Online reviews, can we trust them? The way I look at it is simple; how many people let you in while driving? You don’t know but you are sure it is quite a few. I bet you know how many cut you off, the color of their car, man or woman… See, we all take the positive for granted but we hold onto the negative. This is online reviews, 1 out of 100 or more positive people will posts good review while every pissed off, cranky ass customer will rant about the 1 bad time they had or perceived to have.
I had a customer this morning post thru a friends account that my staff sucks, the merchandise sucks, and that she is going to the paper once she logs off Facebook. Small world payoff here is that the acct being used belongs to a good friend of an employee who called her to find out what’s what? She informed us that she rarely uses facebook and it was her friend that used it last. Her friend is a person that purchased a dress, wore it, washed it, and tried to return it 5 days after the return policy expired. I know this, you now know this, but the random person on Facebook looking for info is just seeing the negative comment.
Besides people being shady, companies have bots and an army of people posting good reviews for their products and services everywhere. The crappy camera you bought on Wish that listed for $100 but you picked up for $5, arrived late and didn’t work, got 5 stars and 100 comments from happy customers – oh yeah, all 100 comments are the same! Just another example of misuse of comments and reviews to create artificial engagement to push a false narrative.
I have a good friend who insists that people are to savvy and well adjusted to let these false reviews negatively impact their habits. I had to ask “When was the last time you went food shopping and felt really good about humanity in general? When was the last time you went shopping anywhere and felt good about the decisions people make and how they make them?” I don’t know about you, but I sure don’t feel so great about the decisions of the masses when in the midst of them. Not saying people are stupid or anything, just pointing out that people don’t think that deeply about what they are consuming because they have so many other more important things to them. That negative headline is enough to push someone onto the next person who does what you do and cost you a sale. It may not happen all the time, but 1 in 10 sure does hurt the bottom line at the end of the year and drives business to others that you probably can service better.
What does it all mean? It means reviews are mostly bullshit but they do matter. You have to do everything you can to drown out the negative with positive reviews. Ask everyone you know to post something and ask every customer to post. You can get good reviews if you have good customer care and you are relentless. Don’t assume people know better, just do better business!
Brian Wright