Have you ever read customer reviews or testimonials before making your decision to buy products or services? You’re not alone.

Quite an increase in the past 2 years, these reviews are becoming more and more important to online shoppers, or before picking up the phone to call for services. Recently released data tells us 2 out of 3 online consumers spend a minimum of 10 minutes scouring product reviews and testimonials before making a choice to buy, or for those of us selling services – before they pick up the phone. It goes on to further say 1 in 3 consumers spend 30 minutes or more.

There are now website dedicated to authenticating the testimonials on your website to let your web visitors know these were not made up.

Even negative reviews factor in to authenticity. Ever wonder why amazon.com allows reviewers to post pro and cons? Not only does all this activity drive their website, but the absence of negative reviews in this environment can indicate someone is deleting negative feedback. Allowing the negative raises the website’s trustworthiness.

It comes back to an old marketing idea of letting others speak about your business. Get those testimonials!