🎓 Expert vs fellow customer reviews

Good reviews outweigh an expert’s recommendation (e.g. a doctor) for easily judged services (e.g. restaurant). The opposite happens for hard-to-judge ones (e.g. accountant).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 March 12, 2024 | [Read Online]( Expert vs fellow customer reviews Good reviews outweigh an expert’s recommendation (e.g. a doctor) for easily judged services (e.g. restaurant). The opposite happens for hard-to-judge ones (e.g. accountant). [Thomas McKinlay]( [fb]( [tw]( [in]( [email](mailto:?subject=Post%20from%20Ariyh&body=Expert%20vs%20fellow%20customer%20reviews%3A%20Good%20reviews%20outweigh%20an%20expert%E2%80%99s%20recommendation%20%28e.g.%20a%20doctor%29%20for%20easily%20judged%20services%20%28e.g.%20restaurant%29.%20The%20opposite%20happens%20for%20hard-to-judge%20ones%20%28e.g.%20accountant%29.%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Ftips.ariyh.com%2Fp%2Fexpert-vs-customer-reviews) New to [Ariyh](? This is a 3min practical summary of a scientific study 🎓 Join 26,579 marketers who use science, not flawed opinions 📈 [Subscribe here]( Today’s insight is brought to you by… [Modash]( Influencer pricing is the wild west. So how do seasoned influencer marketers determine how much to pay influencers? Ryan Prior from Modash [surveyed 42 influencer marketing managers]( to learn: - Which influencer metrics are most important for pricing - Opinions on paying more for “extras” like content licensing or exclusivity - … and more [Read how they do it]( Want to sponsor Ariyh? [Here’s all you need to know](. 📝 Intro Not all services are as easy to judge as one another. At a restaurant, the first bite can usually tell you whether the food is good or not. But how do you tell whether your tax accountant is giving you the best advice? We know this, and it influences who’s advice we prefer to listen to when deciding which service to use. Reviews from others just like us, or a recommendation from a subject-matter expert? P.S.: Speaking of reviews, you can find all Ariyh insights about reviews [here](. If you find them useful, you can [join Ariyh Pro]( to read them and put them into action. Previous insight: [When to use the price divisibility effect]( (more insights [here]() People prefer reviews from peers for easy-to-judge services and experts for harder-to-judge services Topics: Reviews | Ecommerce | Website/App For: B2C. Can be tested for B2B Research date: June 2018 Universities: Monash University & University of International Business and Economics 📈 Recommendation If it’s easy for your customers to judge the quality or effectiveness of your service or experience (e.g. a cleaning service), display reviews from other customers. If it’s difficult to judge quality or effectiveness (e.g. travel insurance), showcase reviews and testimonials from experts (e.g. travel agents). People will like your service more and will be more likely to buy it. 🎓 Findings - People will judge your product or service more favorably and will be more likely to buy it, when: - It’s easy to judge its quality after using it and you show customer reviews (vs reviews from experts) - It’s harder to judge its quality after using it and you show reviews from experts (vs customers) - As part of 3 experiments, people: - Rated an easy-to-judge hotel service 11.7% higher and a hairdresser 8.1% higher when shown customer reviews vs expert reviews. - Rated hard-to-judger to judge services, like dental care and an insurance agency 9% and 11.5% higher respectively when shown expert reviews, instead. - Were 21.8% more likely to choose the easy-to-judge restaurant when expert reviews were both positive and negative but 17.4% less likely to patronize the restaurant if an expert, versus a peer, gave a negative review. - Were 16.5% less likely to use a hard-to-judge language institute and 17.1% less likely to choose it if an expert gave a negative review over a peer. - Mixed reviews from experts (both positive and negative) damage people’s perceptions of the product much more than mixed customer reviews. 🧠Why it works - We’re strongly persuaded by the opinions of [people we consider similar]( - other customers like us. - So for services that are easier to judge, we feel the experience of fellow customers is more relatable, so we listen to what they say. - But when a service is hard to judge, we feel we don’t have enough information to [confidently make a judgment](, so we prefer to rely on experts to [counter this uncertainty](. 💰 Do you know how to turn your marketing career into long-term wealth? NYU Stern marketing professor [Scott Galloway is hosting a free AMA]( to answer the question: “How the heck do I build long-term wealth?” As marketers, we’ve all thought, “Is this career setting me up for economic security? And what exactly am I supposed to be doing to build wealth?!” But actually tackling it head-on can be anxiety-inducing. In this AMA, Scott will answer all your burning questions – from career moves you should be making, to whether those $10 lattes actually matter. [RSVP here]( This announcement was sponsored. Want your brand here? [Click here](. ✋ Limitations - This study focused on services, not products. However, related studies ([example]() strongly suggest that the same applies to products. - The research looked at “experts” and “peers” as two distinct groups. But sometimes the difference is not so clear. Is a customer who has reviewed 200+ restaurants on Google a regular customer (a “peer”), or are they an “expert”? Or perhaps something in between? - The experiments only showed expert vs peer reviews and then asked people to judge the service. In real life, people will likely look for more information after reading a few reviews. For example, after seeing an expert review they may look for peer reviews. 🏢 Companies using this - Easier to judge services and experiences such as restaurants or tourist activities tend to correctly use customer reviews (e.g. from Yelp or Tripadvisor), rather than reviews from experts. - Harder-to-judge services, such as financial planning, cybersecurity, or insurance occasionally make use of expert reviews - but rarely as much as they should. Movie-rating site Rotten Tomatoes includes both an expert and “audience” score for movies. A movie’s box office result [correlates more closely with the peer (audience) score](. ⚡ Steps to implement - Try to understand how easy or difficult it is for your customers to judge the service you’re offering - If it’s something where subjective taste plays a large role (e.g. food, fashion, or decor) or the benefit is tangible, immediate, and easy-to-understand (e.g. a diet program) then use customer reviews - If your product is more technical (e.g. legal services, its benefits are preventative (e.g. insurance) or benefits appear over a longer timeframe (e.g. learning a language), highlight reviews from experts. - If expert reviews are more suitable for your service, try to gather reviews or testimonials from specific experts by reaching out directly to them, or by tar[geting in](dustry events. - Be careful with expert reviews - if you have mixed reviews, negative reviews from experts are more harmful, so don’t highlight those. That said, only positive reviews [make people skeptical](, so be careful. - If you sell a product rather than a service, you can broadly follow the same pattern. If you’re talking about the experience of your product or the feelings it triggers, use reviews from normal customers. If you’re focusing on how effective your product is, highlight what experts think about it. 🔍 Study type Lab and online experiments. 📖 Research [The Differential Effects of Online Peer Review and Expert Review on Service Evaluations: The Roles of Confidence and Information Convergence](. Journal of Service Research (June 2018). 🏫 Researchers - [Hean Tat Keh](. Monash University - Jin Sun. University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) Remember: This is a scientific discovery. In the future it will probably be better understood and could even be proven wrong (that’s [how science works](). It may also not be generalizable to your situation. If it’s a risky change, always test it on a small scale before rolling it out widely. Rate today’s insight to help me make Ariyh's next insights 🎓 even more useful 📈 How was today’s insight? [Loved it]( | [Great]( | [Good]( | [Meh]( | [Bad]( Here’s how else Ariyh can help you: - 📈 Access 100s of insights and learn how other evidence-based marketers apply them, with [Ariyh Pro]( - 📘 Supercharge your business with Ariyh’s [Playbook of Pricing & Promotions]( or [Playbook of Ecommerce]( - 🎓 New to Ariyh? If this was forwarded to you can subscribe below for $0 [Subscribe here]( [fb]( [tw]( [ig]( [in]( Update your email preferences or unsubscribe [here]( © 2024 Ariyh Calle Bailen, 11 Barcelona, Barcelona 08010, Spain [[beehiiv logo]Powered by beehiiv](