I Only Buy Products With At least 4 Stars—And You Should Too

Fill a room with twenty people who love to shop online and ask them how influential the review system is on the outcome of their purchase decisions. Chances are, at least eighteen out of twenty check the reviews on products before they buy it. Some might even have strict standards about the ratings: “I refuse to buy any product or service that doesn’t have at least 4.0 stars out of 5.”

Clearly, we care a great deal about quality, especially when it’s our own hard-earned money at risk. Consumers conduct their own kind of “market research” to determine if the product under consideration is actually worth it. In this case, to the average consumer, what would be more trustworthy—the wordy, glowing descriptions provided by the company (who is desperately eager to motivate browsers to click that submit payment button), or the honest review left by someone who’s already tested out the product? Amity Kapadia writes that we trust referrals so much because they “tend to come from a very genuine, authentic place. The same isn’t usually true of ads or branded content” (2016)

For example, a person browsing the web for a vitamin supplement probably wouldn’t buy the product after reading these reviews:

Online review systems and word-of-mouth referrals are gaining power in an increasingly e-commercialized word. Kimberly Whiter, a writer for Forbes, shares that “92% of consumers believe recommendations from friends and family over all forms of advertising” (2014). Obviously, the quality of the company’s products or services plays a huge role in determining the possible success of its advertising. Imagine a company’s marketing campaign (worth thousands of dollars in execution and the brainchild of expensive marketing specialists) being defeated by a friend’s casual comment: “Oh, I tried that. It was okay; wasn’t worth the thirty bucks though.” As we see in this example, word-of-mouth referrals can be even more powerful than blind review processes because they come from trusted sources (Qualman, 2013, pg. 105). 

The power of word-of-mouth referrals (or rejections) and online-reviews reveals an interesting duty of the consumer. It is through the consumer’s actions that these “mediocre” companies are, eventually, weaned out. In Socialnomics, Erik Qualman notes that “only companies that produce great products and services will be part of these conversations; mediocrity will quickly be eliminated” (2013, pg. 94). This creates a beneficial relationship between the consumer and the great companies who survive. The consumer gets to purchase from a company of overall better quality, and the company benefits from the positive reviews and word-of-mouth referrals generated by a pleased purchaser.

Since we are all consumers and would all benefit from this advice, I’d like to remind you to talk more with your friends and family who share the same interests (and possible purchasing decisions) about your experiences. Sharing a good or bad shopping experience will help a friend make a wiser purchase with their finite spending money and help eliminate weaker companies from the industry.

Have you ever left a negative review of a product? Did others “like” the review, or rate it as helpful? Leave a comment with #LVCC406 and tell us about it.

 

References

Kapadia, A. (2016, March 12). Numbers Don’t Lie: What a 2016 Nielsen Study Revealed About Referrals. Retrieved from https://www.business2community.com/marketing/numbers-dont-lie-2016-nielsen-study-revealed-referrals-01477256

Whitler, K. A. (2014, July 17). Why Word Of Mouth Marketing Is The Most Important Social Media. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimberlywhitler/2014/07/17/why-word-of-mouth-marketing-is-the-most-important-social-media/#2a73f03e54a8

Qualman, E. (2013) Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons.