Say what? 70% of consumers trust strangers’ recommendations

One of the blog posts that generated some chatter in our office this week were some survey findings from Neilsen – Consumers Trust Real Friends and Virtual Strangers the Most.

The opening statistic reports:

Ninety percent of consumers surveyed noted that they trust recommendations from people they know, while 70 percent trusted consumer opinions posted online.

The online “word of mouth” effect is a lot more prevalent than I expected, although thinking about the findings and my personal observation of the number of customer reviews on Amazon these days perhaps I shouldn’t be so surprised. Providing customer reviews of products is central to many online retailers’ sales strategy today – it isn’t just a “web 2.0″ feature – as customer reviews can help to generate trust and credibility (perhaps the feeling of a busy, vibrant shop full of customers, instead of tumbleweed blowing through the aisles of a warehouse out in the sticks… ).

That said, I don’t expect the range of answers to the question “Approximately how many people have you told about this problem” to increase by huge numbers. It’s long been known that the proportion of customers who post reviews versus those who don’t is about 90:9:1 (lurkers : one-off contributers : repeat-contributors) although perhaps the growth of twitter will change this?

BTW – if you can access BBC iplayer, comedian McMichael McIntyre considers who are these people who write a review about toasters? Settings 2 to 6 are an embarassment (watch the Comedy Roadshow Brighton – 2 minutes in – you’ll see what I mean!)

From today’s Observer: The makings of a brand leader

Advertising, he says, has become even more hollow because of the way people now use the internet. “I Googled ‘best razor’, found out which one got the most stars in reviews, bought that one, and noticed that the one I had currently only has two stars. And it clicked for me; this is the way people are going to shop. For brands to rely on advertising and marketing is a huge mistake because people find you out, which is why we put emphasis on product and service innovation.”

As people become more internet savvy, I couldn’t agree more.

Dan Wardle