We know reviews are valuable. They are instant social proof, like a digital version of the yard sign or word-of-mouth referrals. When we look at the best and most innovative remodelers, like Remodeling’s 550 winners, we see they have great reviews in large numbers. An average of 30 reviews apiece, in fact! So, it’s a known fact that glowing reviews are good for your business.

What we didn’t know was what customers wanted to see in reviews. Positive feedback, sure, but how many reviews is enough to be persuasive? Are customers reading the reviews, or do they use the average rating as a rule-of-thumb? Good data is the key to good decision-making, so we decided to settle these questions by surveying more than 1,000 American homeowners. Here are our key findings.

Everyone reads reviews.
Less than 1% of customers read zero online reviews before selecting their contractors. There’s a persistent myth that remodeling customers don’t trust online reviews. Maybe that was once the case, but the data shows that customers now read reviews—and in large quantity. Accordingly, time spent building your reputation online is time well spent.

Most read up to 10 reviews. Many read up to 50 reviews.
How many reviews do your customers want to read? Here’s your answer.

Most customers (65%) are satisfied by reading up to 10 reviews. A significant minority (35%) are really digging into your reviews and are reading more than 10. You can’t blame them; they’re trusting you with their home, in what will probably be their largest purchase this year. With as many as 50 reviews, you satisfy even your most scrutinizing potential customer. Plus, you rank right up there with the Remodeling 550 winners in terms of having a great reputation!

Reviews are competitive. Having more quality reviews is always better.
Speaking of competitive remodelers – we asked homeowners to compare and choose remodelers, with the only difference being the quantity of reviews. Almost universally, your customers trust the remodeler with the most reviews. That means that you are in a direct competition with other remodelers in your market. Whoever has the most reviews wins, particularly if those reviews are easily accessible through Google search. We know this holds true up to 300+ reviews, and likely holds true beyond that.

This knowledge gives you a plan of attack for online reviews. Have a look at your most innovative and dynamic competitor. See how many reviews they have online. That is now your target. Start collecting reviews from happy customers and building toward that target. If you haven’t already, choose a savvy marketer on your team to take charge of your reviews. Check in with them regularly to ensure that you are making rapid progress toward your goal. This way, you can build your reputation like you would any other business resource, in a way that is both measurable and systematic.

Spectrum Communications polled 1,004 homeowners in the United States in an online survey in August 2016. The survey asked homeowners to select which company they would be most likely to do business with based on average rating and number of reviews, as well as how many reviews they typically read before hiring a remodeler. To learn more, read the annual homeowner survey white paper at the Spectrum Communications website.