Don't Waste Above the Fold Space
One of the things some companies do is put the ratings below the elements that load when users first get to a page. This way, some marketers reason, they can benefit from ratings but minimize the risk of bad reviews, because even when bad reviews are present, they are below the fold. This is a bad move.
It wastes all the thought that went into configuring a review engine. Sellers can either decide that ratings are not for them, or that they will get reviews to work and put these elements above the fold. That is true for both the "Be the first to review" call-to-action when a product does not have enough responses to display and the actual ratings when the review threshold has been met.
(WeAreMinimal.com's product page could benefit from having a signifier of the reviews above the fold, so that social proof is immediately visible.)
Don't Shy Away from the Negative Reviews
Here is another thing some companies do to mitigate potentially unwanted scores: they curate reviews, and leave out the negative scores. It is a terrible idea.
Consumers are used to seeing some bad scores - that actually makes the ratings more trustworthy. Visitors will smell something fishy when ratings are all positive. It is best to be authentic, get the right sample size for the reviews before displaying and let the chips fall where they may.
Don't Let Reviews go Unreviewed
Reviews by themselves are fine, but if sellers have taken the time to let people leave actual comments about their products and services, they should take the extra step and let people rate the reviews.
Include elements like "Was this review helpful?" and consider setting the default order of reviews to show the most helpful reviews first. Users may toggle to show most recent reviews first, but showing helpful reviews first has a few benefits:
+ Sellers know their products and services well, but do not get to dictate which features and benefits consumers find most helpful. If consumers flock to one good review in particular, sellers will potentially convert better and also know what is clicking with their target audience
+ Even negative reviews can be helpful; knowing which issues are internal distractions to ignore, and which are legitimately hurting prospects enables sellers to act on the weakness with data
Finding the reviews that matter can be just as important as hitting the right number of reviews.
(Amazon shows customer reviews in order of helpfulness and recency side-by-side.)
Don't Let Out-of-the-Box Reviews Ruin User Experience
There are some industries where all sellers need for a review are the basic ratings and the actual user comments. A considerable amount of the time, though, vanilla reviews leave a lot to be desired. Fortunately, segmentation can take some review engines from good to great.
Those in the hotel space, for example, know that solo business visitors need very different things from people going on family vacations. A high score from business travelers will matter more to other people on business trips so sellers should allow segmentation by guest type to make it easier for users to identify the right fit.
Now, apply that to your industry, and see if there are segments that people need to find the reviews that matter.
(American Eagle Outfitters helps prospective buyers make a decision by showing the reviewers' height, weight, size ordered, and fit rating.)
Don't Forget to Ask for Reviews
People who bought products can also help with reviews, but only if sellers have thought through their programs. Once sellers are confident that a customer's order has arrived, they can communicate with them directly to ask for a review.
Depending on the industry, sellers can also nudge customers to write reviews by offering incentives.
(Zappos incentivizes user reviews when they communicate with customers after a purchase) Putting It All Together
Reviews are tricky, and there are a lot of ways to make them more damaging than helpful to a business. However, if sellers take the time to get it right, "the juice is worth the squeeze." If sellers display review elements above the fold, resist the urge to purge negative reviews, give users the ability to say if a review is helpful, allow users to segment as needed, set a threshold before displaying average scores and ask customers to rate products, they will be well on their way to making reviews actually help with conversions.