Reviews are a major part of our purchase decision making these days. Pre-internet, a bad review in the New York Times could be the death knell for a Broadway show. Things have moved on, and now we are more likely to look to our peers for opinions on all sorts of things, such as hotels, restaurants, books, clothes, household goods and electronics.
How do you use reviews? For me, I firstly look at the overall score, which usually needs to be 70% plus. Then I’m often inclined to look at the very worst “terrible” reviews, just to see if there’s anything in there to be aware of. Next I’ll look at the “poor” reviews to see if there’s a pattern of complaints. At that point I’ll go back and look at the most recent reviews in date order.
The fact that someone has said, for example, that a hotel is “terrible” is subjective, so it’s worth trying to understand where the reviewer is coming from. A 20 year old may be unhappy with a hotel because it has no local nightlife and lots of kids, however this could be just what a family with young children is looking for.
When writing a review, it’s worth considering who will be reading it and in what context. Oftentimes, on sites such as TripAdvisor, I’ve seen where someone has reviewed a hotel, but most of their review is a complaint about flight delays, missing luggage, expensive taxis etc. They are actually reviewing the holiday as opposed to the hotel, and giving a lower score than the hotel deserves, which is hardly fair. I’ve also seen the reverse, where someone has given a high score to a hotel even though they were very unhappy with it, because of experiences which had nothing to do with the hotel.
When reading reviews, we are of course just getting someone’s opinion. However, if they back it up with details, they are more likely to be taken seriously. I came across this review of a hotel:
“Too bad to be truth, bad hotel bad service, bad food, bad director, bad animators. Dont go to _____ is really realy bad. I will not return and i should not recomend this hotel for anyone and i dont ever ask any reservation to _____ hotels. Any friend of mine please dont go here for your sake”
Basically I would discount this review completely. Aside from the fact that the hotel scores 80% plus from reviewers, there is nothing in this review that I can relate to.
So why did this person write the review? Would they have been better complaining to the hotel directly, or possibly their tour operator? Maybe they just wrote this to get it off their chest? But what did that achieve? I would contend that if you want to get something off your chest, well and good, but put in something that can effect change. If people don’t know what you’re unhappy about, they can’t change anything.
Which leads me to my last point. If – and how – businesses respond to reviews can be very telling. Granted, it would be impossible for an electronics giant to respond to all reviews for every gadget they produce. However, for businesses where service is especially important, such as hotels and restaurants, they may be doing themselves harm by not responding to reviews. If the reviews are mostly excellent, then they can get away with it. However, if a lot of reviews are negative, and the business is seen not to respond, then it looks like they don’t care. Even worse is where the business thanks people for good reviews, and ignores bad ones!
In summary, if you’re reading a review, don’t just take it at face value, have a look at the reviewer’s profile – this will help you put their review in context.
If you’re writing a review, think about your readers and what they will get from your review – if expressing an opinion, explain why you have come to this conclusion. Photographic “evidence” can back up your review and give it some context.
And if you’ve been reviewed, well, congratulations! Your customer has cared enough to write about you publicly (hopefully for the right reasons). Now, wouldn’t it be nice to acknowledge that?