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Home & Garden Articles
How to Use a Product Review
Tue 29 Sep 2009 - 17:18
How to Use a Product Review
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Tony_Scorch]Tony Scorch
I have read a lot of product reviews over the years. I also offer product reviews for the products we sell, as well as use them on blogs and articles to help people with buying choices. It did occur to me that sometimes people can be skewed towards buying or not buying something because of the way the product review is written. When I sat down to look at some factors that I take for granted, I was compelled to put this article together. I hope you find it helpful. It is slanted towards the woodworking industry, particularly routers and router tables. I think you will find that the mindset or theme will work for any type of product.
When reading a review right off the bat I think of these main areas of the person that is leaving the review. These are the main areas in which we will discuss.
Shipping
Expectations
Experience/Inexperience
Customer Service
Emotion
Assembly
Use period
Manufacture or Vendor Mindset
Shipping
This is the first subject that usually gets a lot of comments on. Let me begin with this statement. "I really understand the shipping process" I have worked in this industry at one time and I have seen every aspect from a package getting from point A to point B. If there is one thing that is a constant in the universe it is this, shipping companies damage boxes. There is no way around it, and sooner or later it will happen to you. Manufacturers design their packaging around the fact that it is rough world when your package gets picked up and on to your destination. You have to consider the sort facility and the way things get handled. Speed is the ultimate theme and shippers go by how many packages they sort out each night. Being careful is a goal but not always the golden rule. So when an item comes damaged, most vendors jump through hoops to help you replace the item or fix the problem. It is a headache, and if they can design a box to relieve that headache, they most certainly will because it reduces their replacement costs. So any comments on shipping damage really need to be taken with a grain of salt.
Experience/Inexperience
This is a sensitive area, since it is closely tied to emotion. I will try to tread lightly, but I will be blunt in some areas in order for the reader to get the most out of this content. When it comes to power tools, some people just do not have any experience and some have extensive experience. It is hard to figure out who is who when you are reading a review. To be honest, some people have no business owning a power tool, yet they go to great lengths in leaving some scathing reviews. Others have a perfectionist type of view that can give you some great insight about the product. Some are Engineer types that can go into great detail and offer design changes that they think would make the product better. So how do you approach this problem? I think the best way to evaluate it is by simply knowing the fact that there are different levels of experience out there and everyone is entitled to their opinion. You just never really know who you are talking too when reading a review or getting advice from someone, you just have to use your gut feeling.
Expectations
Some reviews are written in sense of an expectation of that product that has either been met or not. If you expected a product to be of a certain design or quality and it is not, your expectations have not been met. Most people draw from this and use it in their review. Another avenue of this thought is that people write about their experience based on using the item right away. Perhaps the tool met their expectation right away but then they quickly grew out of it or moved on in their skill level. The media also has tremendous influence on what our expectations are for products. Most of the time this is based on mass appeal and it's designed to do one thing and one thing only and that is to sell you the product. Just because someone says they are an expert does not necessarily mean it is true.
Customer Service
Customer service is often commented on but it has some bearing in some instances. For example if you are speaking directly to the manufacture themselves, then customer service can be influential. If you are speaking to a distributor of a product, then how they handle your service situation is up to them and only reflects on their company, website or business, not necessarily the product. This can skew some reviews. Of course good customer service can always be a positive factor, it is really the product you are reviewing not your buying experience. Someone should make a service about that!
Emotion
I choose to add this section because I have seen overtones of this that leak into reviews. Emotion is powerful and sometimes it is hard to shake a pre conceived concept. That concept is from the old "mail order" days when the industry was brand new. Most "mail order" companies sold junk and it was all about conversion ratios and quotas. Today most companies and vendors realize that Internet sales are a huge part of their business and a great way to reach out to customers from all over the world. So here is a concept that I and most good companies embrace. The sooner customers and the general public figure it out the better. (This is the blunt part I was talking about)
Companies want and need to take care of their customers for a very good reason. If you become a customer once, there is a good chance that you will buy from us again. If you buy from us again, you reduce the cost of acquiring a new customer and that improves the amount of money a company makes. Bottom line: if you are my customer, I want you to buy from me over and over again. This is how we stay alive.
I have no interest in making you mad, or delivering a poor product, that would be stupid and go against the business plan. If you are happy, then my life is easy. If you are mad, my day sucks. I like stress free days, so it is in my best interest in doing a good job so that you come back.
Assembly
I thought it was worth mentioning that assembly can be part of the product review formula. Let's face it, there is a new problem alive and well today and it is most irritating. That problem is the lack of good clear and concise directions. Remember when software use to come with a book on how to use it? Now day's vendors think it is ok to be vague. I am not sure who thought this was a way to save money or not, but it is irritating. I think directions are an influence but not always the deciding factor. It is worth noting that not everyone is good at the obvious. (Blunt I know) but I am amazed at how often that putting Tab A into Slot B eludes some people.
Manufacture Mindset
Product companies have a mindset of selling product and making goals. Part of the goals is keeping replacement costs down by good design and good techniques. It is just about as simple as that. Some Brands are better at it than others; those are the ones that last in the industry. Look for manufacturers that embrace this concept by developing their authority. Most good companies really enjoy happy customers.
I hope this has helped you with interpreting customer reviews. It was intended in teaching you how to write one, but more of an education of how people write them for the world to see. The one thing about the Internet, comments stay forever and reputations are made and broken over time. Getting a good assessment of a product can sometimes be harder than you thought.
Tony Scorch is a contributing editor to The Router Maniac</A>. Not only are woodworking and Ecommerce some of my hobbies but genuine tips about Product Reviews, finding products, and product development are covered. You can also find me on Twitter</A>
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tony_Scorch http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Use-a-Product-Review&id=2977797
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