Taking Advice From Strangers

Call me old-fashioned, but I still prefer to go shopping at an actual store – not online. I would much rather see/touch/examine what I’m buying before I have it shipped (and I’ve had too many bad experiences with returns). Yet, I still research products online before heading to the store, to make sure it’s even worth leaving the house for. Recently, I found window curtains I loved on a store website and was so excited about them until I noticed a bad review (it still amazes me what people actually take the time to review). And, now, I’m struggling to decide if I should listen to the person I’ve never met or buy the curtains! That got me thinking about how much people allow consumer review sites to influence their decisions. I read just the other day that Google has now tweaked its searches to pull more from sites like Yelp and LinkedIn. According to Business Insider, “The idea is to improve people searches and searches for product reviews. Results from reviews sites will now include snippets from actual user-reviews.”

Consumers have always asked friends and family about products, but, now, frequently rely on perfect strangers, as well. Yelp, a user review website, boasts that it has over 10.6 million people access its website each month. In a USA Today article, a chiropractor in LA said he gets 80% of his business from online reviews! Morning News Beat reported on a shopper survey that stated:“Seven out of ten survey respondents said that they check online product reviews before actually purchasing things, and 62 percent said that they spend at least-a half-hour online each week specifically reading consumer product reviews.”

Before working at TMG, I used to work for a company similar to Yelp, and working there made it easy to see how important good reviews are to companies. Customer review sites are forcing businesses to listen to consumers. Companies that frequent these sites will know what is being said about their products, how to fix any problems, and validate their customer’s concerns. It’s just another way companies can show that they’re listening.

Now, would you buy the curtains, or heed the reviewer’s advice?

Posted by Mallory Clark on May 20, 2009 at 11:18 PM
in Changing Expectations, Communication, Customers, Deep Listening

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COMMENT (1)

You bring up a great question Mallory, particularly when we hear that Yelp was caught bumping positive reviews to the top of a search page for those who advertise with them. I tend to be skeptical of reviews for things like electronics, since it’s so easy for a company to quietly plant positive reviews. But the reader reviews on Amazon…those are all real!