Online reviews of products can be useful or deceptive

Whether searching for a different restaurant or buying a newfangled gadget, many folks turn to the web to see what everyone’s saying. Many businesses, however, have taken to gaming the system to provide information that might not be all that accurate. What, then, is a good strategy to decipher what you might find?

Most sites that provide reviews, such as Amazon, TripAdvisor and Yelp, allow reviewers to grade on a scale of one to five “stars,” five being best and one being worst. The reviews are tallied and presumably averaged to garner an overall rating. Many reviewers and business people alike consider an overall five-star rating to be the ultimate in online reviews.

Five stars, however, is not necessarily good. Typically, an overall five-star rating is difficult to maintain with a high volume of reviews. Conversely, an overall five-star rating is easier to maintain with a limited number of reviews. So it’s always important to see how many folks have actually entered in a legitimate review. On top of that, if there is only a limited number of reviews, there is a chance that the source of those reviews is people affiliated with the business.

In an effort to increase their overall star rating, some businesses have taken to getting their customers to provide five-star reviews. Whether a complimentary appetizer or an accessory for the product, such reviews unfairly skew the overall rating. Some businesses provide incentives merely for “checking in” on Facebook or Yelp, which is much less deceptive.

In fact, anecdotal evidence suggests that many businesses and products with a relatively high volume of five-star reviews are providing incentives. It is extremely difficult to maintain such a rating. No matter how good the business, a bad review is inevitable. After all, we’re dealing with human beings here, and the review process tends to attract those who feel wronged as opposed to those who want to spread good cheer. (There is evidence of “robots” being used to generate reviews, but that is the topic for another column.) In fact, the presence of a small amount of negative reviews can often be a good sign in that it shows the business is not artificially boosting its rating.

Furthermore, the star rating scale is extremely subjective. A five to you might be only a four to the person in line behind you.

If one truly wants to get a better idea of the business or product, read some good reviews and some bad reviews. For both, check the reviewer’s history. Discount the value of reviews by those who always provide great reviews as well as those who always provide poor ones. And while some sites filter out reviews by folks who have a limited review history, those should not necessarily be discounted.

From a business standpoint, you can choose to respond to reviews. If you choose to respond, however, understand that this is a commitment. You must either respond to most negative reviews or not at all. Otherwise the appearance is that those reviews that have no response are accurate.

John Agsalud is an IT expert with more than 25 years of information technology experience. Reach him at johnagsalud@yahoo.com.