Google Places Reviews - and why they are important?

I work for an automotive group, and we are starting a campaign to get more reviews on our Google places pages. I need to put together a 15 minute power point on why reviews are important, and why they are more important now than ever.

I was wondering if anyone had any good articles that show some good data on why online reviews are important? My boss really likes stats, and would like to see some charts/graphs if possible? I found a couple okay ones when searching, but maybe someone who is an expert on this can point me in the right direction?

I don’t have any document related to Google Places & Citations, but i would like to tell you that DONT try to get these reviews from some freelancer. as google are very strict as far as these reviews are concerned. Google really appreciates honest & real reviews that comes from a real source

We planned on training our sales staff on training our customers on how to leave reviews, not looking to take the cheap way out.

Hello noslenwerd,

I am specialized in Google Places and the problems of reviews as both ranking and conversion/reputation factor. I’d be happy to help you create the presentation, together with providing statistics both from our own research and third-party researches.

All I’d want in exchange is to put our logo at the presentation, as well as to mention that we helped in creating the presentation, when presenting it.

If you are interested, you could write me on Skype: OptiLocal

Greetings,
Nyagoslav
OptiLocal

Google loves to highlight trusted websites in search results. when it comes to local listing, every citation is counted as reputation point for your website and thus helps Google in displaying listings which it trusts.
P.S. : Citation may make or break your website’s reputation.