Experts from the Center for Digital Expertise of Roskachestvo explained why you should not blindly trust online reviews and how to recognize fake reviews.
Ilya Loevsky, the Deputy Head of Roskachestvo was quoted in their article saying:
Alas, this auxiliary tool has ceased to be effective, and now companies are actively competing for positive characteristics on the Web, working not for the quality of goods and services, but for the “positive noise” around their brand. For one negative honest review, ten fake praises will be written – this is pure manipulation of consumer opinion. Reviews on the Web have turned from being a powerful marketing tool into a toy for companies that powder the brains of consumers.
How To Spot Fake Reviews
Roskachestvo have advised that to spot fake reviews, you can follow the below checklist:
- If a lot of reviews are written in one or two days, and before that there is a significant break. Most likely, this is a package ordered by copywriters. Real reviews tend to have a fairly random scatter in the date of abandonment. By the way, there are also more protracted “campaigns” when reviews are published in a row for weeks, several pieces every day. But they are also easy to calculate, noting that there is a suspicious lull before and after the “stack” of reviews.
- If the reviews are about the same size and are similar in style, they contain the same type of emotionally colored statements (“amazing product”, “delight”, “the best company”, “they did everything very cool”, “the lowest prices”, as well as calls “see for yourself “,” Try and see for yourself “). Most likely, these are copywriters who comply with the requirements set to them, and they did not even use the product or service itself. Real reviews often vary in size and style.
- If reviews contain abstract language. For example, “the product is perfect”, “this product” or “used the service”, which apply not only to the subject of the review, but to anything in general. A real person leaves a review in order to tell what he liked or did not like in a particular product, he will not go into abstraction, unlike a copywriter, who most likely did not hold the product for which he writes a review. At the other extreme: the text is full of detailed “selling” facts that are more likely to be known not by the buyer, but by the employee of the company.
- If the text of the review contains the following keywords : the full name of the company, “quality services”, “timely delivery” – and the like, obviously advertising wording. A large number of superlative adjectives and an inadequately enthusiastic look at the product are also quite suspicious.
- If on the page with reviews there are only negative or only positive opinions in a row . This is, of course, statistically unlikely. Most likely, this is either an “order” of competitors, or “self-promotion” (they wrote about themselves well). Honest reviews most often alternate with some general preponderance of positive or negative, depending on the quality of the product itself.
- If the creator of a review writes many or several of these every day , and even about a variety of things. Most likely, this is an employee, because real buyers leave reviews on an irregular basis. Look at the commentator profiles if the service has such an opportunity.
- If the author of the review first declares a defect, and then justifies it. For example, “the courier arrived later, but they can be understood – there are a lot of orders.” It is important for the consumer to receive a quality product or service on time and quickly, and if something goes wrong, he will not look for excuses himself, but simply write “the courier is late” or “the packaging leaves much to be desired”.
