Paying attention to online consumer reviews pays. According to a survey by Neilson Online, eighty-one percent of online shoppers read reviews while shopping during the holiday season this year.
Even for consumers who did their shopping at local retailers, web sites play an important role in their purchase decision. Fifty-five percent of survey respondents said they researched products online before going to a store to buy.
The top factors in evaluating customer reviews were:
The product has multiple ratings or reviews—63%
The rating or review comes from an established source—14%
But can online reviews be trusted? I found plenty of stories about pay for play practices.
An interesting story surfaced this month about paying for ratings and reviews on Amazon. An employee of Belkin used Amazon's Mechanical Turk site to offer $.65 as payment per favorable review of its router that had received poor ratings from consumers. The ploy was discovered and reported, and the company issued an apology within forty-eight hours.
I think the story about Belkin's bogus customer reviews is instructive. It points out how important online reviews are to a product's success—that a high-level employee would resort to such an unethical practice to counter the negative reviews being posted by real customers.
The story also points out the level playing field that is possible on the web. Belkin's pay for play scheme was discovered by a blogger, and the story spread through the wires quickly. Not only were the reviews pulled by Amazon and an apology issued by Belkin, but the story's popularity serves to punish the company's behavior far beyond a bad review.
I am hopeful that companies will heed this cautionary tale. There are other ways to deal with customer reviews than trying to rig the system. Foremost, they need to set up areas on their own sites to get public feedback—a space to respond to customers. If online marketers can turn around a dissatisfied customer, they will save more than a single purchase. They will earn the respect of every person that customer tells—online or otherwise.
I forget where I learned this, and it is probably apocryphal, but the story goes that if a person has a good experience with a company or product, they are likely to tell one person. If they have a bad experience, they will tell ten people. Which begs the question: Is there such a thing as bad publicity when it comes to books?
ReplyDeleteI had to look up apocryphal. Good one!
ReplyDeleteA bad review for a book would dissuade me. It is difficult to find time to read for pleasure. If I came across several bad reviews of a title I was curious about, I'd probably pass.
Maybe it's the "Groundswell" mentality talking, but I think reviews—and their ubiquitous presence on the web—have given consumers tremendous power in the marketplace.
I'm tempted to look up apocryphal, but I think I'll just assume it's a really really smart word.
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about the topic of product comments/reviews. The main reason I read these is to get more information about the product. I find it especially useful for electronics. It's in the reviews that I find out about compatibility issues, for example. If companies offered more information on their own sites, I'd likely stop there.
Reviews of books, however, hardly ever dissuade me; I've read too many bad reviews for books that I love.