In today’s society, the trend of checking online consumer reviews before buying something has grown tremendously and ultimately shapes the way many consumers view a business, service, or product. Former customers routinely log onto websites like yelp.com and sitejabber.com to share their feelings on particular products and services. Brides post reviews on weddingwire.com or weddingchannel.com. Others visit these sites to see how the general public feels about their future purchase. They often eventually buy a product or service they have never heard of before, based solely on reviews from complete strangers. For some inexplicable reason, we all think that when a person we don’t know at all writes a review they are being 100% sincere and honest and that their values match our own and their opinion is totally accurate, reasonable and fair. Hmmm…

Obviously, that is not always the case. Some reviewers have an axe to grind with a company or product they were disappointed by. Their negative review may cover a legitimate flaw in the product, but to make the point and drive the stake a bit deeper, they also trash several other aspects of it that were perfectly fine or exactly as advertised. Some reviewers unfairly harm the reputation of a very good business or product because they had unrealistic expectations for the product or service they purchased. “After 4 hours in the gym, the gum had lost it’s flavor.”

“The salesman at the car dealership told me that if I bought this car I’d only have to fill my tank once a week. He lied to me and you shouldn’t buy a car from them.” The reviewer had never mentioned to the salesperson at the dealership or to the readers of his review that he commutes over 100 miles each way to work every day. This reviewer had poor math and communication skills, unrealistic expectations of a perfectly good car and then felt he’d been lied to because he had to fill his tank more often than once a week. The dealership suffered a blow to their business and their hard-earned reputation even though the salesperson and the dealership in this example did absolutely nothing wrong and had 15 other positive reviews that were all perfectly delighted with the same car and it’s gas mileage.

Reviews can also be falsely posted by competitors or others who are not actual customers. To use reviews effectively, you must first learn to read between the lines when a bad review is the only one along with dozens of perfect reviews for the same business, service or product. Not always, but quite often the combined opinion of the majority is the most accurate overall review to consider.