Increase Review Ratings

We have glossed over this a bit before. But if you have 5 stars all the way through your reviews then that also sets off some alarm bells. No product is that good. So having some lower rated reviews is a good idea. According to Tanner: “you need to respond [to a bad review] publicly and handle the problem. If you handle it well, you build a stronger customer base made up of people who read that and see that you’re trustworthy. Many times, people even change their review after you respond”.

According to Jack and Tsai (Using Text Mining of Amazon Reviews to Explore User-Defined Product Highlights and Issues) “When a product reached a certain level (4.4 stars), a ceiling effect was found and ratings above the level did not result in perceptions of enhanced product quality”. We know that customers will read all of the review but might only read the top reviews rather than continuously scroll through reviews (unless targeted by keywords as discussed earlier). We know that:

Multiple studies have also shown that extreme reviews are the most helpful. When there is a positive and a negative review- even discussion between the two reviewers, customer prefer this. Both reviewers will show more evidence to their cause offering more information to the buyer. It has been found that the more information present the more a person will buy

High-quality reviews are those that subjectively comment on several product features.

Users interested in buying feature-based goods, such as music players, prefer reviews that outline pros and cons of the product

For experience products users rely on personalized, sentimental reviews,

Subjectivity and readability has also found to be wanting in a review

Offering incentives- like free shipping work much better when it is coupled with positive reviews. Buyers go more towards a positive review with something else rather than just the incentive

We have discussed price and a products customer service- service wins. But when an expensive product, or one that gives more risk- what happens then? Well, if there are few reviews, negative/ lower rated reviews then customers will check out and be influenced by the price. Therefore it is better to place a discount on a lower reviewed product as price then becomes more relevant. It is worthy to note (as mentioned by Rashid and Huang(Sentiment Analysis on Consumer Reviews of Amazon Products 2021) that when price goes up the amount of positive comments goes down.

The importance of review ratings

Reviews are so important to any selling that you require to do. Initially, before online, we asked our friends/ family about a product. We would read magazines and see what their review would be. But as the world became more connected and to allow people to interact, we can now find out opinions from a wide variety of sources. The more reviews, the more “social proof”.

And that is the bottom line of all the research that we have done. You need reviews to generate sales.

But the quality of those reviews are also important. Do they hit upon “pain buttons” which we might be observing? Do they tell us the pluses and minuses of the product? What level of risk in that product is being squashed by reviews. Also, and one important point. Is the owner reading the comments and discussing the negatives themselves? Are they trying to alleviate some of the issues people are finding themselves in? How are they handling themselves online? Are they thanking people for leaving a nice review or is it taken for granted?

Reviews are just not for the customer. They are also for the owner to truly understand what people want, what they are talking about and how the owner can stand by their values and goals to which many people have bought into.

But reviews can be a fickle thing. They are tied very much to the brand. If that brand starts to take advantage and starts to reduce quality/ customer service then the reviews will mention it and the rating will reduce- negatively affecting sales. if the prices increase then the reviews can become stronger and more specific and probably in a negative way.

Reviews? They are a required corrective course.

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