Bad reviews

[feedbackjar]

What do you do when you read a bad review posted by someone on a site?

[CraigFLA]

In general, I don't take much stock in online reviews unless facts are shown, then I might be able to make my own judgment based on those. There are so many that write reviews based on emotion. I know a person that will never buy another Ford car again because he had two flat tires two days in a week and the dealer didn't care of it to his approval. He threw out 1/3 of his US car options because of that...

[nealrm]

Negative feedback can be very useful, so I would not discard it. Nor would I dwell on getting a bad review. Try to be objective. Does the review have a legitimate point? Is the review bad due to the write personnel preferences? Is there more than a single bad review on the same subject?

[rezzy]

There will always be people who cant not be happy with service. They will always find something wrong with a seemingly perfect situation. With that understanding its important to take them with a grain of salt.

Its the trending that has a lasting impact on a business. If I visited a page and it had 20 bad reviews and 2 good, then I would stay away. But people will always want more then their fair share.

The other side is, reviews may be based on an ulterior motive. So weeding out those and cranky customers.

[cbscreative]

I think the comments above are very useful to consider on this topic. I especially agree with evaluating the review for validity. You may be able to learn, and should always consider that before disregarding it.

Also keep in mind that it could be the result of someone not liking your position. Let me illlustrate with an article I wrote back in 07 that resulted in a lot of outstanding response. But mixed in with that were some scathing reviews (very few, but those few were quite passionate). Only one of those bad reviews were what I considered coherent, the rest were completely irrational. They were mad because they didn't like what I had to say, and they wanted me to know it.

Now if the review is about a product or service, it just comes back to sorting out the emotional responses from the ones where you can learn and improve.

[KristineS]

Depends on what the review says. If it seems fairly balanced, I'll probably put some stock in it. If the person who wrote it seems like they have an axe to grind, I'll probably discount it.

[feedbackjar]

But would it help if you were able to reply back to that bad review on the same thread to resolve the problem?

[vangogh]

Generally one review isn't going to sway me one way or the other. I say usually, because it does depend on the quality of the review to a degree. If the bad review was basically "company x sucks" I'm not going to pay attention to it all. If the review is well thought out and balanced it will carry some weight in affecting my buying decision.

For me it's more a series of consistencies within a bunch of reviews. If 10 people mention a company doesn't return their calls, I'll probably assume it would be the same with me. If 9 people had no problem getting in touch with the company, but one person shared a horror story, I'd assume the horror story was just as much the fault of the reviewer or simply consider it an aberration.

As a business owner I would like the opportunity to respond to negative reviews in some way, probably within the same thread as the review. If you are going to allow that it should be made very clear that the response is coming from someone in the business and that it's not just another review by a customer.

[huggytree]

you need to counter it

everyone knows that most people who are happy with you usually dont bother reviewing, but those who are angry will always try to get you..

you still need to counter it

[feedbackjar]

Ok what I'm developing is not a review site, but a feedback site.

So a customer can leave review in the form of a
Question, suggestion, issue, etc...

The business owner can now reply to that feedback on the same thread.

What do you guys think? Would that help a small business?