User Reviews Customers Can Believe In

Russell,

I don't disagree there's a problem. And I don't disagree that for some B2B businesses restricting reviewers to sites like LinkedIn might be part of the solution.'d be curious as to the push-back and how that affects the # of reviews. Personally, I wouldn't use my LinkedIn currency for reviews. I

For B2C companies like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and others, restricting reviews to only those with specific social media accounts is simply not practical or a sound marketing tool. In either case I'm not sure restricting reviews will reflect representative samples. Besides, who's to say everyone with a LinkedIn account will be an honest reviewer or significantly reduce the % of fake reviews? 

You can almost always trust a person to do one thing: be who they are.

That said, look to possible motivations.  The better you get at reading between the lines, and the more you familiarize yourself with a particular reviewer, the more you know exactly how to interpret that person's reviews -- anonymous bozo or not.  :)

Good.  Then I know where not to go if I'm having a bad day.  ;)

The customer may not always be right, but the customer is always the expert on what he wants.

That is to say: The rightness of the customer is irrelevant.  The fact of the matter is that if a customer does bueinss with an establishment and is displeased -- FOR WHATEVER REASON -- then that customer is less likely to do business with the establishment again and more likely to tell people to avoid the establishment.  It is therefore incumbent upon businesses to do what they can to please their customers and rectify their failures to do so -- regardless of all but the most extreme circumstances.

Truthfully, perception is thus more important than any imagined "objective reality."  If the customer is pleased, then no, the business did not do everything right.  Not all customers are alike, and there is no business solution that is one-size-fits-all.

Beyond the consumer world, enterprises and marketers from all walks of life would do well to heed these words.

Thanks Kim. I wrote a blog post last month about how to assure online product reviews are authentic: http://blog.itcentralstation.com/2012/11/05/how-do-we-assure-our-reviews-are-authentic/

As I wrote, it requires a combination of user validation, community policing, combatting fraud, and erring on the side of quality.

That's a great idea.  The important thing, when it comes to online reviews, is trust, and I agree that springs from having some idea who the reviewer is and what they've said in past reviews.  It's possible to create trust, using an anonymous handle, if you post enough, but having a verifiable account makes it much easier.

Thanks for your feedback. The big issue facing Yelp, tripadvisor and other B2C review site is the amount of fake reviews. Gartner estimates it to reach 15% of reviews on these sites to be fake. In the B2B world, the number of reviews will naturally be lower, and trust must be much higher for each review, so we have decided to require LinkedIn validation for all reviewers. It ensures that you know the reviews are not fake and are not planted by the vendors.

That means anyone who offers a review has to have a linkedin, facebook, or twitter account to be a "trusted" reviewer?  I think if we start putting restraints on opinion by making people jump through hoops, the Internet will not be nearly as rich. 

As both a marketer and consumer I rely on user reviews.

As a marketer, I can't see any situation where I would use paid reviews. Nor would I knowingly seek or publish fake reviews.

As a consumer they're an important part of the evaluation process - both for the product or serivce and the seller. Although it's not foolproof, I generally take seriously reviews only where there is sufficient sample size - more than ten (10) reviews. I typically "throw out" 10% to 20% of the best and worst depending on sample size and evaluate what's left. I do this on 2-3 different sites, which helps validate pretty quickly those with integrity.

I think the key point is: "Also it is very easy to fake a profile". This is true for open consumer review sites like Yelp and Tripadvisor. Gartner says that soon 15% of the reviews on these sites will be fake. However, that's because there is little/no validation of the users. In a B2B environment it's essential to have validation of the users writing the reviews in order to maintain authenticity. In B2C it's all about quantity of reviews, in B2B tech it's about quality.

Good points David. The key I believe is strong backend validation (using LinkedIn or similar professional profile) with an anonymized front end. That way the 3rd party  platform (e.g. IT Central Station) does the validation but the user's profile is not revealed. Of course that means that the 3rd party platform has to be trusted.