Consumer Review Websites

In today's technological world, the Internet has made consumer reviews and evaluations easier and more readily available for business marketing teams. In the past, consumers usually relied on word-of-mouth to find out how helpful a company was or how good a product was. However, with websites such as Yelp or Trip Adviser, consumer review sites are becoming a common marketplace for where to go for the service or product you need. But how accurate are these reviews and evaluations of service? While they can be instrumental in finding a quality product or service, they can also be detrimental in the hands of the wrong user.

BDRC, a marketing research team, recently surveyed 1000 business travelers. 28% of those surveyed said that they actively seek advice from consumer review sites. 46% were influenced by the information given and 41% made the decision to change their original hotel choice from the reviews given.
(Caterer & Hotel keeper;10/16/2009, Vol.199 Issue 4599, p8)

Given that people are using the consumer review sites, who is to stop them from using that power for evil? Suppose a restaurant owner has opened a new restaurant near another restaurant that is fairly popular. The restaurant owner decides to get on a consumer review website and give a bad review of the established restaurant. The restaurant owner has never eaten at the established restaurant, but he is using the power of the consumer review site to detract from possible consumers going to the competing restaurant. Given this situation, how reliable are these sites?

Consumer review sites were not created for this reason. Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons founded Yelp in 2004 San Francisco. Stoppelman was trying to find information about a doctor and became frustrated that he couldn't find any information. (www.info today.com/linkup)"I wanted to find a way to capture recommendations on-line, and that made me think of word of mouth" said Stoppelman. (www.info today.com/linkup)

Users of Yelp have written over 9 million reviews since their start (www.info today.com/linkup) and with so many people using Yelp and other sites consumers have many places to turn to rant or rave about their experiences. Some companies, such as Proctor & Gamble (P & G) have gone so far as to make their own social networking sites for consumer reviews. (www.marketing week.co.uk)

Whether or not these social networking sites will work for Corporate America has yet to be seen. But consumer reviews seem to be the way things are headed for companies large and small since consumers are not paid for their recommendations, unlike celebrity endorsements.