How many times have you clicked on the rating and reviews
for a product or service? Did those reviews become the deciding factor in your
purchase? Over the past five or so years there has been a significant increase on
the use of websites featuring customer ratings and reviews of products and
services. These websites include (but not limited to):
Yelp
Google
Amazon
Tripadvisor
Toptable
Increasingly the importance and weight of online reviews have
grown to the point they may affect the profits and returns of businesses. Local/small
businesses seem to have the most to gain (or lose) from this, and it shows
accordingly. In an article by Myles Anderson, he states that “More local
consumers are now taking notice of online reviews and online reviews are an
important factor in deciding which local business to use. Consumers appear to
best swayed by location and price which don’t represent any guarantee of
quality or reliability.” Supporting Anderson’s statement, it is found that
approximately 52% of consumers are more likely to use a local/small business if
the reviews show to be positive.
However, local/small businesses are not the only businesses
heavily affected by the increased significance of online reviews. The success
or failure of hotels and restaurants is starting to become heavily dependent upon
these customer reviews to the point where even just a half-star increase in
rating can prove to have a positive effect on bookings.
With the growing importance of online reviews one must begin
to question the legitimacy of some or many of them. It is not an uncommon phenomenon,
today, for businesses to go on consumer review sites to post fake reviews in
their favor. These reviews are often very biased and overly enthusiastic and
often used to counteract negative reviews floating around. Though this is
becoming more of a problem as the internet expands in everyday lives, some
websites like Tripadvisor are trying to prevent businesses from doing so on
their sites.
How important are online reviews to you? Will you regard them as much as personal recommendations?
Anderson, Myles. "Column: Local
Search." Search Engine Land. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2013.
"Customer Reviews Affect 6 in 10
Online Shoppers." MarketingCharts. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2013.
Doward, Jamie. "How Online
Reviews Are Crucial to a Restaurant's Takings." The Guardian.
Guardian News and Media, 01 Sept. 2012. Web. 20 Jan. 2013.
"The Importance of Online
Reviews for Local Businesses | US Daily Review." The
Importance of Online Reviews for Local Businesses | US Daily Review.
US Daily Review, n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2013.
I typically use online reviews when I do not know the local area or the product. So, if a city is unfamiliar to me or I have never used a new technology, then online reviews do weigh in on my decision making.
ReplyDeleteIf, I am looking for a local restaurant, then I refer more to friend's advice and experiences.
But, overall I think when you read online reviews you can gain a pretty good idea of the person writing the review. If they seem like a hot head who just wants to complain, then I may not take their review into account. But, if the individual makes good arguments or seems honest and transparent, then I more likely to take their opinion to heart.
As far as online reviews, that's pretty much what I do as well. Do you think you'd be able to discern whether or not a review has been planted by a company?
DeleteProbably not. I think they probably know exactly how to write a believable review.
DeleteCompanies can pay as little as $5 for a fake online review, but many online review websites are trying their best to catch the fake reviews (not 100% though) because it is the best interest for the review websites to have authentic reviews. No customers want to read fake reviews.
DeleteI rarely use online reviews and its probably because when my family travels we dont really "try new things." we either go to a location we know about or a recomendation from a hotel or friend.
DeleteI currently work at a restuarant in Rochester that just opened up on August 2012. With this job online reviews became very important to me. We look at our reviews every day at work and see what people are saying about our restaurant and our overall service. We sometimes have meetings as a team and talk about ways to fix the issues that are being mentioned in our reviews. We had one review that was just awful, the person was very unhappy with our service. We took that review, every employee read it and we posted it in the back of the house so everytime we would go into the dinning room area we would remeber what we should be doing and how we should be acting.
Don't forget to promote this discussion on social media sites, including my Facebook Page.
ReplyDeleteOnline reviews are not all that important to me. Then again neither are personal recommendations. I just look over the hotel's website. I assess the pictures and statements as if I was looking at an individuals Facebook page or resume'. Naturally I assume the endorsements are exaggerated and the pictures are misleading.
ReplyDeleteSo if the website just features about 3 amazing pictures, I assume that it has nothing to offer surface wise but could be fine operationally. If the website has only pictures and is sloppy by design and has nothing to review but the pictures, then I assume they are just overcompensating for terrible operations. If everything seems to be a nice balance and the price is right, then I could care less what other people say about it.
I don't really like online reviews. For every accurate review there is probably at least two inaccurate ones. I trust fantastic reviews as little as I do horrible reviews, things in life are never really that black and white.
For now and the foreseeable future, online reviews are here to stay and can make or break your business.
Since you don't pay much attention to neither personal recommendations nor online reviews, what would you say is the key deciding factor for you?
DeleteWeb design. To me as much can be said about web design for a hotel, as a resume for an employee. It quickly shows strengths, and if you can read between the lines, it also quickly shows weaknesses.
DeleteLooks like a picture is worth a thousand words here, but hotels can also hire good photographers to make things look better than they actually are. The hotels and restaurants themselves can create pictures that are misleading. For example:http://linchikwok.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-much-can-we-trust-those-online.html (with a MSNBC News video).
DeleteI personally don't use online reviews. I don't really trust them, people tend to over exaggerate with how bad or good a place was. I good more for a friend or family member's advice. I do not know the area, I'm asking a friend. But if it's a product and nobody i know has it, then I will look at some online reviews to help me make my decision making.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to learn that a half a star can make or break a restaurant or hotel.
Yes. Studies have shown that restaurants with only 3 stars often began overbooking services after receiving only a half a star more.
DeleteI do use online reviews such as UrbanSpoon, Yelp, or Toptable because I am a huge foodie and I travel a lot so I always search for closest restaurant when I am traveling in the city on foot or in the car to take a break from driving. I don't always read the reviews, I go on to look at the ratings and their menus to see if the food seems appealing to me. If I am still not sure about the restaurant, that's when I read the reviews and I compare the reviews in those three online reviews that I just mentioned earlier and see if there are a lot of positive reviews. I weight the options, I don't rely on one online review because one online review can be a bad one. But again, I never know if they are false reviews or they over exaggerated. Twitter can be a good place to look for good places to eat at if you are visiting that city, I follow all of the famous chefs and I read what they say about restaurants when they travel. You just have to be careful when you use online review, you should always compare with other online review apps to be sure there's a lot of positive reviews about the place or look into their menu to check.
ReplyDeleteOnline reviews are good tool for the business. In my opinion, it is the business owner’s responsibility to keep checking their consumers’ reviews. I believe that’s the best way to sustain their business by fixing the problem or improving their service.
ReplyDeleteAs a customer, I like to use online reviews so I can get the feeling of what type of environmental place such as upscale or casual restaurants. So, I can expect what to wear and what kind of atmosphere before I go. Also, I like to read their comment about their experience. My fav online review is RocWiki for dining.
I believe most people leave honest comments both positive and negative. If I see obnoxious remarks on comment, I skip because I can see that customer is a rude type of person. If a person wants to give a warning remark, that is fine with me. One good example, when waitress/waiter gave a bill to customer and there was a line for how much tip you wanted to give. Customer wrote down a number, added up the total, and signed it. Then later when the credit card bill came and noticed the wait server added $$ of tip to the bill without his consent. As a result, he warned to the readers.
I hardly use online reviews because they are often biased if people had a bad experience they can exaggerate what went wrong. I take personal recommendations more seriously because they come from someone I trust and can go back to and converse about my experience as well. As someone who worked in a restaurant people will more often tell me that they were told about an experience or food item from a friend or relative, not an online review. I agree that small businesses are often more effected by online reviews because they do not receive as much media attention or gain as much PR as large companies or franchises. A bad review about a small restaurant in small town with only one location will suffer a larger loss in business than a franchise.
ReplyDelete