PowerReviews Insider

The number of articles and blog postings has been mounting in response to Belkin’s “fraudulent reviews” posting and, most recently, Yelp.com’s “business of extortion” coverage (Yelp denies any wrongdoing and have issued an official reply). These cases, regardless of their merit, are of concern to us at PowerReviews, since they question the value that legitimate reviews (regardless of their star rating) bring to the consumers, including the very important role “negative” reviews play. The systematic addition of fake positive reviews, the deletion of negative reviews and the overall “tampering” of user-generated content is undeniably troubling and seasoned veterans of social media are responding.

A number of our clients and partners have been forwarding these stories to us with notes of disbelief – they are surprised there is still a fear of negative reviews out there despite the numerous reports and findings that stress the importance and value of “negative reviews” (e.g. Forrester’s “Myths and Truths about Customer Reviews” report, Dec. 2008). I set out on a cross-country tour, speaking with several of our clients and hearing their questions and insights about recent events and the state of customer reviews in general. I’d like to share some of those conversations (as well as some internal analysis) with you:

Having collected nearly 5 million customer reviews from more than 350 retailers, we have a pretty clear picture of the distribution of product ratings. We have found that 92% of all reviews are positive (with star ratings of 3 or higher). That leaves only 8% of reviews that are negative (ranking of 2 stars or lower). And since these 8% negative reviews are dispersed among many thousands of products, the negative impact to particular products is quite low. But there are, undoubtedly, products that have consistently negative reviews, and to be able to identify those “less than stellar” products early and confidently enables retailers (and even brands) to enhance their product offering by addressing these concerns in the product (or in the case of the retailer, pulling them from their shelves) so future shoppers don’t have a negative experience as well. More importantly, we know that some negative comments (including “cons”) add credibility to reviews and actually increase the chance of selling that product. It’s all about getting the “complete picture” of a product. Since consumers don’t believe there are “perfect” products, they just want to be informed about the cons (or shortcoming) of a product and decide for themselves whether they can live with them.

In short, if you’ve decided to give your customers the opportunity to communicate with you and other shoppers about your products, it’s important to allow them to voice all of their experiences (whether they be good or bad). Today’s consumers are extremely savvy and can identify fraudulent reviews and unethical business practices with ease – we encourage you to use reviews as an open and transparent communication channel with your customers, not a vehicle with which to dilute credible user insights by adding (or removing) content.

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