Online Reviews: How Do They Work?

How can you buy a product or service online and know it will be good quality? Well, you can never know entirely, but one avenue of knowledge is the world of online reviews. These are everywhere, from company websites to retail portals, and there are even forums for customers to engage with fellow buyers about products. The influence of these reviews on consumer decision-making is significant, empowering you to make informed choices.

Purchase, Experience and Feedback

Reviews are a simple concept. A customer buys a product or service and then leaves an honest opinion about their experience, which is visible to others considering that product or service. The restaurant business in significant tourist destinations heavily relies on sites like TripAdvisor and others, as non-locals use these sites to find the best places to eat despite not having been to the area before. It’s the same online. Businesses sometimes incentivise customers to leave reviews with small rewards; again, in the case of restaurants, it was an infamous tactic of Subway to give out free cookies to its customers who left a review of their experience.

Reviews on Gambling Sites?

So, how do gambling websites like offshore casinos cope with online reviews? Many smaller companies need to have a good rapport with online review sites. Offshore casinos and gambling platforms are in the business of taking money away from their clients. While many do so legally, enough outliers operate outside of the law.

Therefore, the online gambling community has launched various review sites, which make it their duty to offer impartial reviews of seemingly every gambling site under the sun. They review all the factors that might make a gambling site reputable and trustworthy. For newer brands, being blocked from appearing as one of the best offshore casinos on this site can really stunt any chances of success.

Other sites like GlassDoor are used to understand the trustworthiness of businesses. Therefore, it is expected to see reviews of gambling sites on this site and similar ones, as trust is one of the most significant factors for gambling sites.

App Store Reviews tend to be Useful.

If you are considering downloading a casino app for your device, it is always worth looking at the app store or Google Play reviews before you do so. Why? Well, the company behind the app does not control these reviews. Instead, they are submitted to the app portal and hosted independently.

Fake Bought Reviews

While we want every retailer to be truthful with the information, not everyone has the same moral compass. Some nefarious and underhanded businesses will ‘buy reviews’ for their products. This is when the reviews on a product are disingenuous and simply a transactional process where patrons are paid to leave positive reviews.

How to Spot Fake Reviews

Given the increasing prevalence of fake reviews, it’s crucial to be cautious when reading them. With the aid of AI technologies, these reviews are starting to resemble genuine customer stories more and more. However, there are still some telltale signs to look out for when determining the authenticity of a review.

The review is vague or lacks detail about the product. It could be that the person writing this never handled the product, so I can’t go into much detail.

If the review uses strange words or unusual grammar, it could be written by an AI or someone who isn’t from the target audience’s location.

It would be best if you also were critical of any review with little or no text. The best reviews detail their experience of the product or service, elaborating why they feel how they do. The more social proof, the better; this could be a picture of them using it or even a video of them using it. Some products and services are hard to do, for many lend themselves to additional review content to help authenticate the entry.

Where and How is the Review Presented?

One of the most significant points to consider when reading a review is to assess how it is presented. Is it text on their website? If so, it could still be a genuine review, but it could very quickly just be text that the marketing officer made in ChatGPT and then put on the website. Reviews on third-party sites like Amazon or embedded from similar sites tend to be more reputable because the company selling the product doesn’t have control over the content being displayed, so when the online casino says: Over 100,000 5* star reviews! Be critical in your approach and see if you can find these reviews. If you can’t, they might not exist.