I find myself relying on Angie’s List more and more when
choosing home contractors. Consumer’s Reports helps me decide on what
appliances to purchase. When I am
approached by a not-for-profit organization for a donation, I research the
organization on Charity Navigator first. When choosing lodging, I rely on Trip
Advisor. And when choosing restaurants, I consult Urbanspoon, TripAdvisor and
to a lesser extent OpenTable. Amazon.com has numerous reviews of books and
other merchandise. Goodreads also has
book reviews. I go to CellarTracker to decide on which wine to buy. Add Epinions and CNET to the list of
frequented review sites. Now I am researching sailboats. BoatU.S. helps with its reviews. And I find that
I not only go to these websites to research brands and products, but I also
contribute to these websites with my own detailed reviews. One can go to
LinkedIn to read testimonials on individuals’ skill sets and professional
strengths. On a business-to-business
level, it is important what industry analysts say about a company. What does
Gartner or Forrester Research say about your company?
The Internet has made the world and its brands, products and
services much more transparent. Can these reviews be seeded? Yes. Can they be
manipulated? To some degree they can. However, a brand can’t easily erase a bad
review. And it is even more difficult to erase or overcome multiple bad
reviews. The consumer is increasingly in control of brand reputations. Which means
the brand experience itself has to be consistently outstanding for a brand to
succeed in the long run. Good marketing copy is not going to compensate for bad
customer reviews.
I am a huge advocate of these websites and the transparency
that they engender. It leads to a
quicker sorting of the “wheat from the chaff” and encourages continuous
improvement of product attributes, customer service and the total brand
experience. I tip my hat to these third party
review sites. They hold all of us more accountable for what we actually deliver.
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