PowerReviews Insider

I assure all you product reviewers there is nothing to fear, it’s okay to leave a comment. In fact, we insist on it! And here’s why…

After processing a few million reviews we know a thing or two about customer reviews, one of which is that star ratings – when it comes right down to it – are really not as “valuable” as one might think. Why? Because the average rating given those two million plus product reviews is 4.2 out of 5 stars. And this high average is not unique to the PowerReviews (www.powerreviews.com) merchant network, as Bazaarvoice (www.bazaarvoice.com) has published nearly the exact same statistic about their merchants.

Quick sidebar: I think that in general, product ratings are so high because people like to talk about things they like, whether it is a good movie, restaurant, vacation spot, or a new product purchase.

So if the average rating is 4.2, then all those 4 star and higher products you see serve more as a general “thumbs up” rather than providing any real insight as to how good a product really is. In fact, providing just star ratings without any supporting comments – whether in the form of tags or free form content – can actually be misleading to the everyday consumer and offer no real comprehension to product’s performance. They see a 4 star rated product and think WOW that must be “tops” and in reality it may actually be less than the average product in the category (and that is why you will see category averages on Buzzillions (www.buzzillions.com), our reviews and recommendation engine.

So lets go back to the No Comment folks. What’s really behind them not leaving comments – well, the only thing I can think of is because “they” let them. Several of the Bazaarvoice implementations out there actually allow for “ratings only” reviews, which I would argue are not even a review at all. And given what’s mentioned above, one can only wonder why would anyone even build or offer such a service that really provides little or no insight. My best guess is that since they get paid to read/moderate on a per review basis, it would definitely be in their best interest to generate as many “ratings only” reviews as possible because what could be easier to moderate than this?

To you merchants who use such a system and allow such a “reviews” I ask you this: Are you really getting what you are paying for? Because this looks more like graffiti on the product page rather than a helpful customer review.

At PowerReviews we not only believe in but insist on product reviewers sharing some kind of insightful knowledge by sharing comments and/or choosing among tags like Easy to Assemble, Soft, Doesn’t Fade, Great for Three Year Olds, or just plain Comfy.

To illustrate my point, here’s that same product reviewed by the PowerReviews system:

In closing, let me be perfectly clear about a few things. “No Comment” reviews are not welcome at PowerReviews. Our review solution will slap you silly when you try to submit a review without any kind of supporting comments or tag selections. Nor will they find a home on Buzzillions.com either. And if you are thinking about slipping in through the backdoor via a feed from any of the Bazaarvoice clients we have already signed – think again. We painstakingly parse out the “ratings only reviews” and do not allow them on the site. And at last count, that was more than 20% of the time! OUCH!