“Someone who has stayed only at five-star hotels will rate a
five-star hotel differently than a honeymooner staying at a five-star hotel for
the first time.”
—Bill Tancer, General Manager, Global Research, Hitwise
This,
my friends, is a great quote, and one that hits home with many different areas.
Although it’s a great idea, sometimes it’s not in the company’s best interest
for people to be able to whimsically post their comments about a specific
company or business. Each person is different, has a different idea of what is
good or bad. Also, individuals have different experiences. Some may like a
company to be friendly and open, while others may like them to be strictly business.
I will elaborate.
Take
Wal-Mart for example. Everyone has their complaints about registers being open,
lack of friendly service, or the company business ethics. As a former employee
and a current customer, I totally get the complaints; however, no two stores
are the same. No two experiences are the same. I’ve seen people complain because their
cashier was too friendly, talked too much, and didn’t ring their groceries up fast
enough. Some people really just like to complain, and some people like to see
what they can get out of a company because of the complaints.
One
more example is my family vacation this year. None of us had ever been to
Florida, and only a few had been to a beach period. We fell instantly and deeply
in love with St. Augustine. All of my TripAdvisor reviews on the businesses
were glowing! This being said, I read some of the other reviews of the same
places that weren’t so nice. Were we so into the fact we were on vacation in a
new place? Were these places really as nice as we had thought? For us, it was
an amazing experience because it was new. Next year, we may not see things through
such rose colored glasses, or it may be just as amazing.
I
really enjoy Mr. Tancer’s quote. Moral of the story, everyone experiences
things differently, so don’t take anyone’s reviews to heart.
I totally agree. All stores are not the same. People shouldn't base one experience at one store on the whole chain. It's sad but this happens often.
ReplyDeleteI agree not everyone views an experience the same. Maybe take reviews as a guideline and not to heart. I find the more reviews the better, but with that being said some reviews are not that off. Children's toy products for example, reading some reviews about the compatibility with other toys has actually come in handy with my two year old saving me some time and grief. I take everything with a grain of salt, just because your kid didn't like the toy doesn't mean my kid wouldn't like it either, but if 30 other people who bought the product claim some sort of difficulty then I would tend to lean that way.
ReplyDeleteMy rule of thumb with reviews online is go with a consensus and think about who is writing it. For example, when my husband and I were looking to buy a new washer and dryer we found ones we liked, were on sale and would fit in the space we had. The reviews were not good on the surface. The washer was a high efficiency washer which if you have not used before took some getting used to. The water used was a lot less and the cycle was about 5 minutes longer than a traditional washer. When we took out the comments about people stating not enough water was used and the time factor, the rest were reasonable. We have had the washer for over a year now AND LOVE IT!!!
ReplyDelete