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Article Excerpt
Criticism is easy to dish out, and when it's aimed at us, we may not want to take it. Unless, that is, it's about something that might save us time, trouble, or--better yet--money. Criticism can make you or break you. In Tim Burton's 1994 film Ed Wood, Johnny Depp as the title character and his ensemble read reviews of their play and, in turn, ask each other, "Do I really have a face like a horse?" and "What does ostentatious mean?" Finally Depp's character says, "Hey, it's not that bad. He's got some nice things to say. See, 'The soldier costumes are very realistic.'That's positive!" The play closes.
The right kind of criticism can save you, too. In Mel Brooks' The Producers, Nathan Lane, having staked his fortune on the certainty that his musical will fail, hears a financial backer holler, "Have you seen the reviews? It's the biggest hit on Broadway!" Lane's character moans, "How could this happen? I was so careful. I picked the wrong play, the wrong director, the wrong cast. Where did I go right?"
Whether about movies or moving companies, hot tubs or hotels, automobiles or autobiographies, reviews can help us avoid making mistakes. They've taken on a more prominent role, now that the economy is forcing us to make more careful choices. And thanks to the UGC (User Generated Content) on sites such as Yelp, Kudzu, and BizRate, it doesn't matter if Consumer Reports tests only a limited number of products or if the editors at CNET can't evaluate every gadget the technology tsunami washes up.
The same underlying principle applies when deciding which books to read or buy. After all, we're only pounding the terra for a finite amount of time and few of us have unlimited financial resources even if Amazon thinks we do. With online customer reviews, we're no longer restricted to scanning TheNew Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Book Review, or subscribing to Choice or Booklist or the other standard places we once consulted for expert editorial reviews. In fact, current research shows that we're likely to eschew the opinions of experts and look to our peers.
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The Power of Customer Online Reviews
It may take a couple of weeks, but it always comes. You buy a book from Amazon.com and then you receive an email that asks--indeed, almost insists--that you "review your recent purchase." The message is a way for Amazon to say it values you as a customer, but, moreover, Amazon needs you to contribute to its database of customer reviews. Why does it need your review? Because research proves that customers are more likely to "convert" (buy) an item if they read positive peer reviews.
Even though some of our favorite book review sites are freely accessible, a Bazaarvoice-Vizu Research poll suggests that people trust the opinions of their peers. The survey found that 80% of U.S. shoppers place more trust in items that offer customer ratings (signified by numbers of stars) and reviews. Delving further into the review phenomenon, the survey showed that 44% considered ratings and reviews the most important thing on any retail website. Three out of four shoppers held it "extremely important/very important" to read customer reviews and added that they prefer customer reviews to expert reviews by a 6 to 1 margin. (1)
A Lightspeed Research poll of 1,000 internet users in the U.K. had a similar message and indicated online professional reviews were the least trusted by consumers--with just 6% of people rating them trustworthy. Furthermore, 75% of review readers would decide not to buy a product after reading up to three negative reviews. (2) Kudzu, a search/review engine for local services, surveyed 600 of its users and found that 86% read online reviews before making purchasing decisions and, out of those, 90% trust online reviews. (3)
According to the Gartner Group, sites that don't already have review mechanisms in place are planning to add them. Its survey stated, "Clients responsible for e-commerce sales via a Web site were surveyed. 33% will definitely add product review community-based user defined content reviews in 2008. Interest in this capability is driven by Amazon.com. Companies realize 'that customers use reviews and that reviews not only drive sales, but they also provide insight into the customers.'" (4)
A Matter of Trust: The Integrity of Reviews
Early in 2009 the Pointy-Haired Boss in Dilbert faces the reality that the company is getting killed by bad customer reviews. PHB tells Asok, the intern, "I need you to pretend you are several different customers and write positive reviews."
The question of trust is a valid one. Randall Stross, a professor of business at San Jose State University, wrote, "Like others, I used to rely on professional critics for guidance in many domains--restaurants, movies, books. When the Web arrived and the opinion of every single customer could easily be published online, we began to listen to one another instead.
"Amazon.com was a pioneer in offering customer reviews of books and many other products. But there was a nagging concern. Without knowing reviewers' real identities, couldn't we be misled? In 2004, a computer glitch at Amazon temporarily revealed the...
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