The Right Way to Use Ratings and Reviews

I work on many websites that allow customers to leave ratings and/or reviews. Over the years, I’ve witnessed a decline in the proper use of the review process.

When a website offers the ability to leave reviews, that’s an indication that they are proud of their product and service. They want to hear what their customers have to say because it is important to them. Why offer the ability to leave reviews if you are not committed to making folks happy and living up to your sales pitch?

Why Leave Reviews?

A review of why online reviewers leave reviews noted that the top reasons customers write reviews are:

Share a positive experience.
Receive a free product sample.
A negative experience.
Incentives — rewards, points, discounts, etc.
Helping and guiding others.

Then you have ninety-three percent of consumers who say that online reviews influence their purchasing decisions. For that reason, reviews are not to be offered lightly.

Reviews should only be provided with consideration of the impact they may create. The review process needs to be taken seriously and used with prudence. Here are a few tips to guide you.

How and When to Leave Reviews

Always contact the vendor or website first if you have an issue or problem with their product or service. You should always allow them the opportunity to make things right before leaving a negative review.
If, after attempting to resolve the issue, you are still not satisfied, when leaving a negative review, stick to the facts about why you’re unhappy. Don’t make assumptions or be overly emotional. Profanity is never necessary to make your point.
Reviews are not the place for customer service requests or questions. Those should be placed directly with the vendor or website, not through the review system.
Never leave a review if you made a mistake. If you didn’t provide correct information, did not read the policies, or the product description to know what you are receiving — that’s on you.
When you are satisfied, receive good service, and want to let others know about your great experience. Positive reviews help vendors build their business.
Use proper grammar, case, and sentence structure. How you type your review will lend to its credibility.

This article is not about defending poorly run businesses or those that are deceptive and deserve bad reviews. In my experience, those are the exception not the rule.

Reviews & Consequences

Sadly, there are always those who try to game the system. They’ll write bad reviews just to get items for free or a refund — even when it’s not justified.

They know negative reviews can severely impact revenues, visibility, and trust factors, and that most vendors will do anything to avoid that. These scoundrels cause vendors to lose money by issuing an unnecessary refund.

Vendors that care about their service and trust factors, in some cases, have no choice but to cater to these types of individuals, as a cost of doing business. What a shame.

Then there are situations where things are out of a vendor’s control. Weather issues, for example, can cause delays in shipment arrivals. Once a vendor hands a package off to USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL, etc., it is out of the vendor’s control what happens next. Don’t blame them for that in reviews either.

Why would you leave a negative review for a business about something out of their control? As frustrating as it may be, the blame for any problems has to go to the entity that had the power to do things differently.

At the same time, leaving glowing reviews is something most don’t think to do without a reminder or encouragement. A poor experience is when people rush to share what they went through with the world.

Regardless, the consequences of both types of reviews are immeasurable.

There are two sides…

Having been on both sides of the situation, I’ll wrap this up for you:

Take the time to leave positive reviews when deserved. This helps the good guys build their business and be around for the long haul.
Only leave negative reviews after giving the vendor a chance to make things right, and then only if it’s deserved. Many times, honest mistakes or oversights can be remedied to your satisfaction.

Only leave reviews when they are justifiably deserved. The process helps businesses that deserve to succeed and those that are not up to the challenge to improve if they want to survive.