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77% of us regularly use online reviews to make a decision on a new purchase, but how reliable are these reviews? My answer is ‘Not always”.
The issue is that the power of reviews has become so great that a study by Harvard found that an average one star drop in review rating average can lead to 9% drop in revenue. A star star increase and a 9% rise in revenue. This means that manipulation has become rife.
Fake reviews and online ‘review’ trolls have become a big issue. A recent eye-opening study by a massive travel sites found that 40% of the reviews on the site were fake. Businesses can purchase great reviews for themselves from ‘Review farms’.
‘Review Bombing’ has also become common practice and is leaving businesses vulnerable. It involves a party contacting the business and demanding money or they will be bombed with a ton of bad reviews.
In this segment on The Morning Show, I list the red flags for spotting fake reviews as a consumer and as a business, and tips for businesses who have been inundated with unfair or questionable bad reviews.
