Surveys and Reviews
 

As a consumer or when receiving any kind of service how often do you fill out a survey or review? (Excluding things like Swagbucks or any other survey site or similar where you're getting rewarded to participate or even promotional surveys that offer some kind of deal for participating.)

What are your thoughts on them in general? Do you feel they are useless and probably don't make a difference or have you seen that they can be really helpful? Do you find yourself more so filling them out when you are displeased and want to make a complaint or maybe the opposite as in when you've been really impressed by something/someone?

Have you ever been notified at your place of employment if you or your place of business has received good or bad reviews?

How often do you look through and compare reviews before purchasing or using a product, trying a new place to eat or visit, and so on?

I don't fill out reviews too often unless it's stuff like clothes because I hate when I want to buy say...a new skirt and there are zero reviews that talk about how it fits and what size the person got. So I try to do very detailed reviews on clothes. And if I feel pressured to or if I think the service was exceptionally good, then I leave a review on Etsy for stuff. I have a planner sticker shop I buy from a lot that I don't really leave reviews for anymore because I've already reviewed a handful of their items and I just feel like my review is gonna be the same for everything I get.

i hate surveys and i only use steam reviews to review video games.

Kaderine,
I appreciate that you leave reviews for clothes b/c that's probably one of the things I consistently look for is reviews on clothes. Especially with buying online. I have body image issues so between that and then with Covid, some places around here STILL have their dressing rooms closed, clothes shopping is always a nightmare for me. At least with online I can try it on the privacy of my own home and while returning can be a pain it's still much better the option. However, to avoid having to return to many things, those reviews really help when detailed and talking about the fit of an item or if say it runs small or large.

I get what you're saying with Etsy. I really try to leave a review when I can but at the same time if I bought several variations of an item, I don't feel the need to review every single one and ect.

Stabbsworth, do you ever review the games yourself or just watch reviews of the game to get an idea of it?

Jester, I get that with anything media wise. People like different things you know? Movies, shows, games, ect. I might read a few things in passing but usually if I'm digging into reviews of something like that it's because I'm either already interested ad just wanting more info to get hyped about or if I'm on the fence about something and I'll look at multiple reviews for specific things mentioned.

Products and services though I do find reviews really helpful for but with all reviews you have to take some with a grain of salt and really pay attention to things that are either being mentioned consistently or seemingly go unmentioned. Sometimes you can just tell by the tone of the review too. I've worked customer service for years and can tell you that some people just can't be made happy or want to find something to complain about because they had a bad day and want to take it out on someone or something. On the flip side there are also times when people are paid, reimbursed, or given incentives to write good reviews. Still though, being able to weed through all of that I find when you can spot genuine reviews they can be extremely helpful.

My main problem with surveys and reviews is the selection bias.

Reviews tend to be posted by people who Have Something To Say. This means that problems will be amplified while the satisfied people will either stay quiet or will just say "great product" or something because there's no specific point worth talking about.

Likewise, survey participation favors people who like filling out surveys or who have a vested interest in the subject matter. So I can't really trust the results unless they're carried out with a properly controlled setup.

But when you try to do a properly controlled setup on reviews, you end up with really, really stupid stuff like Amazon Q&A responses that are just "I don't know" because people feel like they're obligated to respond.

Coda,

You make some good and valid points.

It is hard to find positive reviews that are also detailed.

I like taking surveys but the issue I found with sites that will give you rewards for taking surveys is that I didn't qualify for many. Like you mentioned I think they get too biased to get results they want. I'm not constantly buying random crap all the time and a lot of the prequalifying questions made it seem like they only want the input of people that are spending hundreds of dollars on stuff every week.