Where can I find true reviews?
According to a study by the American sociological marketing company Nielsen in 2013, the degree of trust of Runet users in online reviews has decreased by 65%. You do not need to be Vanga to predict a decrease in this indicator in the future. Do these notorious “real reviews” exist and is it worth drawing conclusions about the company’s reputation based on them?
Don't look for real reviews here!
Independent sites. Not trusting the reviews on the official website of the brand being checked, consumers go on a short journey for the truth to resources that are not subject to moderation by the owners of the company. However, most of these online offices are owned by agencies that provide services in the field of SERM (improving reputation on the Internet). There will also be posts with a negative connotation, but dosed and carefully polished. As a result, a generally positive opinion is formed about the company, and a fly in the ointment in the form of indignant comments does not allow users to suspect a forgery.
There are also well-known truly independent resources, such as yell.ru. This site imposes strict requirements on reviews and carefully checks their authenticity, but even here there are pitfalls. It is quite predictable that a company with a free account on this resource will receive more negative feedback “as a gift” from moderators. In turn, for a certain bribe, you can get a bonus in the form of loyal reviews and partially screened out negative. No one can say with 100% certainty that the reviews on such a resource or a thematic forum are completely true and what percentage of comments from real customers of the company have not been moderated.
Detailed well-founded reviews, written in simple language, not too enthusiastic. It is possible that the review that causes the least distrust and seems "real" was written by an unknown prose writer, a master of his craft. Posting for money is a widespread phenomenon, which over the years has managed to acquire its own gurus and experts. It is almost impossible to distinguish the original from the fake. Speech, persuasive argumentation, grammatical and stylistic errors, indignant phrases written using Caps Lock - all indicate that the author of the post is an interested client like you, but these factors should not be considered as indisputable evidence of the reliability of the review.
Do you still trust the comments left by users logged into the social network? In vain :) Vkontakte pages have learned to fake no worse than reviews.
Authoritative incorruptible resources. Moderators of "Yandex.Market" to bribe, if possible, then for fabulous money. In this case, the trap for the inquisitive seeker of truth lies in an unexpected place. Some companies buy reviews from their own customers, promising a discount or some other bonus. It would seem that there is nothing wrong with this, but often reviews are written even before making a purchase in an online store / ordering services, unless this is a regular customer. A person enters the site with the intention of purchasing something, sees a discount for a review - it’s a sin not to take advantage of the opportunity to save. As a result, the company receives positive, but completely useless reviews for potential customers.
Where is the truth?
The question is complex, sacramental, philosophical, but we will still try to answer it.
- Trust sites that back up all reviews with a specific order, such as ShopPilot and SafeOnlineReputation. Forging a comment in this case is much more difficult.
- A respectable and especially small company does not cheat reviews, so there will not be many comments about it. Moreover, people are more likely to leave negative reviews than laudatory ones.
- Contact the company's managers directly by phone, via Skype or e-mail - it doesn't matter. The speed and literacy of answers, the degree of awareness of employees and other factors that manifest themselves in personal communication are the surest way to assess the professionalism and reputation of the company.
- Conscientious companies always enter into a dialogue with a dissatisfied customer and try to solve the problem amicably.
We’ll immediately make a reservation about the tips we have given: they cannot always bring fraud and omissions of brands to clean water, the world is not ideal, and you cannot find guaranteed truth on the Internet by day with fire. However, there are companies that, despite the vast majority of unscrupulous slanderous competitors, are deliberately ignored. We hope that our recommendations will help you in finding quality products and services.