How to Spot a Fake Review For Your Product

For as long as we remember, when we are buying something from a new place, we ask someone around us, "Do you think this is good?". From asking people around us to today shopping online, the doubts are only bigger. Will this product reach me on time? Is the quality good enough? etc. The questions never end and the answers are needed in real time.

This is seen in the trend of reviews today. You visit a restaurant, book a hotel or buy something online, it's almost mandatory to check the reviews first. A few bad reviews and your decision to go ahead with the product or booking is already a no.

But in the time and age of the internet, there are also fake reviews that do the rounds. As an entrepreneur running an e-commerce portal or one listing your products on one, how do you stop fake reviews from ruining your business?

Entrepreneur India spoke to start-up founders to get the answers.

How Important are Reviews?

Reviews today help a consumer take a decision. With doubts regarding the online e-commerce portals already, one is almost always questioning the authenticity of a product and reviews are a way of letting the user now that this product is good enough. Raghunandan Saraf, CEO & Founder, Saraf Furniture too believes that reviews play an important role in our decision-making process of buying products online. "In fact, 90% of shoppers' buying decision is influenced by online reviews," he said.

How to Spot a Fake Review

Going through the numerous list of reviews for a product, it's important for the consumer as well as the entrepreneur to know the difference between a fake and real review. Fake reviews are aimed at misleading the customers and bringing down the brand value of a certain company. Namrataa Kripallani, Pastry Chef and Owner, Forennte Patisserie believes that fake reviews are mostly vague and lack details. Saraf too agrees. He said that truthful reviews contain concrete words specifically related to the product such as its design, quality or shipping. "A fake review will usually have an overuse of the product name as some marketers will formulate reviews to improve search engine rankings. In these instances, fake reviews will include multiple instances of the full product name," he said.

If a review is one sentence long but has 5 stars, it offers very little value and chances are that its fake or the reviewer is being compensated in some way. "One can also spot a fake review by checking on the reviewers' personal profile. If all his/her reviews have the same language and look like more of copy-paste language is essentially a fake reviewer," said Kripallani.

How to Handle Fake Reviews

It's important to weed out the fake reviews so as to keep the authenticity of your products. While trying to remove the fake reviews, Saraf suggests that one should try to research the credibility of a given review and establish the credibility of the reviewer.

An entrepreneur should be transparent and honest while handling these fake reviews. It's okay to come forward and flag these reviews. Kripallani suggests to tackle it on a public platform openly by logging in as an Admin. "When people are confronted on an open platform and know, their review is fake, they usually delete it themselves," she said.

Fake reviews can hamper the growth of a business be it a start-up or an established brand. Unfortunately, these reviews are often left flippantly, sometimes even by people who had no actual experience with your company, believes Saraf.

"Speed matters to ensure that you respond quickly and be specific with the content. It's very important to address the customer's exact complaint. They need to understand that they were heard and that you value their opinion," he said.