Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday...
The last week and a half of November is a busy time for Americans. We have Thanksgiving on Thursday, a day to celebrate gratitude and express thankfulness for your friends, family, and circumstances. Next is Black Friday, a day made famous for Americans stampeding over each other for too-good-to-be-true deals. Then we have Small Business Saturday/Shop Local Saturday, a much more wholesome display of consumerism dedicated towards local and national small businesses. After a day of rest, we come back to our shopping with online sales and Cyber Monday, which in recent years has expanded to more than just one day… Lastly, after all of our fervent shopping concludes, we end with Giving Tuesday. A day encouraging people to give back to their local communities and favorite nonprofit organizations.
Introducing Write a Review Wednesday!
Hear me out—I’m proposing we add ONE MORE POSITIVE day to the mix. What about “Write a Review Wednesday?” “Wordy Wednesday?” Maybe “Write On Wednesday” or “Word of Mouth Wednesday.” I’m still workshopping the name, but what if after all of our spending and shopping and donating, we take a day to SHARE about the positive experiences we’ve had with businesses throughout the year? Whether that be on TripAdviser, Google Business Profile, Etsy, Yelp, the list goes on and on. We all know the importance of online reviews for the success of any local or national business. We also know how HELPFUL those reviews can be for our fellow online shoppers. So, when you think about it, this proposed holiday is kind of a win-win for business owners AND consumers alike!
What is Write a Review Wednesday?
In summary, here is my proposition for Write a Review Wednesday (or Weigh-In Wednesday, whatever we want to call it):
The Wednesday after Thanksgiving would be a dedicated day for shoppers, diners, travelers, (essentially anyone who has spent money on something or visited somewhere during the year) to take a few minutes out of their day to leave a review online.
So often we have a comfortable stay somewhere, or have a pleasant dining experience and we think, “I should leave them a review.” But then Monday comes, or our lunch break ends, and we get back to our busy lives. Soon the idea of writing a review becomes a distant memory. And sure, businesses have gotten really good at prompting visitors for testimonials, whether in person, or via email, but the truth of the matter is, visitors rarely go through with the actual act of leaving the review. Obviously there are those keyboard warriors who make it their life’s work to leave online reviews for every business or product they encounter, but those helpful humans are few and far between.
What if, once a year, we decide to make a habit of writing reviews for all the businesses, products, artists, and services we experienced throughout the year? And what better time to do it than after five days of spending money and reminiscing about the past year?! Side note—after doing some Googling, I’ve discovered that a couple similar days might already exist (National Leave a Review Day on June 8 and Write a Review Day on May 3), but the more the merrier! Right?
The Power of Positivity, but also Reliability.
Another interesting phenomenon to consider is the power of positivity. Think about it—in the past few years when have you felt inclined to actually leave a review? Was it after a particularly negative experience? If so, you wouldn’t be alone. In 2020, Zendesk found that it is more common for users to share their negative experiences over positive ones on review sites (46% for bad and 27% for good). I also think users are more likely to leave reviews if they encountered something super extraordinary about the product or service they experienced. Maybe the oil change shop was able to fit you in right before they closed the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, or an Etsy seller rushed to get you your order before Christmas. These might be times when you ACTUALLY go through with writing the review you promised to write.
But what about when a product on Amazon is just exactly what we expected, not better than we ever hoped it could be? Or the food at a restaurant was good and we had a nice time with our friend, but the waiter didn’t, like, give us a free dessert or something? Shouldn’t those vendors and businesses also get a review? Even a simple, “The product was exactly as described and works well!” can go a long way for a seller (AND for a fellow customer doing their research). On “Write a Review Wednesday” I encourage you to leave reviews for all your extraordinary customer service experiences, but also just the reliable, positive, day-to-day encounters you’ve had throughout the year too! We all need to celebrate the positivity in our lives more and not just focus on the negative.
The Bottom Line on Reviews
As I stated at the beginning of this lengthy holiday mission statement, we all know online reviews are important to the success of a small business or online product. According to Bright Local, positive reviews can increase customer spending by 31%. Studies also show that reviews increase a consumer’s trust in a company and that 68% of buyers don’t trust a high review rating unless there are a lot of reviews.
Now, I don’t envision my “Write a Review Wednesday” idea to take off to the extent of Cyber Monday, or even Talk Like a Pirate Day, but I just wanted to give my fellow shoppers and restaurant-goers something to think about during this busy season of spending. At this point in the year we’ve all probably visited a number of attractions, stayed in different lodging options, spent a good amount of money on products, and/or eaten food someone else has prepared. Why not give back to these establishments with the ultimate gift of an online review? Just like donations are the backbone of a nonprofit organization, reviews can sometimes be the lifeline of a small business.
Well, I don’t know about you, but I’ve got some reviews to write… 😅