Quantifying the Value of Client Reviews for B2B
对B2B客户回顾评价的价值进行量化
By Amanda Soderlund
Head of Product at Clutch.co
September 16, 2015
Amanda Soderlund
Clutch产品负责人
2015年9月16日
Various studies throughout the past few years have demonstrated how the business-to-business buying process has been transforming. In the past, buyers generally contacted vendors directly for more information on their services and products. Now, buyers have around 57 percent of the procurement process completed before they even speak to a vendor. A recent study by Google also unveiled that 90 percent of B2B buyers (of those who are online) use a search engine to research potential purchases. What are these buyers seeking?
过去几年的各种研究已经证明了企业对企业的购买流程是如何转变的。在过去，买方通常直接与供应商联系，以获得更多有关其服务和产品的信息。现在，买方甚至在和供应商沟通之前就完成了57%的采购流程。谷歌最近的一项研究还显示，90%的B2B买家（在那些在线的买家中）使用搜索引擎来研究潜在的购买行为。这些买家在寻找什么？
Before, it was conventional wisdom that only consumers used other customer reviews to learn about different products and services. Now, business buyers are also looking for further resources like client reviews to learn more about a product or service as a part of their in-depth research process. A study by Avanade reported that 61 percent of B2B buyers look to third-party sources like reviews before approaching a business. Moreover, the same study reported that 42 percent of these B2B buyers have also reviewed a company on a third-party site.
以前，世俗的认知是，只有消费者使用其他客户评论来了解不同的产品和服务。现在，作为深入的研究流程的一部分，商业买家也在寻找进一步的资源，如客户回顾评价，以了解更多有关产品或服务的信息。Avanade的一项研究报告称，61%的B2B买家在接触业务之前会先看第三方资源，如回顾评价。此外，同一份研究报告称，42%的B2B买家也曾在第三方网站上评价过公司。
Furthermore, how does the number of client reviews affect a company’s visibility? In a recent Clutch study, we found that doubling the number of client reviews can increase a company’s visibility by up to 60 percent.
此外，客户回顾评价的数量是如何影响公司的可见性的？在Clutch最近的一项关键研究中，我们发现客户回顾评价的数量翻番可以使公司的可见性提高60%。
Background
背景
As various studies have shown, the top results in search engine queries get the majority of views. We have also seen this well-known tendency on our directory pages. In general, the two highest positioned companies receive a significantly larger amount of profile views.
正如各种研究所显示的那样，搜索引擎查询的最上面的结果获得了大多数的关注和查看。我们在目录页上也看到了这种众所周知的趋势。一般来说，最靠上的两家公司收获了大量且显著的介绍页被查看的次数。
However, beyond the top two spots, we noticed that certain companies positioned lower down on the page were getting more profile views than similar companies listed one, two or even three spots above them. More specifically, we noticed that a company with a disproportionately large number of client reviews was getting a considerably higher amount of profile views than its surrounding competitors.
然而，除了排名前两位的公司，我们注意到页面上位置靠下的某些公司获得的介绍页浏览量比排名在其前一位、两位甚至三位的同类公司要多。更具体地说，我们注意到，一家拥有不成比例的大量客户回顾评价的公司比其周围的竞争对手获得了更多的介绍页浏览量。
As a website that hosts client reviews, we know that reviews matter in the B2B buying process. What we wanted to find out was if a company had an increased number of reviews, would that improve their visibility? In response to this question, we took our own data and developed a study to examine how the number of reviews might influence profile views.
作为一个承载客户回顾评价的网站，我们知道回顾评价在B2B购买流程中很重要。我们想知道的是，如果一家公司有更多的回顾评价，那会提高他们的可见性吗？为了回答这个问题，我们使用了我们自己的数据，并进行了一项研究，以检验回顾评价的数量如何可能会影响介绍页浏览量的。
Regression Analysis
回归分析
Question
问题
Holding all other variables constant, how does changing the number of reviews on a particular company profile affect the number of monthly profile views received by that company on our site?
在保持所有其他变量不变的情况下，更改特定公司介绍页上的评论数量如何影响该公司在我们网站上的月度介绍页浏览量？
Methodology
方法论
In order to answer this question, we built a multiple linear regression model. Isolating the effect of the number of reviews meant identifying and controlling for the other major factors that drive traffic to the company profiles. These factors included company size, average rating, price and, most importantly, the company's position on our most popular pages.
为了回答这个问题，我们建立了一个多元线性回归模型。隔离回顾评价数量的影响意味着识别和控制其他主要因素，而这些因素驱动了公司介绍页的访问量。这些因素包括公司规模、平均评级、价格，最重要的是，公司在我们最受欢迎的页面上的位置。
Before running the regression, we needed to check the data for outliers. Two companies in the group were receiving abnormally high levels of profile views, as shown in this graph.
在进行回归分析之前，我们需要检查数据中的异常值。如图所示，小组中的两家公司获得了异常高水平的介绍页浏览量。
This observation matches the conventional wisdom that results pages generally have a long-tail distribution where the top few spots receive most of the attention. We decided to take these two companies out of the regression since their unique position sets them aside from the pack by definition. We also took out a third company that had a large number of reviews, far exceeding the reviews of any other company in the group. We felt these three companies were not representative of the average company on our site.
这一观察结果与常规智慧一致，即结果页面通常有一个长尾分布，其中最顶端的少数几个点获得最多关注。我们决定将这两家公司从回归分析中剔除，显然地，因为它们独特的位置将它们被至于群组外。我们还去掉了第三家拥有大量回顾评价的公司，因其远远超过了小组中任何其他公司的回顾评价。我们觉得这三家公司并不能代表我们网站上一般公司的情况。
Results
结果
Position
位置
Having removed the outliers, the regression results were mostly what we expected. Position was the biggest factor when determining the number of profile views. The higher up a company was listed, the more views they got on average.
剔除异常值后，回归分析结果基本上是我们预期的结果。位置是决定介绍页访问量的最大因素。一家公司被列的越高，平均来看他们获得的访问量就越多。
Number of Reviews
回顾评价的数量
The number of reviews proved to be an important factor as well. Controlling for other variables, each additional review added slightly less than 20 monthly views to a company's profile.
回顾评价的数量也被证明是一个重要因素。在控制其他变量的情况下，每增加一条评论，公司介绍页就会略微增长少于20次的月度浏览量。
As the number of reviews increases, the expected number of profile views also increases. For example, a company with 3 reviews might receive 150 profile views. Our model projects that by doubling their reviews to 6, this company could expect around 240 monthly views, or a 60% increase.
随着回顾评价数量的增加，预期的介绍页浏览量也会增加。例如，有3条回顾评价的公司可能会获得150次介绍页浏览量。我们的模型预测，通过将他们的评论翻一番到6次，这家公司可预计获得240次的月度介绍页浏览量，或者增长60%。
Average Rating of Reviews
回顾评价的平均评级
Some companies worry about the potential negative effects of a single bad review dropping their average rating. However, our study did not show a significant correlation between average rating and visibility. Assuming the majority of a company’s reviews are positive, the effect of a single lower review appears to be negligible.
一些公司担心，一条不好的回顾评价可能会降低他们平均评级，从而所带来的潜在的负面影响。然而，我们的研究并没有显示出平均评级和可见性之间的显著相关性。假设一家公司的大部分审查都是正面的，那么一次较低的回顾评价所带来的影响似乎可以忽略不计。
Further Analysis
进一步分析
What Do These Results Mean for Companies?
这些结果对公司来说意味着什么？
Obviously, position is important for a company's visibility. However, position depends on various factors that cannot typically be controlled by the company. Companies can have some influence on the total number of client reviews on their profile. Firms that want to increase their visibility could encourage more clients to provide reviews.
显然，位置对公司的可见性很重要。然而，位置取决于公司通常无法控制的各种因素。公司可以对其介绍页上的客户回顾评价总数产生一些影响。希望提高可见性的公司可以鼓励更多的客户提供回顾评价。
What Do These Results Reveal About Buyers?
这些结果揭示了关于买家的哪些信息？
The model shows that buyers prefer to view profiles with more reviews. Clearly, buyers not only care about researching and reading reviews about a company, but they also care about the number of reviews that a company has.
该模型显示，购买者更喜欢查看带有更多回顾评价的介绍页。显然，买家不仅关心研究和阅读有关公司的回顾评价，而且还关心公司拥有的回顾评价的数量。
Interestingly enough, other factors did not have as powerful of an effect on profile views as position and number of reviews did. For example, price did not have a significant impact on the number of profile views. Instead of buyers viewing companies based on a specific price range, buyers seem more interested in widely reviewed companies. This suggests that buyers care more about assuring the quality of service that they will be paying for rather than getting the lowest price for an unknown quality of service.
有趣的是，其他因素并没有像位置和回顾评价数量那样对介绍页浏览量产生强大的影响。例如，价格对介绍页浏览量没有显著影响。与买家基于特定的价格区间来查看公司不同，买家似乎更感兴趣的是获得广泛回顾评价的公司。这表明，买家更关心的是确保他们将支付的服务质量，而不是获得一个服务质量未知的最低价格。
Similarly, our model suggests that visibility is not dependent on the average rating of reviews. As long as a company has an overall positive rating, views from potential buyers do not change based on small differences in average rating. Instead, views increase with a rise in the number of reviews.
同样，我们的模型表明可见性并不依赖于回顾评价的平均评级。只要一家公司的整体评级是正向的，潜在买家的浏览量不会基于平均评级的微小差异而改变。相反，浏览量会随着回顾评价数量的增加而增加。
Since buyers prefer to research companies with more reviews, encouraging past clients to provide reviews can be a great marketing strategy.
由于买方更喜欢研究有更多回顾评价的公司，鼓励以往的客户提供回顾评价可能成为一个很好的营销策略。
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