Before making a buying decision, customers go online and read opinions and experiences of others to find out whether a company is creditable or not.
There are many articles about how important these review sites for small businesses. Is it really the case? Do these reviews really give you a clear idea about a business? Are these review sites getting paid for these services?
Yelp Reviews
One of the biggest name in business review websites is Yelp. However, Yelp is far from being reputable review site out there. Many others often prove to be even more useful for products or services.
Home Design Outlet Center, after being in business for over 14 years has only few total Yelp reviews. At the bottom of the reviews page, in small prints there’s a link, more reviews but not recommended ! Most these reviews are positive reviews but they are not displayed. We can confirm that these reviews are from legitimate customers. Yelp can’t explain why these reviews are filtered.
Do you really think these reviews will give you a clear picture about a company? 14 years in business, thousands of customers, and just few reviews !
Let’s take a look at some of the negative reviews:
More than half of the reviews displayed are negative because many people do not prefer to share their positive experience.
One of the main reason for negative review is, customers do not read the product descriptions and “Terms And Conditions”
Just like every other business, we make mistakes. We work very hard to learn from our mistakes and provide an excellent customer service. But there are always factors we can not control such as weather conditions, trucking company issues, damages etc.
Also, there are customers threaten our business using these review sites: “I will post negative reviews on all your social media sites, if you don’t meet our demands! These type of reviews can be identified easily. We make every possible effort to satisfy our customers. Unfortunately, we can’t please every one.
Yelp does not confirm if a review is real. You can simply write a review about any business without even walking into their store or doing any kind of business with them.
Google Reviews
Google makes it very easy to find local businesses and provide very good information about them. You can learn a lot about the business, there are pictures, business hours, directions and customer reviews. Business owners can respond to all reviews, which is good feature but google doesn’t check the authenticity of the reviews either.
We want to respond to all reviews but no such customers exist in many cases. So, if you don’t like a company, you can simply write a negative review. It’s not fair but it’s that simple.
Here are what we have learned from reviews and what consumers should do:
Read The Terms And Conditions
Terms and conditions are very simple and clear. If you have any questions ask before you place your order.
Visit The Store
Online shopping made our lives a lot easier. You can simply shop for a bathroom vanity online at the comfort of your home. We do make every possible effort to show products on our website with actual pictures with detailed product descriptions. Nothing compares to seeing the bathroom vanities in person. If you are really picky about the cabinet color, if you are trying to match a specific design, we strongly recommend you to visit our showroom. There might be common name for a color but each color has different shades.
Learn More
Learn more about the products before you buy to avoid costly returns. Is the bathroom vanity you like will fit in your bathroom?
We all can agree that, businesses can learn from customer reviews and improve their services. But Yelp kind of review sites clearly shouldn’t be a part of your decision making. Their business model neither helps the consumers nor the businesses. They are only after the money …