So, can we trust customer reviews in 2024?
Customer reviews provide us with valuable information about a customer’s real life experience after using a service or product. Restaurants, hotels, appliances, and electronic goods are some of the most popular things that we like to review.
But how reliable are customer reviews? And how useful are customer reviews when it comes to mattresses? Here are 6 reasons why we should be cautious when using customer reviews.
Why be cautious with customer reviews?
- Many customer reviews are fake
- Customer reviews are emotional
- Some sites modify reviews
- Personal taste
- Incentives to write reviews
- Commercial relationships
Let’s discuss this further along with some useful tips on how to use customer reviews effectively.
1. Many customer reviews are fake
Unfortunately, many customer reviews that you read will be fake. It may be the company itself posting positive reviews, or they could be positive reviews written by family or friends. Negative reviews may even be posted by a competitor to gain a business advantage.
The sad reality is, many customer reviews listed today are not genuine and therefore do not paint a true picture of the service or product. Here is an example of a company that was fined for posting fake online reviews:
2. Customer reviews are emotional
Imagine you have just purchased a new vacuum cleaner that works well, and you are reasonably satisfied with it. Compare that to a vacuum cleaner that was faulty from the first week you used it and resulted in a difficult refund process. You would be far more likely to write a negative review of the faulty vacuum cleaner as a way to express your frustration to others.
Our emotions can often create a collection of reviews that misrepresent the product or service as only the ‘very good’ or ‘very bad’ experiences are shared. Here is an example of a somewhat emotional review after a bed purchase:
3. Some websites modify reviews
Some review sites have been caught removing or editing customer reviews. This is hugely misleading to consumers as the collection of reviews does not accurately reflect the views of customers. Here is an example of a Australia’s largest online medical booking group altering patient reviews:
4. Personal taste
Customer reviews of some products are more useful than others, particularly when you consider personal preference or personal ‘taste’. Products such as a washing machine or vacuum cleaner will generally give the same kind of experience for each person.
A mattress on the other hand is a very ‘individual’ purchase. Two people could buy the same mattress and because of their body shape and individual needs, their experience can be very different. Therefore, using customer reviews when buying a new mattress is not particularly reliable.
Here are two customer reviews of the same mattress that had very different experiences:
Positive Review:
Negative Review:
5. Incentives to write reviews
Positive reviews can be very powerful, and hence you can understand why some businesses offer rewards to customers for writing reviews. This creates a bias as people are more likely to write a positive review if you are rewarded with a free gift or voucher to do so.
Again, this creates an inaccurate picture of a product or service and can be very misleading. Businesses that offer customers incentives for writing positive reviews are in breach of the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission).
6. Commercial relationships
Some customer review sites have commercial arrangements whereby customer reviews can be somewhat ‘manipulated’, creating an inaccurate picture of the true customer experience. Examples include:
- Placing positive reviews at the top of the page to create an impression that there are more positive reviews than negative reviews.
- Companies can select their favourite review/s to appear on the top of the page.
- Customers who attempt to submit a negative review, are given the opportunity to contact the business directly to help resolve the issue rather than posting the review.
Here is an example of a ‘brand management’ system whereby partnering businesses can pay to have control over their reviews:
Tips on how to use reviews effectively
So, can we trust customer reviews? As you can see, they are not always what they seem. The trick for us as consumers is to be aware of this, and be clever in how we interpret these reviews. Here are some tips!
- Try to avoid reading reviews on the first page – they may have been placed there intentionally.
- Seek reviews and information from multiple sources – doing this should be more reliable.
- Look out for a lot of positive reviews within a short time frame – these reviews may not be genuine.
- Use independent ‘expert review’ sites – these may be more reliable than customer review sites.
- Be wary of products with a disproportionate numbers of 5 star reviews – it may indicate a biased, commercial relationship. Here is an example:
We help that this article helps to answer the question, can we trust customer reviews? Here at Bedbuyer, we welcome you to contact us or to leave a comment below. We are always here to help!
Bedbuyer is Australia’s largest bedding website and leading independent mattress review group. To read our disclosure and disclaimer statement, click here.