How to Find the Useful Info In Online Customer Reviews
Are you a review reader? Do you scan the comments people post online about their TVs, digital cameras, and even Post-It Notes, and do those comments influence your purchasing decisions? I'm always surprised that folks would go to the trouble of commenting about products as inexpensive as Post-It Notes (which have multiple reviews on OfficeMax, with comments like, "dark colors are hard to read like the purple"), but their reporting is to my benefit.
No doubt, the collective experience reflected in online reviews sways shoppers. But I tend to get bogged down in reviews, especially with bigger-ticket items, like toys, electronics and even assisted living communities. I find myself paralyzed by the negative comments, while positive reviews make me wonder if they came from real people or the marketing department. So I was interested to talk to Brett Hurt, CEO of Bazaarvoice, a company that powers on-site reviews for 1,200 companies. He offered four tips for gleaning useful (and authentic) information from online customer reviews.
Look for a critical mass. A lone review, good or bad, doesn't really tell you anything. The more, the better. "You can feel more confident about a product that has 200 reviews than one that has two reviews," Hurt says. "As a consumer, you should look for at least five."
Another interesting note? The distribution of online reviews tends to fall in a J curve, and the average rating across all the billions of reviews that Bazaarvoice sees is 4.3 out of 5 possible stars. (Now that I know that little factoid about the J curve, I see it everywhere.)
Reviews should be both positive and negative. If a product has only five-star reviews, that's a red flag. You have to question the authenticity of the reviews, because no product is perfect. "As a consumer, you should make sure they ring true," Hurt says. "Even five-star reviews often have a suggestion for improvement."
One successful strategy for many shoppers is sorting reviews to read negative ones first, to make sure they can deal with whatever the downsides are to a product. Hurt shows me an example of an L.L. Bean duffel bag. Most people love it, but 24 people are bothered that it doesn't stand up by itself. If you read the negative reviews first, you'll discover what people think is the biggest flaw. Can you live with that?
It may seem counterintuitive, but companies find that negative reviews boost sales. They help to eradicate buyer's remorse. "People know the pros and cons, so negative reviews are very helpful," Hurt says.
Embrace spelling mistakes. And grammar mistakes. And any other mistake. It's a sign a real person wrote the review, not an advertising flunky. Many companies plant fake positive reviews of their products, Hurt says. "Be skeptical of reviews that are written like a product description, use insider jargon or focus too much on a single feature."
Review the reviewer. I've never bothered doing this, but if you're undecided on a product, you can check out the reviewer's profiles and see how closely they match your own life. Says Hurt: "People are way less likely to fill out profile data for a fraudulent review."
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