When was the last time you made an online decision or purchase without first consulting a set of online reviews? Whether you’re booking a vacation, going out to dinner, or making an online purchase, you likely rely on online reviews to help you make the right choice.

Consumer-driven sites like Amazon, Yelp, and TripAdvisor, in particular, have built a strong habit of counting on customer feedback to make any sort of purchase decision about a product or service. And that also means today’s families rely on online reviews to decide where to enroll their child in school, too.

Why are online reviews important for independent schools?

While, of course, you may get some of your most qualified leads from word-of-mouth marketing WOMM, individuals (Millennials and Gen Z in particular) rely on the Internet to do their research and draw their own conclusions. Looking at the inbound marketing funnel, online reviews play a key role in multiple phases.

Awareness

They first become important in the attraction or awareness phase, as your prospects are doing a lot of research on what type of school their child should attend (public vs. private vs. charter, etc.). Prospects are searching for “best private schools near me” or “best STEM programs in NY.” And those searches are accompanied by online reviews.

Online reviews are now included in your school's first impression, and if you don’t have a four or five-star review, you may never even earn a click-through to your website.

Conversion

Reviews are also important near the end: the conversion or enrollment phase. While you’re focused on enrolling new students, families are focused on making the right choice — which means they are back to doing research. Rather than conducting branded searches like “best private schools near me,” they’re conducting branded searches for your school and any other schools/districts they were considering.

Reviews will appear in the search results, linking to sites like Niche.com, Glassdoor.com, and Facebook, and especially Google's Knowledge Panel.

Do online reviews matter — and can online reviews be trusted?

You might still be wondering, 'So what? Are online reviews important?' The answer is, "Yes!"

• More than 90% of consumers say reviews impact their perceptions of brands. That's right — reviews have a BIG impact on our decision-making process.
• Nearly half of users trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation from family and friends. So, for prospective families who maybe haven't received a personal recommendation, online reviews matter twice as much!
• Sixty-five percent of people see online search as the most trusted source of information about people and companies. That's a higher level of trust than any other online or offline source.
• 68% of individuals form an opinion after reading one to six online reviews — so yes, even one online review can attract or deter someone, but they’ll read a handful.

What reviews are being read the most? In recent years, you can see Facebook's reviews have lost a bit of their weight, while Google's influence has only continued to rise. Now, let’s take a closer look at where and how online reviews can be found. 

Facebook

Meta has changed “reviews” to “recommendations,” asking page viewers if they recommend the business. You can no longer give a business a star rating of 1-5, but rather, say whether or not you recommend them. You'll need at least five reviews, and a Page's rating is based on the recommendations people share about the business page on Facebook.

For example, if Tony has friends who also “like” the page, they will receive a notification that Tony has recommended the school and will be prompted to recommend it, too. Additionally, you can respond to positive and negative interactions. When individuals leave a review via their social media account, they are often perceived as more honest and genuine than those reviews that hide behind an avatar and username like “supermom621.”

Google

Many K-12 independent schools have noticed that while users can still post reviews, those reviews often don't appear publicly. The school can't respond to or manage these reviews, and the visible feedback is often outdated, with most reviews dating back to 2018 or earlier.

This issue stems from a 2019 Google policy that limited public reviews for certain types of businesses, including educational institutions. However, the enforcement of this policy has been inconsistent, affecting only specific categories of schools until more recently.

Niche.com

Niche is one of the most popular online review sites and is often on Page 1 of any school-related Google search. Because Niche is a well-trusted source of online reviews, many individuals use the site to get an authentic perspective of a school. Like Google, Niche.com reviews are often pulled into the Knowledge panel in Google.

However, unlike Google and Facebook, which allow you to respond to reviews, Niche.com currently doesn't offer this feature. Keep in mind that only glowing recommendations can look a little fishy, so having one or two honest reviews likely won’t hurt you.

You can also reach out to Niche if there are false or vulgar reviews to have them checked. Remember that Niche prides itself on honest and authentic reviews, so they won't take down a review just because you don't like it. You'll need to have proof that it violates their policies.

GreatSchools.org

GreatSchools.org provides parents with information about how well schools serve their students, but the site claims that private schools aren't given its "Summary Rating" because standardized testing data isn't available. However, many schools do have profiles managed by the school account, and users can submit comments

Boarding School Review & Private School Review

Similar to Niche.com, families can leave their reviews on these popular online review sites, which give detailed information, reviews, and comparisons of schools primarily in the US. The platform is designed to help users make informed decisions about school options by offering a wide range of data through school profiles, academic offerings, after-school activities, tuition costs, and more.

Each school has a detailed profile (which they can pay to enhance) that includes information about the school's location, student body, tuition, admission requirements, academic programs, and more. The profiles are typically created by the schools themselves or by the website based on publicly available data.

User Reviews:

• Who Can Submit Reviews: Parents, students (current and former), and alumni can submit reviews about personal insights and experiences, which can appear in your Knowledge Panel.
• Review Content: Users are asked to rate various aspects of the school, such as academics, teachers, boarding life, and college placement.
• Rating System: The website typically uses a star rating system (usually on a scale from 1 to 5 stars) to evaluate different aspects of the school. 
• Moderation: Reviews submitted by users are subject to moderation to weed out fake reviews and ensure they meet the guidelines.

Glassdoor.com

Glassdoor is a popular platform where current and former employees can anonymously review their employers and provide insight into management practices, salary, and overall work environment. 

Just like any other organization or local business, schools are subject to public scrutiny, so regularly check your school’s profile to stay informed about what employees are saying. A thoughtful response to both positive and negative reviews shows that your school values feedback and is committed to addressing concerns. Bottom line — Be professional, acknowledge the feedback, and outline steps being taken to improve.

Pro Tip: Encourage current (happy) employees to share their positive feedback, like any professional development opportunities, supportive management, or strong community values.

Next Steps: How to Ask for Online Reviews

For schools that love to control every bit of their messaging online, online reviews are a wild card, as what people have to say about your school is out of your control. But there are some steps you can take to ensure there are positive voices out there representing your school.

1. Prioritize which review sites matter to your school

Because ratings and reviews are determined on an “average” basis, you’ll want to create a plan based on the number of reviews and total ratings on the platforms that matter most to you. 

For example, you may have only two reviews and five stars on Niche.com, but one bad review can take away your perfect score. On the flip side, on Facebook, you may have 100 reccomendations and a 3.5-star rating...It's important to support your positive reviews to avoid them falling. Sites with a rating below 3.5 may require your immediate attention. 

Keep Reading: 7 Ways to Boost the Credibility of School Testimonials

2. Engage your champions

You likely have a group of parents (or even students, alumni, or faculty) at your school who are your brand champions. They wear your swag, talk highly of the school, and recommend it to friends. They might even come to you (or someone at your school directly) to share what has made the experience so incredible.

These champions are your first group to engage for positive reviews. Let’s say, for example, a parent approaches a member of your faculty and says, “My son has had the best experience at your school by far! He was worried about boarding at first, but you make him feel right at home, and his grades are better than ever!”

You might then take the opportunity to say, “I’m so happy to hear that! Would you be interested in sharing your experience online?” If they say “yes,” you can provide additional details on where and how to do so.

Keep Reading: The Right Way to Ask for Parent Referrals

If opportunities like that don’t arise often, you may need to reach out to your champions via email or social. Be honest about your desire to earn more reviews and ask them to help. Keep in mind you won’t want to ask your champions to leave you a review on every single website. But a little hand-holding and sharing the links to one to two of your high-priority websites will help.

3. Have a plan to scale

Most schools won’t have more than a couple dozen champions they know of (and often less), so you’ll want to create a plan that scales. A Net Promoter survey (or some kind of parent survey) to gauge parent satisfaction is an excellent way to find happy parents who weren’t as vocal about their satisfaction.

Keep Reading: Say That Again-7 Ways to Repurpose 1 School Quote

Once you’ve noted more happy parents, you can build a scalable plan. Keep in mind that 100% glowing reviews bring up the skeptic in any online shopper and that multiple reviews on the same day do, too. Be sure to spread out online reviews by only asking a handful of your champions at a time.

Key Takeaway

Online reviews have become a key component of a school’s online presence, either aiding or deterring website traffic, inquiries, and even enrollment. Because we don’t see online reviews fading into the shadows anytime soon, it is best you get a plan in place now. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Connor has spent the last decade within the field of marketing and communications, working with independent schools and colleges throughout New England. As Finalsite’s Senior Content Marketing Manager, Connor plans and executes marketing strategies and digital content across the web. A former photojournalist, he has a passion for digital media, storytelling, coffee, and creating content that connects.