Consumer Review Sites - The Good and the Bad!!!

The consumer is the king/queen of the market scenario and they are always right: or are they? In today’s hyper age and hi-technology, a company cannot afford to be in the bad books of a customer for they vent their frustrations through the Internet, which has become a podium, a voice and an audience to the common consumer.

When a consumer today has a bad experience of a product, the first thing they want to do is - report it online and express their dissent to the World. Hence, the advent of sites like - www.mouthshut.com and www.tripadvisor.com which adds great value to a consumer’s experience and a black record for the said company. But, if a company has 5 stars but only 2 reviews, one shouldn't give too much weightage to it. After all, it is the opinion of just 2 individuals. What say?

However, it’s an amazing human tendency - when consumers experience a product positively, they humbly accept the goodness of the same and speak-out or refer about it to a few people around them. But, when they encounter a bad experience with the product/ service, their displeasure spreads like wild fire among their social groups, which includes people unknown to them. These reviews have in fact become hot topic of discussion during chats with friends during a comparison debate of different product or services. Also, these have inadvertently led to a mission to totally malign the company and highlight its shortcomings in a negative way. Not fair for the company in question, I say.

So, do these review sites cater to this typical human psyche? I guess the answer is yes, since some of these sites have the capability to make or break a company. We did a study of how the top 4 Online Travel Brands fared on a popular consumer review site called www.mouthshut.com

Travel Portal Name	Mouthshut Average Product rating	No. of Reviews
Travelguru.com	57%	121
Makemytrip.com	23%	348
Yatra.com	15%	155
Cleartrip.com	21%	50

All the 4 brands above are top online travel brands in India and do well, yet, if a customer has an issue the first thing they would do is go to sites like mouthshut.com and log their complaints.

It’s a fact that “happier customers means more business”. There would be thousands of customers who would have had a great smooth experience and enjoyed the product, but we don’t see them clamoring on to mouthshut.com to write reviews of their pleasant experience. So, is there a way for consumer sites to protect the “COMPANY” against this bias stand of human behavior?

I open the debate.