Tag Archives: user reviews

The Next Trend: User Reviews Must Find Validation to Remain Credible

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“We can fix your reputation on search engines and put good reviews first”… If you’ve turned on the radio or network TV in the past year or two you’ve heard the companies claiming to fix brand reputation by reordering results and even creating content. The ethical ones draw a line at impacting existing reviews while the bottom of the barrel doesn’t just outright admits they’re making stuff up and either way the message is clear to consumers: the review system can be gamed.

Of course gaming is not only bad companies trying to pretend to be good; scan through enough reviews and you’ll find gems like this one: “I haven’t bought this but everything XYZ makes is overpriced so I give it a one star”. Whether its brands attacking each other, service providers raking in money with promises of hiding bad reviews or consumers gone rogue in a negative [or even positive way], there’s a growing credibility problem with reviews.

There’s no doubt that reviews are downright vital…. in fact Millennials place more trust in others than friends & family, and we’re only getting started. However as reviews grow in importance, the efficacy of the system is taking a serious hit – reviews will become less trusted and now is the time for companies to tackle the problem.

1. We need to validate reviews on our sites.

When Starwood announced their review program last year what stood out was their move to validate every comment. Knowing what’s on their site is real is a powerful move, and moves the ball to trusting that they don’t filter, not that the reviews were made up.

2. Reviews must be presented authentically.

When companies re-order their reviews or even worse, just list the top ones, the entire concept becomes useless. As research has shown, it’s not the 5-star rating people want to see… it’s the reality of the product, the fact that someone has an issue with it, even if the issue is a non issue. Being honest with how we show reviews gives people a reason to believe that what we’re showing is all inclusive.

3. We need to provide a method for others to validate off of.

Amazon is as much a research site as a purchase one – etailers and content sites are not just getting reviews from their own sales / bookings. They need a way to authenticate too and that means those of us making products or selling services have to move to being more open, to provide  a mechanism identify a real customer by anyone.

This is not an easy path. If you sell in store how do insure a product review is real? If you turn away someone because they don’t validate aren’t you just encouraging them go to a third party site and make even more noise? Validation is by no means a simple process but it’s the right step to move towards to make those reviews count and to root out the problems, whether they’re negatives or positives. In the end transparency wins out.

It’s not all about social media: Advertising: the forgotten, but necessary, campaign partner.

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With the buzz out there, it’s easy to see why brand owners, marketers and of course the hotly contested social media experts, are extremely amped up about social, social, social but just because social is right in front of us doesn’t make it the only game in town. In fact, if you take a social only approach chances are you’re handicapping your campaign from the start.

Social media, while powerful, authentic and important only works if people see what you’re doing and that’s where advertising comes in as a symbiotic partner

The problem we see today is that people expect everything to just go viral. We’ve all be asked [told?] to make a viral video; to make a product get “out there” with sharing alone. The reality is that very few products even have a chance to “go viral”. For every blendtec or old spice is a thousand more brands with a good product that simply isn’t what people want to share around the web. That’s why on any given day the top 50 YouTube videos include one product related videos. Yup, one.

Advertising is the dependable version of viral

Instead of asking “how do I make this ‘go viral’”, which is something you can’t control or guarantee, you need to ask yourself: “how do I take something that is credible, authentic and trustworthy and make it get exposed”. This is why advertising becomes remains so important in an era of social media – advertising is your guaranteed source of visibility that insures success whether or not a viral pickup takes place.

Social Media changes how you advertise

Google AdWords, Targeted Banners, Lead Generation Campaigns, Facebook Ads. Advertising has been used to sell your brand’s value under your voice, with your credibility attached. Social integrates into this chain to make your ads authentic and stand out [at least until everyone gets on board].

Rather than saying “50% off on the Amazing Widget” say “50% off on the 5-star rated Widget” with quotes from reviews visible around the ad unit. Rather than a stock photo of actors enjoying their new RV pull in a video from your Facebook campaign of a real family talking about their experience with a link to read more stories. Bring the same transparency you have on your reviews, Facebook page, user community and other social features right out and into your advertising – the more real time and authentic, the better.

Product packaging is another great place to bring social to life and get in front of the customer. Think about two boxes with nearly the same product, one has a summary rating, an expert rating and a QR / RFID / short url link to read more reviews while the other doesn’t even have a mobile friendly site. Even at a higher price the brand willing to put it all out there is worth a closer look. Mobile has become far too prevalent to think you can hide or out impulse research, so instead beat the customer too it.

Don’t assume that simply because you have UGC on your website or social channels people are going to find it. You need to tell them it’s there.

All stars are not the same. Bringing value into user reviews.

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In the city I live in Wendy’s is rated higher than a few of my favorite restaurants. In Brazil where I’m traveling in a few months the #4 ranked hotel on TripAdvisor is 1/3rd the price of the rest of the top 10.

The reason is of course is value. Wendy’s isn’t better than the fine dining but if [I’ve never ‘dined’ there]  if it’s delivering a better service, quality of food or price than McDonalds and Burger King down the block, it’s going to get good reviews for the few times people rate it. Conversely, at a higher end establishment people expect a certain level of service and, as they move up the cost chain, are very apt to write about it if it’s anything but.

This same reality applies to just about any service from a hotel to a computer to glassware.

The problem of course is that our reviews are flat. You go to Amazon and a $2 product has a better ranking than a $50 version with thousands of reviews to back it up. While it’s possible that the $2 option really is better, more often than not it’s simply a great deal getting well reviewed by those willing to take a cheaper version – but someone expecting the $50 quality ends up sorely disappointed and not understanding why.

When consumers rank on stars and stars alone we are doing them a disservice by giving the appearance that everything is on the same field, it’s not. Reviews need to be compared on value.

As our sites go from 10 reviews per item to 1,000s, it’s no longer enough to say each product has freeform comments and a 1-5 rating. Instead marketers [and their review vendors] need to adjust for value, time and price before we sell ourselves down… and sell our customers the wrong level of solution.  This means pulling price, features out from review details and summarizing them up to quantify a $5,000 amp versus a $500 one so that consumers aren’t just seeing what’s most popular, they’re seeing what’s most respected in the category of value they are looking for.