Reviews Help Us Make Decisions

It’s a well-known fact that there are five stages of the buyer decision process.

Recognizing the need or identifying a problem, searching for information, evaluating the alternatives, making the purchase, and post-purchase evaluation. All of these stages are important, but if you’re looking to switch your pest control software, you’re probably going to focus on the last stage – post-purchase evaluation. At this stage, customers will leave reviews based on their experience.

There’s no doubt that purchasing pest control software is a big deal. The market for B2B software is estimated at $130 billion. Participating in a demo of the product and asking questions certainly helps with your buying decision. But if your friend at XYZ Pest Control is raving about his or her software, well, that means something. 

There’s no question that online product reviews affect purchasing behavior, especially when you look at these statistics:

• 90% of shoppers read at least one online review before deciding to visit a business.

• 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

• User reviews are nearly 12 times more trusted than descriptions from vendors. 

As a pest control business owner, you’re probably using reviews to market your services, so you know the effect they can have. But purchasing software is more unique than purchasing pest control services in that the decision-making process takes longer. According to this article by Kristen Bialik, “It can take two years (24 months), on average, for a small to midsize business to go through the software-buying process. That’s a lot of time to devote to a software search, especially when your time could be better spent growing your business.” In the same article, she offers the following helpful tips when it comes to your software search:

1. Find user reviews relevant to your job and industry. To get the most out of reviews, look for those by people like you. By finding reviews relevant to your job and industry, you can trust the reviewer’s perspective and look for more targeted, specific commentary that speaks to your needs. 

2. Identify common themes in the reviews. When browsing software reviews, keep a close eye on recurring themes in the comments. If a certain theme is coming up again and again in the user reviews, that’s a sign that you would have a similar experience. 

3. Pinpoint your feature needs using reviews. Take the time to read through reviews from people like you and take note of any features they call out as essential. Use this information to further refine your software requirements. 

4. Take advantage of research based on user reviews. Browsing software reviews can take time. If you don’t have the bandwidth for a deep dive on user feedback, take advantage of research that’s already done that for you. 

In the end, trusting reviews will give you the confidence you need to ensure you’re making the right decision for your business. And if you’re in the market for pest control software, check out these reviews on Capterra..