That online review may recommend a restaurant in glowing prose, but should you eat up every word? Maybe not.
A months-long investigation by CBC’s Marketplace shows how easy it is for companies to deceive consumers online. It uncovered an entire industry designed to help businesses mislead consumers, bolstering companies’ online reputations with fake reviews and testimonials.
A good online reputation can have a huge impact on a company’s revenue. When researchers at the Harvard Business School analyzed restaurant reviews and revenue in Seattle, they found that a one-star increase on the popular review site Yelp meant a five to nine per cent increase in revenue for independent restaurants.
“Some data now show that a good majority of people in North America believe and trust online reviews more than they trust their friends’ opinions,” Jeff Hancock, a professor who researches online deception at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, told Marketplace co-host Erica Johnson.
And as the public's reliance on review sites has increased, so has the market for bolstering businesses online reputations.
“I think it’s really amazing how easy it is to purchase deception now on the internet,” Hancock says.
(Watch the investigation, Faking It, on Friday, Nov. 7 at 8 p.m. ET / 8:30 p.m. NT on CBC Television to find out how you can separate review fact from fiction. Join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #reviews.)
Faking out the fakers
As many as 15 per cent of online reviews are fake, according to a 2012 study by IT researcher firm Gartner.
For its investigation, Marketplace created a grilled cheese food truck business called “Cheezed Off!” to test how easy it is for a company to artificially boost its reputation online. Cheezed Off! has all the hallmarks of a legitimate online business: A professional website, promotional YouTube video and social media presence.
The company also has glowing online testimonials on popular review sites like Yelp, Google Plus and UrbanSpoon:
- “Cheezed Off! has mastered the art of creating the perfect grilled cheese sandwich. I love comfort food and could not pass up an opportunity to try this nostalgic meal from a food truck while in downtown Toronto. I ordered the classic sandwich and my boyfriend ordered the Hellzaoppin sandwich. Both of these were made quickly and tasted absolutely delicious. This food truck knows their way around a grilled cheese,” one reviewer writes.
- “Just tried Cheezed Off! for the first time and I have to say that I was very pleased. The bread had a very crispy, satisfying crunch, the presentation was very appealing and the taste was, in a word, yummy!,” another reads.