Can You Trust the Reviews You Read?

July 4, 2013 - PRLog -- London, 04 July 2013 – Bribing shoppers to leave a review is bad practice. It reduces trust and it doesn’t even work.

One quarter of requests for reviews use a monetary incentive but we at Reevoo think this is wrong.  Visit www.reevoo.com/blog to read more.

In a recent sample of more than 50 email invitations to write a review or complete a survey, we found a quarter of invites were using money, prizes and freebies to lure people in.

-   "Would you recommend us? Get 5% off your next order"
-    “You will then be entered into a free prize draw where you could win an iPad or M&S vouchers.”
-   "Please submit a review and you have a chance to win a £1000"

The issue is trust. Consumers buy on the strength of reviews, but would they if they knew about the bribes?  We know consumers are worried – in 2011, 27% said so in a survey – and we think this is only getting worse.

We want this practice to stop. It is entirely unnecessary.

At Reevoo we collect reviews without any financial incentives. And we get the best collection rate in the business. We appeal to altruism.  Almost all people have been helped and guided by reviews themselves. Many feel inclined to return the favour. And because of this, trust in reviews stays intact.

To learn more read what our Czar of Impartiality Edwin Bos has to say in his recent blog post “Incentives and Trust: Why Many Companies are Doing Reviews Wrong”.

-ENDS-

Media contacts:
Monique Crapper, Reevoo
0207 654 0373
moniquecrapper@reevoo.com

About Reevoo
Conversations about your brand are already taking place, shaping consumer opinions.  Reevoo (www.reevoo.com) enables you to drive those conversations so you can attract, engage and retain more customers.  Validated “Ready for IBM Retail Industry Framework”, our social business suite provides reviews, recommendations and solutions that have an immediate impact on your bottom line, and turn feedback into insights that can guide your business.

More than 750,000,000 Reevoo-collected reviews and conversations are used every month across 90 countries. Founded in 2005, Reevoo has pioneered a unique social business model that continues to deliver far better results than the industry standard for brands including Acer, Dixons Retail, Ford Retail, Black & Decker, KIA, Kuoni, Lexus, Orange, and Sony.

Reevoo is headquartered in London with offices in EMEA, US and Australia.