The Pros and Cons of Business Review Sites

Flam's Lock and key is proud of their reviews and we are often approached to advertise on Yelp and Angie's List because of the majority of positive reviews.
I started this blog telling you this so you will agree that what I write is not biased or with an agenda to promote our company.
There are just a few things that you need to know before basing your decision to use ANY business based on its reviews but I will use Locksmith's as an example:

• Many reviews are based on services that do apply to the problems you need to solve. For example, if most of the reviews are raving about lockout services for auto and home the companies usually are not high end residential and commercial security professionals but 24/7 mobile services.They are easy to spot because that is what they advertise, There are always exceptions to the rule but you shouldn't have to look for a needle in a haystack.

• When a review says the company arrived on time and did a great job how does the customer always know? For example, was a lock replaced that could have been repaired? If the customer needed re- keys do they know the quality of pins and keys the company used? If they called a locksmith and said they need their locks changed because they just moved to a new location did the locksmith sell them new locks when the cylinders only needed repinning(I know companies that do that)? Do you know if the company replaced a lock that could have been easily picked? I know you don't and that is one of the major scams.

• Do you use Yelp? If so are you aware that many positive reviews are filtered on the bottom of the page because they have a system that 'automatically' determines if it is a ligitimate review. They often get it wrong!
• Yelp also claims that paid advertisers are treated the same as non-sponsored business's but it is interesting to note the number of reviews that are not filtered when they pay to advertise. I will continue to test what for now is a theory.

I think the take away  from this blog is that consumers should not 'entirely' rely on review sites and need to take some extra steps in researching companies. Word of mouth referrals that allow you to ask questions are still in the smart shoppers tool kit. There is a rule that still hold true...if you hear 3 good things about the same company it is usually true and the same for 3 bad things.
Protecting what you most value,
Vikki Flam