As per my other posts I really thought that the online review (as long as it could be found easily) would be a tremendously powerful tool, a tool that could make or break any business, whether this was a online shop, like my 'friends' at Crazycameras or a restaurant or other offline trader.
Why did I think this, well, a part of the 'hype' around Social Media is the argument that people will seek advice and views from their friends and associates before making a buying decision. This lead me to think that that meant that people were already searching for information on where not to buy etc.
My thoughts on this were (I thought) confirmed by the apparent 'panic' of some brand managers at the thought that peoples tweets might appear by their natural listings in Google, the fear being that if they were not complimentary that customers might take their business elsewhere.
My conclusion was that people are getting wise to the 'bad businesses' on the web and that the review was something that every business needed. But then I had an experience that proves that even the most savy online buyer can get it wrong, even when there are reviews and data out there warning him. That buyer was of course me, I did not do what I always (I thought) did and did not check out the web before ordering from crazycameras. Why did I do this insane act? well looking back on it there are many reasons, and I am sure that many have (and will) make the same mistake.
But why is this, why did I do what I did? I turned to the learned community at Linkedin and asked the question "How important are Consumer Reviews on the Internet if you are running (or marketing) an online store?" to try to find out more.
The results were to some degree as I predicted, most saying that Reviews were indeed a great and perhaps vital weapon at getting people to decide on buying from your brand rather than another. But there was one great post by a chap called Lyndsy Simon of FedEx Frieght that really was an eye opener to me (even though it is in reality just common sense).
Lyndsy's words were 'Speaking from personal experience, I only look for customer reviews if the site I'm looking at feels "shady" - in other words, they have failed to gain my trust, but I want their product. Practically speaking, if a site seems well put together and the prices are not the lowest in the arena, I'm not going to bother looking up reviews.'
This said it all to me, and now I look back on it was the reason I made the mistake. The crazycameras site looked good, their T&C's were fine and the price (perhaps the most important part) was great, they even offered free Post and Packing (not surprising in hindsight as they don't seem to send anything out..).
So I was 'sucked in' and am now paying (along with many others) the price.
What does all this go to show, well three things really:-
1. Reviews may well not have any effect at all IF the site / price / product mix is spot on
2. Good Reviews are being used by some and can only do good (but remember that not everybody will believe that you / the site owner did not write them)
3. Bad Reviews WILL in the most cases stop people buying if there are enough of them, and people take the time to look (which I seriously believe will be the case in most instances soon, as users become more 'internet savy')
So for the time being at least those 'bad eggs' on the Net will be able to survive, simply because not every one takes the time they should before buying, but saying that their days must be numbered...
More tomorrow
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