Reading Reviews
Reading reviews: how to use them to make better hiring decisions
How do you evaluate business reviews without being misled by fake or gamed ratings?
Using business reviews effectively means reading for patterns in the text rather than relying on average star ratings, paying attention to how the business responds to negative reviews, checking more than one platform, and being skeptical of businesses with unusually high numbers of identical-sounding five-star reviews with no detail.
How to spot fake or gamed reviews
Review platforms face a constant battle against fake reviews, and every major platform has experienced review manipulation. The most common patterns in fake reviews: a burst of new reviews in a short period, reviews from accounts with no history of other reviews, multiple reviews that use similar phrases or describe the same generic positive experience without specific detail, and reviews posted immediately after a business registration or a period of very few reviews. A business with 85 reviews all posted in the same two-week period warrants skepticism.
Conversely, genuinely useful positive reviews mention specific aspects of the experience: the specific technician's name, the exact work done, something the business did that was unexpectedly good. Generic reviews that just say great service, highly recommend without any specifics are less useful than even a mixed review that tells you exactly what the reviewer liked and did not like.
What negative reviews actually tell you
A small number of negative reviews in an otherwise strong profile is normal and actually increases credibility; a business with 200 reviews and a 4.7 average where some negative reviews are visible is more trustworthy than one with 200 reviews and a suspiciously perfect five-star average. What matters is the content and the pattern: are the negative reviews about the same recurring problem? Is the business's response to those reviews professional and solution-oriented?
If you find a negative review that describes exactly the situation you are planning to hire for, pay close attention to both the review and the response. A business that addressed a similar problem professionally, or explained the situation calmly and accurately, is telling you how they handle your situation when things go wrong.
What to know
Key things to check before you hire
- Read for patterns, not averages. A consistent pattern of the same complaint is more informative than the average rating number.
- Specific reviews are more credible than generic ones. Reviews mentioning a specific person, job, or detail are harder to fake and more useful to you.
- Check more than one platform. Gaming a single platform is easier than gaming two; check at least Google and Yelp or a category-specific platform.
- A perfect average on high volume is suspicious. Real businesses have some negative reviews; unusually perfect profiles at high review counts warrant skepticism.
- How a business responds to complaints matters. Professional, specific responses to criticism predict professional handling of your complaint.
- Recent reviews matter more than old ones. A business that had great reviews three years ago but poor recent ones has changed; weight the recent data more.
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