I cannot pin point the exact moment I started using reviews as a guide to my decisions process. However, I currently use them for most of my decisions when it comes to deciding where to go and what to buy.
I remember living in a world review free. My choices of where to eat or where to do my hair, for example, usually came with a recommendation or by simply taking a chance. I imagine restaurants and hotels living back then without fully knowing how their customers felt. Maybe it was simpler times?
Reviews, a few years ago, where basically worth of mouth. “I recommend to you my cleaner, they are fabulous there” and so I went. I believe people live more freely and also business didn’t suffer as much as today. But… things change and time change, thanks to invention.
Here is a little story: today before joining my yoga class I overheard two instructors talking about their reviews. I felt bad for them. They get nervous when they have new reviews. Also, they get a bit nervous before a class. Why? Because there’s always a chance someone will give a review. To pass the judgement wand. To make a statement, to make a change or to make it count. Who knows?
I used to work in a review based company. Go figure! Although I have my reservations with reviews I trusted their product. I still like it and I believe it is great for many businesses. If you have a business and you deliver a good service, you will get an awesome review. However, you can’t win them all. There’s people out there not happy with X situation and can deeply hurt a business if their word gets out.
As for myself, I feel a bit self-conscious when it comes to reviews. Where to eat? Open Foursquare > check best rating (has to be 8.5 or more– out of 10) > see photos > look reviews > make a choice. Where to stay? Search what I want > read reviews for a whiiiiile > make a choice.
Nowadays we have so many review sites: Yelp, TripAdvisor, Google Reviews, Foursquare, Facebook, Glassdoor, and the list goes on! I feel no one is safe haha
How we got here? How the opinions of others influence our behavior? So, for me its a simple answer : human beings like to trust. If 10 people say the food is great, so beat it! If they say the Airbnb experienced sucked, no one will go.
And so there is. The era of reviews. Smart people figure this out and made successful businesses out of it! In developed countries reviews are part of the day of day activity/habit in regards to decision making. These companies are making so much money because of us, human beings, need to trust something first before we make a commitment.
On the other side of the coin…We can still ditch the phones and these platforms and live at little.
For example, a few weeks ago I went on a trip to Zion National Park in Utah and my group was craving Thai food. Yeah, I know…we were in Utah. However, there was (1) Thai restaurant but their Google reviews were awful (3.8 out of 5), so we skipped the 1st day. The second day we were craving the fresh Thai food so we took a chance. I can say it’s one of the best Thai restaurants I’ve been to in the West side of the world. Why they have such bad reviews? We pictured a lot of people would’ve prefer a hamburger and that’s why they were disappointed. We didn’t know why they “suck” in Google, but in real life it was AWESOME. Fresh food, spicy, great service. Oh well, it made me think too that in an era where there’s so many choices people are getting very spoiled (“the food was meh”) and businesses need to be more on top of their game.
So, that’s that. My life has changed because of reviews. I hate to love them. Love them to hate them. It’s a new era and I feel this is just starting. Hopefully people don’t suffer from anxiety, like in my previous company, where the CEO would kill for a good review. If all goes well, business won’t crash. In addition, people like me will give businesses a chance every now and then. Hopefully we really live a little and trust our gut before making a decision instead of wasting our precious time reading reviews.
In the meantime, here we are. Thank God no one can rate my blog haha so long!
xoxo,
Cristina
*** If you are curious the restaurant name in Zion National Park is Thai Sapa***
