Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Reviews: Invited or Forced?
After we talked about reviews last night, I was amused to get an email asking for a positive review for service I just had done on my car. We wondered last night if the company asks for a review if it taints the review somehow. What do you think? Are they opening themselves up to good or bad by sending me this invitation? They don't necessarily know what I will say. Do you think this will skew positive?
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I know I get emails like this all the time but I feel they are just SPAM. I end up deleting them. Maybe I am a difficult consumer but I rarely provide feedback to companies.
ReplyDelete-Pamela Burr
Some companies seem care more about the reviews. For example, Amazon always asks me for feedback after each purchase. I also look at the reviews before I buy it. One reason I like Amazon is you can see all the reviews, good or bad.
ReplyDeleteChi Fong
I think engaging the customer for feedback is one of the toughest things to do, especially on your website. The biggest problem though is that people tend to believe 3rd party reviews more than reviews on a company's website. Amazon is a rare example of someone who got it right, but they also have limited reviews on a lot of products and this can make it problematic to trust their reviews. The most popular products always have a good review section, but what about something more obscure. I tend to believe that reviews for products will be skewed toward one extreme or the other. A reason Amazon works so well is because their reviews are almost as good as a third party review because they are just an intermediary between the producer and the consumer, making them almost a glorified supply chain with review function built in.
ReplyDeleteWith all the emails people get these days, it seems that companies have to provide you something for free in order to get you to review anything. Though as Aaron said, Amazon is one of the few that doesn't seem to need to do this. Like we spoke about in class, I only review things if it exceeds my expectations or is well below my expectations. I feel I should do more reviews myself because much of my decision to purchase or use something is based on other's reviews but I also feel that many times my opinion doesn't matter to the company sending the email, unless it is extremely positive.
ReplyDeleteLike Pam wrote, I hardly respond to those emails. If I do respond its because I had a very positive or very negative experience.
ReplyDeleteAs a marketer, I think asking for reviews is very important to get customer quotes and to identify happy customers who may be willing to do a case study. The email sample posted above may generate more positive reviews as it essentially only asks for positive comments. I gather that that is at least the hope.
If asked, I will almost always fill out the response card/survey when emailed to me. Since I do often count on others reviews to help guide my decisions, I am all to happy to return the favor. However the surveys offered at almost grocery stores/retail outlets don't get a second glance from me. I suppose this is due to the fact that I have to do an extra step.
ReplyDelete