Some retailers might see the emergence of online product review sites as a detriment to their business. However, these sites can become useful resources to both the consumer and the retailers. They’re creating a level of unprecedented transparency within the shopping world. As with companies that took advantage of the emergence of the internet, retailers who capitalize on online review sites can make positive changes.
Quality Assurance
Online product review sites provide quality assurance for both the consumer and the retailer. The consumer can address issues with quality, and become informed of any quality issues with both the service and the product itself. On the flip side of these retailers who have issues that fall through the cracks of their internalized quality assurance programs can see these problems through a customer’s eyes. If customers are caught between purchasing two types of a product, for instance, they may rely on the professionals at Radar Logic to give accurate information. Companies can visibly see any quality problems with the product and service and address these accordingly.
Product review sites are likely to publish any resolutions along with the product review, allowing retailers to make up for any detriment in reputation. Customers can also use these resolutions as a precedent for their own experience i.e. “This is how you handle the situation for this person, I expect the same form of resolution”.
Needed Feedback
Online review sites give retailers needed feedback that customers might not always provide on traditional forms of review. Either the customers are too frustrated to respond to the retailer, or they feel like their feedback won’t be read and taken seriously. Online reviewers generally engaged with their audience members, are likely to take any suggestions and provide them on their media of choice. This feedback can give the retailer the ability to think from an outside-in perspective on ways they can improve their service. This doesn’t automatically point to an inherent problem with the service or product, but ways that it can be improved.
Advertising
A giant expense for retailers is an advertisement, and advertisement on a large scale on the internet can start to become expensive. Retailers should seek any forms of free advertising they can, and so they should welcome these online review sites with open arms. If retailers are proud of their service, they’ll want to show that service to the world, and it’s no extra expense to them.
A problem that customers can face is not having products advertised to them properly. Maybe an ad targets one demographic, but the product itself is inclusive of another demographic as well. The online product review site may cater to that form of audience, and allow for the retailer to reach this population, and allow for the customer to become aware of the products they otherwise may have not.
Global Perspective On Company Business
Often businesses get caught up within the product itself, and improvements and alterations of that product. They often aren’t seeing their company from an organic perspective, with functions that serve other purposes other than retailing. Customer service and customer resolution fall within that realm. It can give companies a chance to see the entirety of their company from how to appear to the customer. It can also give the customer the same opportunity to see the business as something they’d either like to purchase from or something that isn’t worth their time and money.
Establishing And Maintaining a Reputation
As mentioned previously, online review sites give the consumer full visibility of the company before investing any money. That means it’s even more important for retailers to keep on their toes in regards to customer service. Not all organizations provide bad service, and many who haven’t handled customers the best are striving to improve on those internal processes. Those companies are then rewarded by receiving positive reviews from sites who view their conduct of business favorably. It’s also possible for their reputation to fall, and it works as a check to ensure that companies are working to the best of their ability for the benefit of the consumer.
Online review sites are serving as a check to keep companies honest, and obviously, customers are benefiting from the ability to research these retailers. Retailers can benefit from these sites as well because they give a telescope into their internal workings, and how they can become better for customers. Free advertising can work both as a detriment and a positive, and so companies are working harder than ever before to address their company’s needs. Whether you’re a fan of them or not, online product review sites won’t be going anywhere in the foreseeable future, so it’s best to adapt and use them to buy and provide better products and services.
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Interesting related article: “What is Quality Assurance?“