Needham, Mass., July 3, 2009 – RatePoint, a leading provider of customer feedback and online reputation management services, reports that contrary to perception, online feedback and reviews trend positive for a majority of small businesses. In a recent RatePoint summer season survey, the company found reviews were six times more likely to impact a business positively than negatively. In addition, the survey also found 24 percent of small businesses say an online review has had a positive impact while only 4 percent of SMBs reported a negative business impact from an online review.

“Consumers love to see the unedited reviews of their peers when making purchase decisions,” said Neal Creighton, CEO of RatePoint. “Proactively asking for feedback and promoting it to prospective customers can significantly impact the decision-making process.”

While many small businesses are seeing a positive impact from reviews, others are missing out on the opportunity. Approximately 31 percent of small-business owners say they are not sure if an online review has impacted their business.

“Participating in online conversations is a low-cost, high-return marketing tool for SMBs,” Creighton said. “With the summer and hospitality business is in full swing, now is the time to capture and promote what customers are saying about you. In the reputation economy, it’s in a small business’ best interests to use these conversations that are already occurring as a way to build trust and stand out from their competitors.”

More than half of small businesses surveyed reported perceiving a decline in business due to the current economic climate, while 20 percent report growth and 24 percent report no change. Of those who responded that a review had positively impacted their business, 55 percent reported business growth or no change in business. Of those who responded they could not be sure if a review had impacted their business, 71 percent reported a perceived decline in business.

About RatePoint, Inc.
RatePoint, Inc., the leading provider of customer feedback and online reputation management services, helps businesses protect and build their online reputation, allowing businesses to harness the power of credible customer feedback and leverage it into a sales, marketing and customer service asset.

RatePoint’s easy-to-use, Web-based communication services include customer feedback tools to collect business and product reviews, email marketing, survey and dispute resolution capabilities to provide small- and medium-sized businesses with the ability to collect, manage and promote customer feedback directly from their Web site. For more information, contact us at: 888-777-1636 or visit: www.ratepoint.com.