With the onset of the holiday season, online reviews become more important for many shoppers. So, we want to know — are online reviews real or fake?
Since the inception of this blog, we wrote about online reviews:
- Getting Great Online Customer Reviews
- Do Shoppers Really Believe Customer Reviews?
- Online Customer Reviews Important for Local Businesses
- Do Better in Dealing with Negative Online Reviews
- Customer Reviews More Important Than Professional Reviews?
- Social Reviews Key in Building Trust
Shoppers Want to Know: Are Online Reviews Real Or Fake?
We turn to Feefo for today’s post.
And Feefo Describes itself thusly:
“Hello, we’re Feefo. We collect real reviews from real people, like you. Thousands of brands trust Feefo to independently collect reviews from customers. And meefo makes customers better informed about their buying decisions. How? With authentic reviews matched to transactions. At the same time, businesses benefit from trustworthy customer insights. As well as the tools to increase traffic, footfall ,and sales. As of now, More than 4,000 industry leaders have come to rely on the power of the Feefo platform. We connect with their customers,. We drive business to their Web sites. And we gain real, actionable insights.”
“With concern about fake reviews on the rise, we asked 2,000 shoppers what they thought about one of the biggest issues currently impacting consumer confidence. What we discovered were shoppers genuinely worried about authenticity. But also savvy to the ways in which verified reviews help them fight back against the fakes. Thereby, rebuilding trust and helping shoppers make better buying decision with confidence.”
“For a taste of what we found, here’s a look at how shoppers feel about fake reviews and what can be done to put a stop to them once and for all. To read the full report, download it now for FREE. here!”
First, a short video.
Then, an informative infographic.
I think it is interesting how the younger generation are more influenced by visual aspects/product images and the older generation are influenced by reviews. I think the younger generation are more impatient, so they don’t want to take the time to read reviews. But I have experienced skepticism of trusting reviews, and it is more comforting to see that the reviews are verified. Personally, I just read more reviews to gain the overall opinion instead of focusing on one really negative review or a seemingly fake positive review. I will also read reviews of the product over multiple websites.
I am definitely a consumer who will read through at least 10 reviews when I am buying something new. More specifically, I do more in-depth review hunting when I am looking into a new service. For example, I use Groupon for deals on facials. Because I am unsure about reviews being fake or just given to receive some kind of discount, I will scroll through to see if positive comments are consistent. I look through to see if negative comments are consistent as well. Because our access and ability to give and read reviews has increased tremendously, consumers rely on reviews more than ever when making purchasing decisions. There must be some kind of technology in the future that will allow trusted reviewers to be identified.
Personally, I look through at least 20 reviews on different websites before I trust a company. Even then, I am still a bit skeptic because many of the companies just hire people to write reviews in their favor. This, in turn, can mislead a customer into buying into a scam. I think AI can help alleviate some of this mystery when purchasing from a new brand by ensuring that the reviews are from genuine customers who have purchased products in the past.
Online reviews impact a company so much. More consumers look online at reviews because they want to see what other consumers prior experiences were and how pleased they were. Though you have to consider that most reviews are fake and misinformed, however consumers still look and try to see if they will want to continue purchasing from a company. Fake reviews can make or break a company if a lot of consumers rely on online reviews.
For the most part I used to believe that reviews were fake by thinking that the company would make fake accounts to write positive reviews of their products to fool consumers. However, recently I have noticed that overall reviews do not generally state just positive reviews, which makes me believe that the comments are real, rather than fake. But also when I read reviews I tend to take them cautiously because I think that consumers that write reviews are biased towards the product because they actually took the time to write a review.
In my opinion, I always feel online reviews account for a big percentage of consumers’ desire for consumption. Whenever I need to buy something, I always check the online reviews before buying, and I do not believe the products with only a few reviews. In addition, before registering for classes, I will definitely go to the Rate My Professor website to read reviews from students who have taken the class. Though it is not 100 percent correct and it depends on how much effort each student put into their different classes, I still believe reviews are helpful for me.
As a frequent online shopper, I am always reading online reviews before buying something. They are a huge part of peoples purchases in todays society, and I notice some businesses will try to cover up more negative reviews on their site by filtering in a lot of fake positive ones. This makes me question if I should buy from their website or find a different one.
I am the type of person who always reads through reviews before I even consider purchasing a product. Most of the time, the reviews are accurate and they are very helpful in determining whether or not I need the product. However, there are times when the reviews are just robots created by the company saying how wonderful the product is just to raise their reviews. These are the reviews to look out for because they influence the rating of a product without any accurate information. These reviews, more often than not, actually hurt companies more than they help them because customers lose trust in the company.
Sure, product reviews are important, but consider COMPANY REVIEWS. That ballpark is way less trustworthy nowadays than product reviews. Companies seem to have more incentive to market themselves as good quality over their products being good quality. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m pretty sure that company review websites are bribed often.
I was never the kind of person to read online reviews as I typically only go to restaurants or stores that have been recommended to me by friends or family but recently I have been going out to more places and have started reading more reviews and definitely agree with the heavy percentage of people in thinking that some reviews might be fake. I have noticed however that it is very easy to find negative reviews as much as the positive reviews which makes the reviews seem more plausible. I typically look at websites such as Yelp and have never heard Feefo but I think it would be a great resource for those who have been mislead by reviews before and are more skeptical about reviews they have read.
I know that for me, reading customer reviews is very important for me before I make a purchase. However, I can never really trust one review from one person so I always find myself reading multiple. I think it is very important for companies to ensure they are posting verified reviews, because being mislead by a review of a product would definitely make me think twice before purchasing something from that company again.