Who's Saying Bad Things About Your Business Online?

As Businesses Monitor Online Reputation Management, Experts Warn About Consumer Reviews

In the current internet-driven environment, negative reviews can make or break a company. Consumers are increasingly turning to review sites to make purchasing decisions, decide where to eat dinner, and choose a hotel for their next beach vacation.

But not all reviews are 100 percent honest. Unfortunately, the open nature of review sites lends itself to easy corruption, with review sites striving to encourage freedom of expression by refusing to corroborate posts. While many negative reviews are the result of one bad employee or a fussy customer, more frequently than ever, negative posts are being generated by those who have never had a negative experience with the business at all. Until recently, many online reputation management experts found those posts were from a competitor or angry former employee. However, recent research shows fake reviews may come from a different source altogether.

New Study Brings Interesting Findings

A recent study sheds new light on negative reviews, finding that in fact, the majority of negative online postings came from people who have no contact with the product whatsoever. The study, which was conducted by researchers from Northwestern University and M.I.T., found that consumers are quick to post a review on an item whether they’ve ever used it or not.

The researchers studied information on an unspecified retailer that sold its wares mostly through its own website and catalogs. Because so little of the company’s products were sold through third parties, the researchers were able to more accurately track consumer behavior. The researchers found that of the 325,000 reviews posted for the company during the research period, on 16,000, there was no evidence that the reviewer had ever purchased the product being reviewed. Even more interestingly, those 16,000 reviews were more negative overall than other reviews.

As businesses work on online reputation management, experts caution that consumers should be wary of reviews that make statements referencing other reviews on the same product. Many of these reviews appeared to be complaints about changes that had been made to a product, with the reviewer never having even tried the new version of a product.

Another persistent issue the researchers found was that review forums were being used as a platform for making a statement. Negative reviews may reference the fact that a product isn’t being made in the USA, for instance, or that the materials being used were not politically correct for any number of reasons. These people have appointed themselves spokespeople for these issues, using review sites as a forum to speak out.

For businesses, reputation management experts advise potentially limiting review options to those who have purchased the item. Reviews can be tied directly to a person’s purchase, preventing fake reviews from being posted. Experts also caution consumers against relying solely on online reviews to make purchasing decisions. Even when authentic, a review is only one person’s opinion, as evidenced by the wide variety of postings on many product pages. By educating both consumers and businesses, experts hope to make both parties more aware that when it comes to online reviews, all may not be exactly as it seems.