Review sites – good or bad?
How this necessary evil can help or harm the choices we make
Whether shopping for a new TV, picking a place to eat, or, yes, trying to locate the winner of the Epsom Derby… the chances are you will be influenced by a review of some kind.
It might be located on the company’s own website, could be via some external 3rd party reviewer.
But you can be sure that from as glamorous a thing as a P&O round-the-world cruise, to the more mundane things in life such as dishwasher tablets (not to mention a tipping service)… somebody, somewhere will have been there/done that, and expressed an opinion about it.
And being human, our subsequent choice of this hotel, that washing powder, or any given betting tipster, is very often altered by reading these comments.
Maybe at a purely sub-conscious level (I’m sure many of us would like to think we can see through a good/bad review), but there is likely to be some sort of impact, however small.
So why do we have review sites?
There are a number of reasons why review sites exist.
Here’s just a few…
1. Customers trust online reviews, and rely on them
These days online reviews have all but replaced word-of-mouth recommendations. From large platforms like TripAdvisor, to industry-specific sites like Checkatrade, it’s never been easier to get a second opinion before making a decision/purchase.
2. Online reviews help a business to understand customer expectations
Review sites provide consumers with a way to share their experience, good or bad, with the wider community. The more reviews a business gets, the better it should understand its customers and their expectations.
3. Online reviews increase your visibility
Most consumers will hunt out online reviews when trying to find a business or service. How, where, and in what context a company appears in these listings has a direct impact on sales. More visibility = more potential customers – it’s that simple.
4. Good online reviews are free marketing
No matter how convincing a company’s marketing strategy, at the end of the day they’re only telling one side of the story. Consumers are often far more likely to trust fellow customers over any in-house sales blurb.
5. More Online Reviews = More Sales
At the end of the day, all companies want to sell. And with so many would-be customers relying on reviews to tell them which shops/restaurants/tipsters to trust, the relationship between reviews and business cannot be ignored.
So as the marketing strategists would have us believe…
Review sites have become an integral, and even necessary, part of a company’s day-to-day business. Providing assistance with key functions such as advertising, product feedback and customer relations.
But are they always a force for good?
What’s the problem with Review Sites?
For all the benefits that some believe TripAdvisor or Google deliver…
Or the upside to customers that a product review on Amazon, or B&Q, might bring…
It’s not the case that every review, or every site of this kind, is an advantage – to either the customer or the service provider.
1. It’s easy for competitors to post false reviews on some sites
On a lot of review sites, it is all-too-easy for competitors (or simply troublemakers) to register under a variety of bogus names and post negative reviews. This is a form of “corporate sabotage” can be hard to detect, prove and rectify.
2. You just can’t please everyone
A company can’t please every single person in the world, no matter how amazing its product or service. Lord knows how many winning bets I’ve given some members, only to find them wanting more! Most reviews may well be positive, but there will almost always be one or two naysayers… “I know that bet won at 10/1, Matthew, but what about the other two that lost?!”
3. People like to read negative reviews
Again it’s human nature, but people like to read negative things. That’s why if a product or service is shown to have even just a handful of negative reviews on an online site, people will always be curious as to why those few negative reviews were posted.
Betting review sites – MY 2 MASSIVE BUGBEARS
Within the betting industry there are a whole host of betting review sites, services and individual operators.
All claim to be white knights when it comes to telling you how it is about this particular horseracing syndicate or that football betting website. And fair’s fair, a lot do their level best to provide a balanced and informed verdict about any tipping service they choose to review.
However, from the perspective of someone who is being, and has been, reviewed countless times, I have two major concerns that need to be stated.
1. The amount of data on which a review is based
As we all know, tipsters, professionals and amateur bettors alike can have good and bad spells. And even the best of us isn’t guaranteed to win over a week, let alone a month or even a quarter. Maybe over a full year (I know for a fact legendary punter Phil Bull didn’t win every season).
So does one period of losing make a service or tipster unreliable, untrustworthy, or a bad investment?
If a service wins 9 months of the year, but loses in 3 (not untypical – nobody wins every single month), if a review were based on just that losing spell, would it be fair? Is it representative of the service as a whole? No. It’s not.
But on occasion this will be the only data which some reviewers use when delivering their verdict.
2. Reviews are rarely (if ever) updated
Following on from the amount of data used for a review (often far too little) many review sites will not go back and reappraise a service.
If a service or tipster has a constantly evolving set of figures and ROI, shouldn’t a reviewer similarly keep up-to-date reviews on the services it puts under the microscope.
Too often I see a service reviewed, rated as poor, and never re-visited. So it lost for the period of a few months… if that service has been going for 5 or 10 years, and advised hundreds, if not thousands of bets, is a review based on 3-6 months results chapter & verse about its potential? No.
Let’s not forget, a poor or under-researched review stays on the web for EVER.
Experience has taught me that any source of bets can ebb-and-flow in terms of form and it is foolish to write of anybody because of one bad spell – even if this lasts for a “significant time”, whatever that is deemed to be.
So as I say, review sites are here to stay.
And you might rely on them as an impartial, objective, and customer-driven means of making the right decision – about a tipping service, or anything else in life.
But what I would also urge you to do, wherever possible, is to deal with the seller/company direct.
You might wish to start with a review site to begin, but from this starting point go and ask your own questions, ask to see results for yourself… and ultimately make your own decision.
OPINION: I have to play the game as review sites are part and parcel of the modern day business world. But what they do provide, for better or worse, is an extra layer between you (the customer) and me (the service provider) which, when I started out in this business 30+ years ago, simply wasn’t there. Call me old-fashioned but I always prefer to deal with members direct (and here’s my email direct email – matthew@matthewwalton.co.uk).
