If your competitor leaves you a bad review be nice to them argues Bazaarvoice boss
Austin speaking at SXSW today
There is “nothing wrong” with giving loyal customers samples or gift cards as an incentive to leave a positive review as long as it is acknowledged, the head of an online review platform has said.
Speaking at a session dealing with levels of trust in online reviews at SXSW overnight Gene Austin, CEO of Bazaarvoice, said businesses should respond positively to negative comments they suspect have been left by competitors.
Austin said in retail 70 per cent of people said they use reviews to decide whethter to buy products, and said it had “never been more important to make sure the online reviews are authentic and can be trusted”.
“There’s nothing wrong with taking loyalists and having them work for you, there’s nothing wrong with giving out free samples in return for content, but you have to acknowledge it.”
How does that differ to “cash for comment”? If I see a site populated with positive reviews, which then says that reviewers are rewarded, I don’t see those reviews as being authentic – they’re paid for reviews! If you want authenticity in reviews, then don’t incentivise people to leave them.
As to negative comments, I agree that it’s unwise to edit or delete them. That just opens a whole other can of anchovies. But where a business has solid evidence that a competitor is leaving negative reviews in order to damage that business, then there are legal avenues in dealing with this.
Not sure that Gene Austin gave the best advice here.