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Internet Travel Monitor - Marketing & Research
December 5, 2007
Do Not Fear Customer Reviews
NEW YORK, NY – They're usually good.
The Internet has a reputation for being the place where consumers gripe about companies. Yet more than one-half of respondents to a Bazaarvoice survey conducted from August to October by Keller Fay Group said they usually left positive reviews.
"Bazaarvoice trend analysis has shown that product and service reviews are very positive, with an average rating of 4.3 out of 5," said Brett Hurt, CEO of Bazaarvoice, in a statement.
Consumers are paying more attention to customer reviews, according to Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst at eMarketer.
"Consumer-generated media, such as those found on ratings and review sites, blogs and community boards, are becoming more influential in the purchase-decision process, at least enough so that retailers are increasing their investment in such content," Mr. Grau said.
Consumers generally had good intentions when writing reviews. Nine out of 10 respondents said they wrote reviews in order to help others make better buying decisions. Nearly 80% wrote reviews in order to reward a company.
"This debunks a major myth about word of mouth and should encourage companies and chief marketing officers to be more comfortable with 'letting go' and inviting consumers to talk about their experiences," Mr. Hurt of Bazaarvoice said.
Online retailers are getting the message about customer reviews. Nearly one-quarter of businesses in Internet Retailer's "Holiday Sales Expectations" study conducted by Vovici said they had added customer reviews for this holiday season.
Copyright 2007 eMarketer Inc. All rights
reserved. From http://www.emarketer.com.
To view the Internet Travel Monitor Archive, click http://www.tripinfo.com/ITM/index.html.
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