Why you should not trust reviews on the web?

The variety of products and services, as well as tons of reviews on the web can turn any purchase into a real test of nerves and wallet. Especially when it comes to expensive goods. Online reviews are supposed to help us make the right choice, but in fact they are even more confusing, because unscrupulous companies manipulate consumers with fake reviews. Roskatchestvo Digital Expertise Center experts explain why you should not blindly trust online reviews.

Who writes fake reviews?

Buying and selling, and in some cases simply copying reviews, is a very common element of unscrupulous marketing strategy, when companies order negative reviews for competitors and positive ones for themselves. In this way, customers are misled, because the task of making the right choice before buying simply becomes unfeasible.

Most often such fake reviews are written in batches for a very modest fee by novice copywriters. You can find such reviews at specialized review sites and marketplaces – where you don’t need a confirmed purchase to leave a review, as well as on social networks. These reviews tend to contain the same bugs by which they can be recognized.

How to recognize fake reviews?

Open your testimonials page and check them carefully using this checklist. You should be alert to the following factors:

If a lot of reviews are written in one or two days and there is a significant break before that. Most likely, it’s a copywriter’s commissioned package. Real reviews tend to have a fairly random scattering of the date they were left. By the way, there are even more prolonged “campaigns” when reviews are published for weeks on end, several times a day. But they are also easy to spot, if you notice a suspicious lull before and after a “pack” of reviews.

If the reviews are roughly similar in size and style, and contain the same emotionally colored statements “amazing product,” “delight,” “best company,” “very cool everything was done,” “lowest prices,” as well as appeals to “see for yourself,” “try it and you’ll see” . Most likely, it’s the copywriters who are so compliant, and they haven’t even used the product or service itself. Real reviews more often than not vary in both size and style.

● If the reviews contain abstract statements. For example, “the product is ideal,” “the product” or “I used the service,” which apply not only to the subject of the review, but to anything at all. A real person leaves a review to tell you what he liked or disliked about a particular product, he will not go into abstraction, in contrast to the copywriter, who most likely did not even hold the product in his hands, for which he writes a review. The other extreme: the text is overloaded with detailed “selling” facts that are more likely to be known not by the customer, but by a company employee.

● If the text of the review includes the following key words: full company name, “quality services” “on-time delivery” – and similar obviously promotional language. A large number of adjectives in the superlative degree and an inadequately enthusiastic view of the product are also quite suspicious.

● If there are only negative or only positive opinions in a row on the testimonials page. This, of course, is statistically unlikely. Most likely, it’s either a competitor’s “order” or “self-advertisement” they wrote well about themselves . Honest reviews tend to alternate with some overall positive or negative, depending on the quality of the product itself.

If the creator of the review writes a lot or a few similar ones every day, and even on a variety of things. It’s more likely that it’s a mercenary, because real customers don’t leave reviews on a regular basis. Look at commenters’ profiles, if the service has such a feature.

If the author of the testimonial first states a defect and then excuses it. For example, “the courier came late, but they can be understood – there are too many orders”. It is important for the consumer to get a quality product or service, on time and quickly, and if something goes wrong, he will not look for excuses, and will write simply “the courier was late” or “packaging leaves much to be desired.

These criteria can help separate honest reviews from fake ones, but they do not guarantee a hundred percent. That’s why Roskachevo considers it wrong to rely on online reviews when choosing a product or service.

Ilya Loevsky, Deputy Head of Roskachevo.

“Alas, this auxiliary tool has ceased to be effective, and now companies are actively competing for positive characteristics online, working not on the quality of goods and services, but on the “positive buzz” around their brand. For one negative honest review there will be ten fake praises – this is pure manipulation of consumer opinion. Online reviews have evolved from a powerful marketing tool into a toy for companies to bamboozle consumers