With more and more online reviews being written, the importance of reviews has become very apparent with 97% of consumers saying that the reviews they read influence their purchasing decisions. But did you know that 27% of people will trust online reviews only if they believe they are authentic? The same report also states that up to 30% of online reviews may be fake.
What do we mean by ‘fake’ reviews? Well, some companies have been found (and fined for) writing their own reviews and passing them off as genuine customer online reviews. Another form of fake review is where someone deliberately leaves a bad review and a low star rating not because they’ve had a bad experience working with your business but through plain maliciousness. It has also been known, sadly, for some companies to hop onto their competitors reviews and deliberately leave a bad review and low star rating there to adversely affect their overall review rating. Shady behaviour indeed!
How else can you tell if a review is real or fake?
- Has the review been responded to by the business? If it has then it’s a very good sign that the review is genuine
- How does the review read? Fake reviews are often much shorter than real reviews. Also, consider how it reads. Is it easy to read? Does it flow? If it does then that’s another good sign
- Has the review been left on an open or closed review platform (closed review platforms being invitation only to verified, genuine customers)?
Leaving fake reviews, for whatever reason, is something we don’t approve of at all at Trustist, but what can we do about it whilst still benefiting from the power of an online review strategy to help build our businesses? This is where verified reviews come in. At Trustist we mark genuine reviews with a verified review badge which is shown next to or underneath the actual review itself thereby proving its authenticity. Simple and very effective particularly when you know that displaying reviews written by either verified buyers or identified by a verified badge is shown, by some surveys, to have a positive impact on sales with sales reportedly increasing by 15%. Well worth having indeed!