Are Customer Reviews Reliable? This is an age old question, or at least as old as the internet itself. The answer is simple.
Yes, no, and maybe.
If you’ve studied statistics at all, you may have heard of something called statistical significance. That means there is enough of a sample set enough data that the data can be judged as being a fairly good indication of the truth.
So, one of the first questions when asking if reviews are reliable is simply how many reviews there are. You’re much safer trusting large number averages than you are individual reviews.
Individual reviews can be biased in both directions. Individual reviews can be interactive, inaccurate, and they can be misleading.
And this is one of the reasons that review sites are often unfair to small businesses because they tend to only get a small number of extreme reviews based on the research available.
I would say that online reviews should be always viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism.
About the Author Adam Toporek
By Adam Toporek. Adam Toporek is an internationally recognized customer service expert, keynote speaker, and workshop leader. He is the author of Be Your Customer's Hero: Real-World Tips & Techniques for the Service Front Lines (2015), as well as the founder of the popular Customers That Stick® blog and co-host of the Crack the Customer Code podcast.
