Reviews and their true value.
Should you believe all you read? How easy is it for anybody to try and tarnish your good name without any fear of come back or make your business out to be amazing for financial reasons. The good reviews! Who are they from? Are they from the business owner, family, friends or real genuine customer comments? Many SEO companies write bulk reviews for their clients to enhance their Google ranking. How can you tell? Problem is you can’t. The bad reviews! Are they from your opposition or just someone you have had a difference of opinion with over something unrelated to your business but they choose to fabricate a bad review. There are of course genuine bad reviews but how do you tell the difference. Most bad reviews will tend to inflate the issue rather than just state the facts. Once again you can’t tell. There are also people who are serial reviewers and get their kicks doing random reviews. A negative review can in fact improve your credibility. It makes your other reviews look genuine. A site with fifty 5 star reviews only may be a bit suspect.
Is a bad review just a customer who did not read the terms and condition or the restaurant’s dress code or the byo rules? When they realise they are wrong the next step is fabricate a story and post it to make them feel better. Most people with a genuine complaint or problem will bring it to the attention of the business owner at the time. This way it can be resolve. Posting a bad review resolves nothing and achieves very little. Don’t believe all you read.
Ken Tolley