Why are online reviews important? There are around 60 million internet users in the UK. Of the adults online, 97% regularly use search engines (Google is the most popular) and 98% use social media. Almost 45% of internet users use social media as a search tool, rather than just a place to build communities and connections.
The most popular social media channels in the UK are:
Facebook is most popular among adults aged 45+. Younger adults (aged 18-24) prefer YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat. (Sources: Ofcom Online Nation 2023 Report, Cybercrew, and Hootsuite Digital Trends Report)
By reading reviews of your business a family can begin to build trust in you. Reviews from other people will give potential clients confidence in your business and encourage them to choose you over your competitors.
Posting reviews on your website means that regular new content is added. This helps to push your business higher up the internet search rankings. The content can also be easily shared on social media, further extending your reach.
Reviews are most useful when they’re honest and objective. Customers may find a mix of positive and negative reviews more trustworthy, but it’s helpful and reassuring to have some control over what is written about you.
MuchLoved provides an independent, moderated reviews service, as part of our paid subscription package. Reviews are easily added to your website using our widget and can be integrated into your website design.
You can use our service alongside other reviews, for added trust, if you wish. Review requests can be emailed to chosen clients, via your MuchLoved partner area. Satisfied families may be more likely to respond to a personal request from you than to look for a place to post a review online.
We also offer the option of a Public Reviews link for anyone wishing to leave a review directly via your website.
Reviews can be moderated, for instance if the star rating is not in line with the comment posted. You can respond with thanks for a good review, leading to enhanced client engagement. You can also add messages and testimonials received in thank you cards and emails so that they appear on your website too, giving you extra flexibility.
Google and Facebook provide the most popular business reviews services.
Google Reviews are some of the most accessible business ratings online. Reviews are shown next to your business profile when someone does an internet search. As Google is the most used search engine in the UK, reviews posted via their service are likely to get high visibility.
To leave a review, clients must either have a Gmail address or be signed into a Google account, so this could be a barrier for some reviewers.
With Google Reviews, you have no control over the content and your average rating needs to be close to 5 stars for the reviews to be effective. If someone does post a negative review, you can post a response to provide context and to show that you care. As with the MuchLoved service, you can respond with thanks for a positive review.
Facebook Reviews give you the option of collecting reviews via one of your social media channels. Anyone visiting your Facebook page can access your reviews via the tab below your cover picture. They can post a review if they have a Facebook account.
Your overall rating is displayed on the page and is based on multiple sources, including the reviews and recommendations posted on Facebook. As with Google Reviews, your Facebook review rating needs to be close to 5. You can easily post a response within your reviews stream if you need to address a negative comment.
When deciding what reviews services to use, we recommend that you consider whether you want to have control of the content, or not. Also think about whether you want to be able to post a variety of testimonials or just have online reviews submitted. Many funeral director businesses are rightly proud of their reviews, so you could opt for all three services to help maximise your online profile.
The MuchLoved reviews service is available to our funeral partners, so if you would like to activate reviews on your website or if you have queries about your current MuchLoved service, you can contact us on support@muchloved.com or call our team on 01494 722818. These links may be useful for information about Google Reviews and Facebook reviews and ratings
