Customer review

A customer review is a review of a product or service made by a customer who has purchased the product or service. Customer reviews are a form of customer feedback on electronic commerce and online shopping sites. There are also dedicated review sites, some of which use customer reviews as well as or instead of professional reviews. The reviews may themselves be graded for usefulness or accuracy by other users.

The reliability of customer reviews has been questioned.^[1] Abuses akin to ballot stuffing of favourable reviews by the seller, or negative reviews by competitors, need to be policed by the review host site. Since few sites restrict users to reviewing only items purchased from that site, it is difficult to prove a customer has actually used the product they are reviewing.

Traditional review methods

Before the advent of the internet, methods by which customers could review products and services included customer comment boxes and customer service helplines. These methods are still in existence today although internet review sites have grown significantly in recent years.

Review sites

History

One of the first review sites was Epinions, established in 1999.

Sites

Major dedicated review sites include:

• Better Business Bureau
• topseos (Internet Marketing)
• topcreditcardprocessors.com (Merchant Services)
• Angie's List
• CNet (technology)
• Epicurious (recipes)
• FlitterWeb (websites)
• Judy's Book
• MerchantCircle
• Qype (focuses on local businesses)
• TripAdvisor (hotels, restaurants and visitor attractions)
• Yelp!
• Amazon.com

Sites which incorporate significant review functions include:

• Amazon.com
• Barnes & Noble

Germany

• eKomi (retailers, services)
• Trusted Shops (retailers)

The UK

• Reevoo (products)
• Trustpilot (retailers)
• Feefo (retailers)
• Verified Reviews (retailers)
• eKomi (retailers, services)

The US

• Resellerratings (retailers)
• bestattorneysonline.com (Lawyers)
• ZocDoc (doctors)
• Verified Reviews (retailers)
• Bazaarvoice (retailers)
• eKomi (retailers, services)

The Netherlands

• Zoover (travel)

Spoof reviews

Humorous customer reviews are common on some major shopping sites, such as Amazon. These are often ironically or sarcastically laudatory reviews of products deemed kitsch or mundane. Another example is methylated spirits described in the style of a wine review.^[2] A product may become an internet meme attracting large numbers of spoof reviews, which may boost its sales.^[2][3] Famous examples include Tuscan Whole Milk and the Three Wolf Moon T-shirt.^[3]

Examples of spoof reviews

• A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates (book)
• f.lux (display color adjustment software based on the time of day)^[4]
• Twitter Wit: Brilliance in 140 Characters or Less (book)^[5]
• Osama Bin Laden's Hideout Compound (humorous reviews of Osama bin Laden's hideout compound written by Google Maps users after his killing on May 1, 2011)^[6]
• Uranium Ore^[7]
• "BIC Cristal For Her Ball Pen" ^[8]

British spoofers have targeted several build to order novelty products made by Media Storehouse from two million licensed photo library images, including a canvas print of minor celebrity Paul Ross, and a jigsaw puzzle of Nick Humby, a former finance director of Manchester United.^[2]

References