I define knowledge management as a system of information clarity and dissemination that allows you to take action to solve an immediate problem. That definition could be interpreted more abstractly, like, learning about a brand new topic you’ve been dying to know about. Or in this case to help you make a decision about buying a product while shopping.
Many of us like to do online comparison shopping. And we care about making an informed decision. We peruse blogs of topic experts we trust. We research on whatever product we’re interested in buying, and we read their expert opinions. Or we read the reviews on sites like Amazon. Reviews are useful to some degree, but they’re not foolproof.
1: There’s already some implied systematic selection bias.
I read somewhere (can’t remember where) that people who think unfavorably about a product are about twice as likely to write a review as people who think favorably of it. A product that averages 3.5 stars or better with a more or less equal distribution of scores is probably pretty good. A product that is disproportionately heavy on 1 star ratings probably is a dud. That self threading needle as seen on TV a few years back was terrible with shredding the fabric.
Time delay, or immediacy, can also bias a result. This is especially true of products and services people tend to buy again and again. Unless there is evidence of good quality thought put into writing the review, you can’t tell how much time has elapsed between when the product/service was first received and when they submitted the review.
In one example, a reviewer has an instant negative reaction and is livid enough to leave their review immediately. Or a reviewer does not have a high opinion of the product initially but after a couple of months they grow to like it and then leave a glowing review. The reverse can also happen. They are absolutely delighted with the product at first, but it breaks after 2 months and the thing was supposed to have a 1 year warranty.
But don’t count on the averages and distribution charts. And a low number of reviews isn’t a large enough sample size to be reliable.
2: People who review something for a company and get paid for it should disclose that fact so as not to give people the wrong impression about a product.
Giving a 5 star review to get paid, even if you think the product is honestly just …meh…, it’s not kosher. (It’s also illegal since FTC regulations require transparency in information dissemination.) False reviews don’t help anyone.
Be suspicious of products that have 50 reviews, all 5 stars. If outliers are the norm, then by definition they aren’t outliers. I’m more inclined to buy a highly rated product that has at least a few well-qualified negative reviews. These help me a lot more than reviews that fall into the next issue.
3: Many reviewers don’t explain why they rated something the way they did
Especially if it’s a negative review. “This product is a piece of beep! Stay away from it!” That doesn’t help anyone at all. Buyers want to know why the reviewer rated that product like that. Besides, there could be cases where a feature one person perceives as a drawback could actually be a benefit to somebody else. The same is true of positive reviews.
This is especially true when it comes to shopping for something like sports bras or shoes. One woman may complain about a particular bra that makes her boobs look bulkier; bulk might be considered a positive feature to another woman who’s already self-conscious about a relatively flat chest.
4: Some people seem to have not figured out how to use the system properly, or they treat it like something it isn’t.
Alice leaves a 5 star review but her comment clearly reads as something negative. The message and the rating are incongruent.
Bob leaves a negative review claiming that he never received his product. This is a misplaced application of use. That complaint needs to go to customer support. This is not an evaluation of the product, so this isn’t fair to plant a negative frame when you never actually received the product in the first place.
Carol says “I received the product faster than expected. It’s perfect!” Needless to say, this isn’t useful to anyone who is looking for how good or bad the product actually is.
Side note: On the bright side, Amazon has implemented some new rules to mitigate some of the abuse by only allowing customers who purchased over $50 of merchandise from them within the past 6 months to post reviews at all. And Amazon Marketplace has a review section for the merchants themselves.
5: Millennial bias does no favors when shopping for seniors.
My Dad will not ever ever EVER let me forget this one!!
Many older Baby Boomers and the elderly generation are intimidated by computers, and yet they still have more buying power than Millennials as a whole, not to mention they are a frequent target of scams which they easily fall prey to due to their naivete around technology. Most of the reviews out there tend to be written by Millennials and Gen-X ers.
Seniors are often wiser than the rest of us simply through having more life experience than the rest of us. But most of them don’t have the depth of computer experience of the younger generations — the exception would be the few seniors who actually used a computer throughout their lives, like in an IT career. So any site that has products that seniors might be interested in, even if seniors are intended to be the main target market, the reviews tend to be written by younger people.
Gen X-er Jennifer and her Millennial daughter Cassidy think gadget or app XYZ is great and they think Grandma Mabel agrees, but in all honesty, Mabel is confused and frustrated over why everyone not yet of retirement age thinks XYZ is the greatest thing since sliced bread. She’s sure not going to write a review of why XYZ sucks because she can’t figure out how to interact with the product’s website in the first place. Plus, frustration with learning new technology is killing her motivation.
So Jennifer writes how “My grand mother loves it as much as my college grad daughter and I do!” This is inaccurate and a misrepresentation. Not to mention Mabel and Cassidy are at odds when it comes to opinions of technology. Jennifer needs to do a better job of bridging the generation gap.
Seniors’ opinions are not fairly represented, and this is a big disadvantage when shopping for a senior. Tying this point back into the Snapchat interface example, Gen Z and Millennials were livid and vocal on social media about the user interface changes Snap made in 2018.
Hypothetically, if this happened with a product targeted to a primarily senior audience, the majority of the seniors probably would have simply stopped using that product altogether – they don’t want to bother learning their way around a new interface but they generally won’t voice to social media.
Their collective digital silence would speak volumes to that business. The few seniors that do voice their opinion online are probably savvy enough with tech to do so, and who knows, they may be the minority who might have actually liked the changes.
If my Dad has a problem with a computer product or service, and no IT nerd is around to help him, he’s going to call the tech support number anyway because he wants to speak to a real person. Even though the world is moving towards automation and digitization. Even though the company’s customer support knowledge base is available (though a lot of times it’s difficult to use… hello! I’ll help you fix yours!) He has a hard time finding any solution that remotely resembles what he needs if he’s lucky.
He doesn’t want to use the ticketing system to report an issue, yet many IT managed services are favoring this model now. He doesn’t want to deal with chatbots (he probably doesn’t know what a chatbot is, and plus, he’s rreeeaaalllly slow at typing).
He doesn’t want to deal with the automated voice message routing system, but odds are he must. After a 5 minute tag game of “press a number for whatever” until there’s finally the option to speak to a live person, it’s another 10 minutes before a customer representative, who speaks English slowly with a thick accent, finally takes his call.
And they’ll still log a ticket for you anyway because it’s standard procedure, but they will probably request your email address so you can be alerted to a follow up from them.
I probably could have figured out at least a good chunk of the solution on my own in half that time. The only time I (and any other techy introvert) would call tech support is after I’ve exhausted all the self-service solution options available to me. I’ll check the knowledge base first and see if somebody else reported the issue. If I can’t find anything useful, I’ll go to the chatbot.
If the chatbot can’t help me I’ll log a self service ticket in their system, explaining the issue in as much detail as I can because tech people need details to differentiate between one system and another; I know this because I’ve worked in the tech support side. If the self service rejects my request for assistance, I’ll try to get into a instant message session with a live person.
If that still fails, only then I’ll call tech support over the phone. I make sure to reference those ticket numbers when dealing with a live person. Yes, reference the ticket numbers for tracking because they do want to see how frequently some problem occurs, not to mention differentiate you from other customers who report the same issue. It’s funny how some customers are vocal in their complaints and they expect you to treat them like they’re the only customer, yet there are dozens of other customers facing the same issue at the same time.
Things to remember – the short version
- A large number of reviews that go into detail of why they picked their star count is a sign of standing the test of time. A small number of reviews indicates newness, so it’s difficult to make an informed evaluation.
- People are often more vocal about their negative experiences.
- Be suspicious of any products that don’t have negative reviews.
- Negative reviews are just as valuable as positive reviews. Be sure to review both.
- If you are shopping for a senior, be aware that they might not be adequately represented in the reviews.
- Skip the one-liners. Skip the ones that are incongruent between the star count and the comment. Skip the ones that don’t actually describe the product being reviewed. Check maybe half a dozen or so of those that do have quality reasons.
So … what tips do you guys have to share when it comes to informed shopping? Leave your thoughts below! Knowledge is power. Please share responsibly.
