The Psychology of

Customer Reviews
Nick Kolenda

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COPYRIGHT 2016 KOLENDA ENTERTAINMENT LLC

WORDING ...................................................................................7
Tip 1: Use a Maximum Word Count for Review Titles ................................7
Tip 2: Use a Minimum Word Count for Review Text ...................................7
Tip 3: Detect (and Fix) Spelling and Grammar Errors ...............................8
Tip 4: Dont Hide the Drawbacks of Your Product ........................................8
Tip 5: Use Placeholder Text to Get Persuasive Review Titles ..................9
Tip 6: Categorize the Review into Subheadings ............................................11
Tip 7: Ask Questions That Will Extract Persuasive Information ............12
Tip 8: Reward Users Who Add Images or Video ...........................................16

SOURCE .......................................................................................17
Tip 9: Show Reviews from Regular Customers .............................................17
Tip 10: Show Proof That Users Consumed the Product ............................18
Tip 11: Display the Real Names of Reviewers ................................................18
Tip 12: Rank Each Reviewers Contribution History ..................................19
Tip 13: Let Users Follow Reviewers ...................................................................20

ARRANGEMENT ........................................................................21
Tip 14: Emphasize One Positive and One Negative Review .....................21
Tip 15: Sort by Most Helpful (Positive) Reviews ..........................................22
Tip 16: Let Users Sort Reviews By Different Criteria ..................................23
Tip 17: Show Fewer Reviews for Luxury Products ......................................24

RATING ........................................................................................25
Tip 18: Display a Rating Thats Above Average, Yet Imperfect ...............25
Tip 19: Use Simpler Rating Scales for Niche Products ...............................26
Tip 20: Show Ratings on Multiple Dimensions of the Product ...............27
Tip 21: Let Users Rate the Helpfulness of Each Review ............................28
Tip 22: Use Schema Markup to Show Ratings in Search Engines ..........29
DAMAGE CONTROL .................................................................31
Tip 23: Let Readers Comment on Reviews ......................................................31
Tip 24: Respond to Negative Reviews ...............................................................32
Tip 25: Monitor (and Censor) the Use of Expletives ...................................33
Tip 26: Let Users Flag or Report Reviews .......................................................33

CONCLUSION .............................................................................34
Customer reviews are everywhere.

TripAdvisor alone has 385 million reviews (source). If you

converted those reviews into post-it notes, the stack would be 38,500
meters.

Thats 4x higher than Mount Everest:

And thats just TripAdvisor. When you add reviews from other sites
(e.g., Amazon, Yelp, Walmart)

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thats a lot of reviews, my friend.

But despite so many reviews, very little how-to information exists.

For example:

Which reviews are more persuasive?

How can you overcome negative reviews?
How can you get customers to write better reviews?

To answer those questions, I hit up Google Scholar. I read 202 academic

studies, spanning more than 12 million reviews:

There was a ton of info. But I compiled the unique (and actionable)
hindings into this article.

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 WORDING
TIP 1: USE A MAXIMUM WORD COUNT FOR
REVIEW TITLES

Salehan and Kim (2014) analyzed 35,000 reviews on Amazon. They

found that shorter titles perform better.

length of the title was negatively related to

readership. Apparently people use review titles as a
quick source of information about the general theme
of the review. Reading and processing a longer title
takes more time and demotivates people to read
them. (pp. 12)

Consider enforcing a maximum word count (e.g., 10 words) to reduce

the length of review titles.

TIP 2: USE A MINIMUM WORD COUNT FOR

REVIEW TEXT

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The opposite occurs for text within a review. Bjering, Havro, and Moen
(2015) analyzed 1,489,194 Amazon reviews, and they found that
longer reviews are more persuasive.

To extract longer reviews, you could require a minimum length (e.g.,

200 characters). Or you could use a suggested length.

TIP 3: DETECT (AND FIX) SPELLING AND

GRAMMAR ERRORS

Not all reviews are equal.

Specihically, reviews with spelling or grammar errors are less

persuasive (Schindler & Bickart, 2012). Sohix that.

In text hields, add functionality to detect errors. Help reviewers hind

(and hix) them before they publish reviews.

TIP 4: DONT HIDE THE DRAWBACKS OF YOUR

PRODUCT

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Hmm, mention drawbacks? What next? Show my F rating from the Better
Business Bureau?

I know it sounds weird. Reviews are supposed to PROMOTE a product,

right? So why badmouth it?

Well, if you crunch the numbers, reviews are more persuasive when
they mention benehits and drawbacks (Doh & Hwang, 2009).

Those two-sided reviews seem more authentic:

reviewers who criticize the products they review in

a small way but then end up recommending the
product are viewed as more credible and subsequently
more influential on potential buyers perceptions
about the product. (Jensen et al., 2013, pp. 314)

TIP 5: USE PLACEHOLDER TEXT TO GET

PERSUASIVE REVIEW TITLES

In text hields, placeholders usually give instructions. Thats the norm

but its a missed opportunity.

Instead, you should use placeholders that in addition to instructing

also elicit a persuasive response.

Suppose that youre a PPC advertising platform.

When users enter their bid, you should expose them to a high number
like Outbrain does:

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Those placeholders will trigger an anchoring effect (Tversky &
Kahneman, 1975). Advertisers will enter higher bids, generating more
ad revenue.

And you could follow a similar approach with review titles. Skip the
explanatory, Enter your review title here. Ugh. Such a waste.

Since short and benehit-focused titles are most persuasive (Salehan &
Kim, 2014), display that type of title in your placeholder text:

That placeholder should elicit a similar response.

You should also consider mentioning the strongest benehit. If a

dissatishied customer is writing a negative review, the text will be a
subtle reminder of something positive. It could transform a harsh 1-
star review into an average 3-star review.

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TIP 6: CATEGORIZE THE REVIEW INTO
SUBHEADINGS

Glassdoor separates their reviews into components (e.g., pros, cons,

etc.).

Those subheadings increase the persuasiveness of a review

(Mackiewicz & Yeats, 2014). Plus, they reduce paragraph density
which further increases persuasiveness (Kampouris, 2013).

You could create those subheadings by asking the reviewer different

questions:

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As youll see next, you should also be asking the right questions

TIP 7: ASK QUESTIONS THAT WILL EXTRACT

PERSUASIVE INFORMATION
Dont assume that happy customers will write good reviews. Happy
customers can write crappy reviews.

Luckily, Amazon collects data on helpful reviews. And multiple

researchers have analyzed that data. We know which reviews are helpful
and why.

More importantly, you can give guidelines to extract that information.

Similar to the subheadings in the previous tip, you can ask reviewers
specihic questions so that they write a helpful review.

Based on research, these questions should help:

A) ASK REVIEWERS TO DESCRIBE THE RESEARCH

FROM THEIR PURCHASE DECISION

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Reviews are more persuasive when they describe research from the
purchase decision. Those statements build credibility:

Such statements appear to build a reviewers

credibility by indicating the reviewers willingness to
invest time and energy into making a sound
purchasing decision. (Mackiewicz & Yeats, 2014, pp.
318)

For example:

B) ASK REVIEWERS TO DESCRIBE THEIR EXPERIENCE

WITH SIMILAR PRODUCTS

Reviews are more persuasive when they describe experiences with

similar products (Mackiewicz & Yeats, 2014).

For example:

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C) ASK REVIEWERS TO DESCRIBE HOW THEY USE THE
PRODUCT

Reviews are more persuasive when they offer concrete examples.

Those statements increase the diagnosticity of the review (Li et al.,
2011).

For example:

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D) ASK REVIEWERS HOW THEY FELT (FOR HEDONIC
PURCHASES)

Emotional language is more persuasive for hedonic products even if

the language is negative (Ren & Nickerson, 2014).

Why?

Because the emotional tone is congruent with the emotional nature of

the purchase. And that congruency feels good.

Kronrod and Danziger (2013) use the example of higurative language.

Consider these descriptions of a seafood department:

FIGURATIVE: You can hind the entire ocean in the seafood department
LITERAL: The seafood department contains a very large variety

The higurative description because of its emotional nature makes

hedonic consumption more salient. In turn, customers are drawn
toward hedonic choices.

Therefore, dont ask customers why they purchased a hedonic product.

Ask how they FELT about it.

Its a slight change in wording, but the response should be more

persuasive (Moore, 2015).

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TIP 8: REWARD USERS WHO ADD IMAGES OR
VIDEO

Reviews are more persuasive when they contain images (Cheng & Ho,
2015) or video (Xu & Chen, 2012).

How can you inhluence customers to include them? Well, you could
mention that reviews with images or videos receive more helpful votes.
Youll be giving them an intrinsic incentive.

Or you could offer an extrinsic reward (e.g., discount) to customers who

include images or video.

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 SOURCE
TIP 9: SHOW REVIEWS FROM REGULAR
CUSTOMERS

Reviews are most persuasive when customers identify with the

reviewer. If the reviewer seems similar, then customers gain more
conhidence that the product will be a good hit.

Thats why regular customers are more persuasive than experts (Li et
al., 2011). New customers cant identify with professionals. They
identify with Joe Schmo.

Unless the product is risky or unsafe which would increase the need
for an expert show reviews from typical customers who represent
your target market.

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TIP 10: SHOW PROOF THAT USERS CONSUMED
THE PRODUCT

Were living in a world where you can buy fake reviews. Need proof? I
created a fake company by reversing my last name. Heres a quick video
review for ADNELOK. Listen for the dual meaning in the script I sent
her.

In todays world, you need proof in some capacity that a review is

genuine.Thats why reviews are more persuasive when they come from
verihied purchasers (Bjering, Havro, & Moen, 2015).

If you cant show a status, then incentivize customers to upload selhies

with the product (Yang, Chen, & Tan, 2014).

TIP 11: DISPLAY THE REAL NAMES OF

REVIEWERS

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Some usernames are less persuasive.

Sure, MOST usernames will be normal (e.g., jschmo). But theyre still
less persuasive than real human names (e.g., Joe S. or Sally P.).

Liu and Park (2015) found direct evidence that real names are more
persuasive in customer reviews.

TIP 12: RANK EACH REVIEWERS

CONTRIBUTION HISTORY

Compile data on each reviewer:

How many reviews have they written?

How many helpful votes have they received?

Then rank each reviewer based on that information. Youll create a win-
win:

WIN #1: Youll entice customers to write more reviews (in order to
reach a higher rank). Plus, if you count helpful votes in the ranking,
theyll strive to write better reviews.

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 WIN #2: New customers can evaluate review credibility more
effectively. They can place more trust in reviewers with a high ranking.

TIP 13: LET USERS FOLLOW REVIEWERS

Similarly, you could let users follow reviewers. The social nature would
spark more intrinsic motivation for reviewers. Theyll feel motivated to
write better reviews in order to receive more followers.

Cheng and Ho (2015) found empirical support for that strategy.

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 ARRANGEMENT
TIP 14: EMPHASIZE ONE POSITIVE AND ONE
NEGATIVE REVIEW

Amazon currently highlights a positive AND negative review.

You can usually trust the behavior of a powerhouse like Amazon

who must be A/B testing the hell out of their site. High trafhic websites
have the data. They know whats working. And whats not.

But why is it working? Well, I already explained the benehits of

mentioning drawbacks (Doh & Hwang, 2009). The same effect applies
here.

Plus, a negative review will trigger the blemishing effect:

providing consumers with positive information

followed by a minor piece of negative information
appears to enhance their overall evaluations of a
target, relative to providing exclusively positive

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 information. (Ein-Gar, Shiv, & Tormala, 2012, pp.
855)

So dont hide your negative reviews. Show a positive review. Then show
a negative one.

This tip works especially well if you have MANY reviews. By narrowing
their focus on two reviews, youll prevent information overload. They
wont need to read ALL reviews just those two (Forman, Ghose, &
Wiesenfeld, 2008).

TIP 15: SORT BY MOST HELPFUL (POSITIVE)

REVIEWS

Were inhluenced by the order of information. When people encounter a

sequence of information, the initial pieces create expectations for the
remaining pieces.

If initial information is positive, then people expect the remaining

information to be positive. And those expectations inhluence their
perception. Theyll interpret all subsequent information to be more
positive, regardless of the true valence (Asch, 1946).

The same effect applies to reviews.

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When customers arrive on your page, the initial reviews are most
important. Those reviews will anchor a certain perception positive
or negative and that perception inhluences their evaluation of your
product.

You should place POSITIVE reviews at the top so that customers

develop a favorable perception of your product. See Lianzhuang (2015)
for direct evidence.

TIP 16: LET USERS SORT REVIEWS BY

DIFFERENT CRITERIA

By default, you should place the most helpful reviews on top. But you
can also add other sorting options:

Date (e.g., most recent)

Stars (e.g., all three star reviews)
VeriZication (e.g., only verihied reviews)
Formats (e.g., all video reviews)
Topics (e.g., reviews that mention a topic)

Most users dont use those sorting options. However, those options still
enhance the credibility of reviews (Holleschovsky, 2015).

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TIP 17: SHOW FEWER REVIEWS FOR LUXURY
PRODUCTS

Usually, volume is a good thing. The MORE reviews the BETTER.

But thats not true for luxury products (Blal & Sturman, 2014). People
buy those products because of the uncommonness. Thus, more reviews
can be harmful.

If youre selling a high-end product, dont go overboard. Stick to a small

handful of testimonials.

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 RATING
TIP 18: DISPLAY A RATING THATS ABOVE
AVERAGE, YET IMPERFECT

Most businesses strive for a perfect rating.

When we see anything less, we want to punch the reviewer in the face.
Did they even use the f**king product?!

Take a breath. I have good newsperfect ratings are overrated.

Literally.

Maslowska, Malthouse, and Bernritter (2016) analyzed eCommerce

data. People were more likely to purchase products with a moderately
high rating (4 to 4.5 stars) than a very high rating (4.5 to 5 stars).

Why? Because imperfect ratings seem authentic. When customers see a

perfect rating, they become suspicious of fake reviews.

So next time you see a moderate review, dont be angry. Be thankful.

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TIP 19: USE SIMPLER RATING SCALES FOR
NICHE PRODUCTS

For niche products, ask people if they would recommend it. Those
binary yes or no ratings will perform better:

We find that a review system with low scale levels

such as like/dislike is optimal for niche products and a
review system with high scale levels such as 1-10 is
optimal for popular products. (Guo & Jiang, 2012, pp.
12)

Think of it like a pass or fail option in college. A pass will look better
than a D+.

You can display the values in percentages (see image above). Or, if your
rating is worse, you could display absolute values. That way, customers
wont see the number of people who didnt recommend it:

But were already beyond the scope of the article. If youre getting bad
reviews because of a crappy product, then you have bigger problems.

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TIP 20: SHOW RATINGS ON MULTIPLE
DIMENSIONS OF THE PRODUCT
Most businesses display one overall rating. However, Hong, Chen, and
Hitt (2012) suggest using a multi-dimensional rating.

Most customers dont read reviews they SCAN reviews. In turn, they
devote less attention to the written qualitative text. And they place
more attention on the quantitative data:

Among all the information that websites provide for

review purposes, statistics are the most prominent
and often the first that consumers examine. (Wu &
Wu, 2016, pp. 43)

Multi-dimensional ratings are effective because customers can scan

them. Those ratings give customers a quick glimpse into multiple
features of your product.

You could also display product-specihic dimensions. If youre selling

laptops, for example, ask users to rate the speed, durability, aesthetics,
battery life, or other important features. The list shouldnt be excessive.
It should just capture the primary selling points.

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TIP 21: LET USERS RATE THE HELPFULNESS
OF EACH REVIEW

Ask users to rate helpfulness. You can use that data in different ways.

First, youll be able sort the reviews more effectively (Kampouris,

2013). If you know which reviews are most helpful, you can position
those reviews on top.

Second, youll be able to add that data into a reviewers prohile.

With a public display and a goal to strive toward you incentivize

reviewers to write helpful reviews.

You could even add multiple voting criteria:

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 Was it helpful? Yes or No
Was it funny? Yes or No
Was it easy to read? Yes or No

Like Yelp:

If you mention those voting criteria, reviewers will try to reach high
ratings on those dimensions. So theyll write better reviews. Since
research shows that persuasive reviews are humorous and easy-to-
read (Schindler & Bickart, 2012), consider using those dimensions to
evaluate reviews.

TIP 22: USE SCHEMA MARKUP TO SHOW

RATINGS IN SEARCH ENGINES

If you show reviews on your website, dont forget to add Schema

Markup so that the information populates in search results. Youll

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typically receive a higher click-through rate (which should help your
page rank higher).

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 DAMAGE CONTROL
TIP 23: LET READERS COMMENT ON REVIEWS

That review was from my book, Methods of Persuasion. If you have a

great product, then customers will jump to your defense if you let
them. So provide a commenting feature.

Plus, youll be cultivating a community:

Communication opportunities on online review

platforms, like the possibility of contacting the author
personally, commenting on reviews or following the
blog is an example of bonding within a
community. (Holleschovsky, 2015, pp. 4)

Theres also a third benehit. YOU can respond to negative reviews

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TIP 24: RESPOND TO NEGATIVE REVIEWS

Researchers have found multiple benehits from responding to negative

reviews:

Hotels receive 60 percent more online bookings (Ye et al., 2008)

Overall ratings increase by 20 percent (McIlroy, 2015)
The volume of reviews increases by 17 percent (Xie et al., 2016)

Based on reviews in TripAdvisor, less than 4 percent of businesses

actually respond to negative reviews (Xie et al., 2016).

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Thats an opportunity to stand out.

TIP 25: MONITOR (AND CENSOR) THE USE OF

EXPLETIVES

You need to censor your f**king reviews. Cmon now.

Youll look more professional. Plus, angry reviews are less helpful (Lee
& Koo, 2012). So theres no need for expletives.

Add code to identify certain words and phrases. Then implement

measures to either (a) prevent those reviews from being published in
their current form, or (b) censor the specihic word or phrase.

TIP 26: LET USERS FLAG OR REPORT REVIEWS

Even if your code is top notch, itll never be perfect. Add extra measures
by letting users hlag or report reviews.

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 CONCLUSION
In todays world, 75% of people base their purchase decision on
customer reviews (ChannelAdvisor, 2011). If you want to maximize
your sales, then you cant neglect your reviews.

And if you want more marketing content, you might enjoy these
articles:

31 Negotiation Techniques & Tactics (Backed By Science)

125 Easy Tweaks to Optimize Your Websites UX/UI Today
How to Name a Product: An Enormous Step-By-Step Guide

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