Online Reviews
If you try hard, you can probably remember the days before online reviews were a thing. Remember what that was like? Trying out or even finding a new business was like doing research for a college final paper. You put a lot of time in, and at the end of the day you were still left gambling on whether the store, restaurant, etc. was any good.
Now finding information on any business in existence is quick and effortless. Not only that, but you can also leave a review on any business quickly and easily. Is that such a great thing, though? Most people would agree that, all other things being equal, the more information the better when making a decision. But are all the other things equal?
The truth is that online reviews are big business. They’re not just convenient for customers, in today’s swipe-and-click marketplaces they are an absolute necessity for a business to get started and survive. Would-be customers trust online reviews (to a fault), and a low average score, or worse a lack of substantial reviews can kill an otherwise promising business in its critical first 5 years. A business manager or owner who doesn’t know how to recruit good reviews and bury/delete bad reviews is less than competent these days. On the consumer side of the equation, there are at least 30 websites (a conservative estimate) offering cash or discounts for people to write reviews…the reviews don’t have to be honest, and for the writing to really pay off the author would have to write a huge amount of reviews quickly (i.e. without a lot of thought or attention to detail/accuracy).
So, with all this in mind, are the reviews you read when researching a business a true and accurate cross-section of customers’ experiences? Almost certainly not. Of all the reviews out there in cyberspace, only a small percentage were actually motivated by someone’s desire to provide unbiased, accurate information to the masses. A large percentage were paid for (even though not paid for a necessarily good review, being paid at all definitely impacts the content and quality of the review). An even larger percentage are “flame” reviews seeking revenge on a business for any slight, real or perceived, no matter how great or small…maybe a waitress looked at a reviewer the wrong way, or maybe they didn’t honor an expired coupon where the reviewer thought there ought to be a grace period. And then, along with the exaggerated negatives, are the exaggerated positive reviews…maybe they are friends and family of the business owner, or maybe paid or somehow compensated for a good review.
I believe it was Mark Twain who said, “Don’t believe anything you hear, and only half of what you read.” Since all reading in his day was done on paper, to his quote I would add, “…and only ten percent of what you read online.”
Here endeth the lesson on online reviews.
Bike Newbie 