How to know if you can trust a company’s ratings

Today, consumers have more power and variety when it comes to choosing products or service providers that suit their needs. With the rise of social media, mobile phones, apps, internet search and review engines, and other modern advancements, we now have access to all the reference information we need to choose one business over another and rate a business. For consumers, the use of reviews to make decisions is a great advantage, one that many companies are willing to take advantage of to their advantage. After a transaction, the emails ask you to rate a business right away. Unfortunately, with the creation of information we also have misinformation. As markets become more crowded and competitive, some questionable companies have resorted to using less reliable review sites or have chosen to spread misinformation, all in an attempt to win over unsuspecting customers. So what can you do about it? Here are some tips on how to know if you can trust a company’s ratings.

1. Do they have many qualifications?

A highly reputable company that provides valuable service with an excellent customer experience should have a lot of four or five star ratings and a high volume of reviews and testimonials. When your most trusted review sites show numerous positive ratings even with many reviews, it is a good sign that the reviews are real and accurately reflect customer experiences.

2. Are the reviews too positive?

Often times when a questionable company is trying to grow its business, it will hire writers to post overly positive comments or reviews on search sites and the web page. If the comments you are reading are not at all objective, they may be false.

3. Are there only a few of them?

If you see only 1 or 2 positive reviews about a company that has been around for a while, chances are they are removing all the negative reviews in what is known as “brain picking.” Unless the business is a startup and taking off, take a closer look and see when the business was established and how many reviews they have.

4. Do the reviews read like an infomercial?

If the reviews found for the company in question are few and read as if they were written by the head of the marketing department, this is likely to be the case. It is increasingly common for companies themselves to pose as customers praising the company. However, too often, people who write fake reviews don’t take enough time to get away from their writing, inject too many product descriptions, and use verbiage pulled directly from marketing collateral. If it looks like a cut and paste from a brochure, it is likely a fake review.

5. Does the company respond to negative reviews?

You see it more often these days, a customer will post their negative testimonial and complain on a popular review site. As you read the follow-up comments, you will notice that the company itself read the review and personally apologized and offered to fix the issue. Real opinions are used to improve a business and develop customer relationships. If you see the company responding and honing its customer satisfaction skills, you have a real review.

With these tips, you can ensure that you spend your time considering only information that comes from real, informative, and accurate feedback.

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