ONLINE REVIEWS
Online Reviews – Are they Trustworthy?
Are reviews/ratings on Amazon, Yelp, and numerous other sites trustworthy? While many are, there’s a pervasive effort to create false reviews. Companies seeking to damage a competitor’s reputation, people being paid to give positive or negative reviews, companies with in-house reviewers, consumers creating false negative reviews to obtain discounts, and others motivated by ideology.
While complex Algorithms are often applied to identify and filter out fake reviews, it’s extremely difficult and has not been very successful. What can we do? Evaluating the trustworthiness of reviews is far more complex than counting the number of stars given. Would you equally trust the rating from an unknown person and a lifelong friend? Reviewer reliability, context, verbiage, details, etc. play in. We recommend a healthy skepticism, combined with analysis for indicators of deception.
Advanced Onion Inc. has been in the People Analytics business since 2011 developing leading edge solutions to objectively and reliably evaluate individual, business, and Supply Chain Trust.
Star ratings alone say little without knowing who wrote them or why, so reading for specific details seems far more useful. Families comparing Monterey assisted living options for a senior might weigh concrete review comments about daily routines, staff responsiveness, or meals over the overall score.