Do you have an interesting story to tell about online reviews and ratings? Have you ever been troubled by online feedback — or learned something very valuable from using it? What exactly happened and how did you deal with it? Do you have any ideas or thoughts about what could be improved? Have online reviews and ratings changed the way you go about doing things?
Whether you browsed book reviews on Amazon, shared Friday night’s restaurant experience on Qype, have a B&B discussed on Tripadvisor, commented on your tutor at RateMyProfessors, run a garage service reviewed on Google Places or offer reviews and ratings on your own website — please share your experience in the comment section. We are currently collecting stories for the project and would like to find out what you think. Difficult situations, anecdotes, problems, success stories, whatever you think relevant.
We will use these stories in the upcoming expert workshops in London so there is a good chance that your story will be read by people who care about them. Many thanks!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
The amazon review facility is really useful and it recently saved me a fortune in batteries. I was deciding on a portable digital radio and there was one that cost around £30 but for it to be portable, you had to pay £20 for a special battery. Other radios were about the same cost and ran on AA batteries. The review comments told me that these other radios went through batteries like they were going out of fashion whereas the life of the £20 battery was really long. I have had the radio for a month now and use it every day. I’ve only had to charge the battery twice so far. I calculate that in the same time I would have had to recharge AA batteries twice a week.
I judge review comments on the number of times people say the same thing. Overly exuberant/negative comments make me suspicious – I base my judgement on majority opinion.
Long story so I won’t repeat it in full, but here’s a link to it:
http://tripadvisorwatch.wordpress.com/trip-advisor-fake-reviews/
In short, we had two fake reviews published by people who never stayed with us – be they competitors or mischief makers, who knows. I was appalled by the incompetence and the uncaring manner in which TripAdvisor dealt with us.
There was a total lack of communication – nothing but automated emails that did not answer questions – and TripAdvisor failed utterly to deal with the matter in a timely fashion.
This is why TA gets such a bad reputation with some owners – they have failed miserably to respond to legitimate complaints of libellous and fake reviews.
Phil
I have been a Top Ten reviewer on Amazon.com (US) for over a year. Before I wrote my first review there (2004) I had been a loyal customer and relied on their consumer reviews for my own purchasing decisions. After several years of being a user of the reviews I decided to pitch in and write some myself. Now it has become sort of a hobby for me and I have over 400 reviews posted on the site.
All in all it has been a wonderful experience. I received comments and emails from Amazon customers almost daily, thanking me the my opinion on products ranging from GPS receivers to cookbooks. Amazon allows us to post both written and video reviews. I have made over 40 video reviews the seem to be considered as being extremely helpful. Some products are best evaluated when they are seen. Also, when people hear your voice and see your face they are more likely to view you as being credible. Here are just a few of my video reviews:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R3PFQ2NJO17ZJA/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2G91T8IRLW3YX/ref=cm_cr_dp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1890948055&nodeID=283155&tag=&linkCode=
http://www.amazon.com/review/R1HII6O6UZ6J5U/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00063RWT8&nodeID=&tag=&linkCode=
Thank you,
Tim Riley