‘There is no such thing as bad publicity,’ or so they say. But what if the number one tech YouTuber in the world dislikes your product as much as to share the bad review with his 19 million subscribers?
That’s precisely what Marques Brownlee did with the Humane AI Pin, the next-gen everyday assistant featured in his video titled ‘The Worst Product I’ve Ever Reviewed.” While you may think I’m beating a dead horse, fear not. This article is not about AI or one YouTuber. My goal is to go deep into the power that one person with an opinion and a large following or every user can have on years of effort and millions of dollars of investment.
And if your worry lies in the effect of one bad review someone left on your local business website, whatever its size, you’ll find advice, harsh reality, and needed comfort from other companies in your shoes.
It’s All About What Others Say, Or Is It Not?
There are solid reasons, endless research, and statistics to prove that most customers rely heavily on reviews to make a purchase. What others say appears to be as important, if not more, than our first impression, and some daily situations are a perfect example.
We all skip to the Amazon review section, sometimes not even bothering to click on the shiny product whose lack of reviews seems sketchy. It takes ‘Courage’ to buy a product with no reviews or, even worse, bad reviews.
It goes as far as saying that fear of a wrong purchase is not the primary motivation to avoid products with few reviews. Think about how we are guilty of never reading the description of a YouTube video or even watching the video to the end without first scrolling down to the comment. It’s like we are programmed to dedicate attention first to others’ opinions about something rather than the thing itself.
The extreme example is the vicarious pleasure of watching others comment on products we won’t even consider buying. Returning to Marques Brownlee and his 19 million subscribers, it’s hard to believe that his Rivian SUV, a car he seemed to love throughout the entire 14-minute review video, was on the wish list of all the 2.7 million viewers. Talking about SUVs, one thing that all agreed upon, both the Marques and the general public, is that the Fiskar Ocean ended up in the same realm as the following product that we’re going to have a little chat about in the next few paragraphs.
But now, there’s no doubt that a review catches attention. The last example, though, brings us to an exciting point—can a lousy review be as powerful as to drown a company if most viewers or readers are not the company’s target buyers? Have we perhaps attributed reviewers with a large following or even general reviews more power than they actually have on purchase decisions?
It is even proven now that expert reviewers like Marques tend to give more negative reviews over time, yet that doesn’t necessarily reflect the reality for most buyers.
Bad Review, Faulty Product, or Something Else
Legendary physicist Wolfgang Pauli is famous for using the quote ‘It’s not even wrong’ when he was presented with a flawed academic paper. Similarly, some products drift so far away from their primary purpose that it is hard to leave a good review.
The Humane AI Pin is a by-product of a tech trend that requires companies to launch half-ready products with the promise of later development. In this aspect, the Rabbit R1 is the Humane AI’s twin, and the Metaverse, their big brother that has lost $46.5 billion so far with a very flawed product that no user ever said a good word about.
Even worse, Meta and other companies ignore bad reviews and never respond to negative feedback, which accumulates among users until it finally explodes.
With all these in mind, It’s safe to say it’s not the reviews that drowned the companies, but the hype they themselves built left no space for anything but a bad experience and almost assured the negative feedback from customers. Overpromising and underdelivering is never a good strategy in life or business.
Reviews Can Also Be Unfair.
The customer might always be right, but they often express themselves the ‘wrong’ way. Leaving expert reviewers aside, a business’s biggest challenge is the number of unfair reviews or unjustified negative feedback.
Unfair reviews are a reality in all industries. Every company must face them, and it’s up to them to find a way out. Luckily, many have.
A study of negative hotel reviews on TripAdvisor found that around 1 in 4 were unfair and unrelated to the service quality. Said study showed how a substantial part of customers remained unaffected by the bad review. In fact, many felt empathy towards the brand and sided with them. Furthermore, companies with solid communication plans could turn the tables by embracing the critic. And then argue their honest stance, and turning a comment into an open discussion.
Other industries are not immune to it as well. Be it receiving an overwhelming number of negative reviews that have no objective or even false basis. You’ll even see competitors bot spamming such reviews throughout different platforms. Most commonly, you’ll see this on Amazon products pages. The casino industry offers an odten highlighted example. It’s extremely competitive. iGaming operators, like FatFruit online casino, consistently stay on top of things. They do this not just with servicing their legitimate customers and their support inquires. They also fighting contend with elements compromising their business in the various way mentioned above.
Returning to YouTube yet again. We all get slightly excited when our favorite vlogger replies to a bad comment. And we immediately like his reply in support of the cause.
Second Chances Are Hard to Get, But Assured
Not all products prove too rushed or flawed to prevail. Many solve the problem companies designed them to solve. Most products in your daily life fall into this category. This includes Amazon products with thousands of reviews, 30-40 of which are 1 out of 5. If it were true that one bad review could kill a product, everything on the supermarket shelves would be re
It’s good to consider that bad reviews can prove constructive if companies take action because of them. A poor review will not drown a good product if companies pay attention to solving customer issues with said product. You could say that bad feedback ultimately builds a million dollar company.
Time is On The Companie’s Side
At the end of the day, there are success stories of products hated by experts and some vocal customers. Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ defined the 90s and sold 30 million copies. Yet Rolling Stones gave it 3 out of 5 stars on the month of release. What’s more, an entire fan base of glam rock said they hated it!
In the arts, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. In business, market value is determined by how well a product or service solves a problem. A non-apparent example is Croocs. The story goes that nobody likes Croocs. And some don’t even admit to liking them, yet they company is opening stores in every major city worldwide.
Assume that a quality product that appeals to a group of buyers will, over time, trump any bad review. And, in the best-case scenario, designers learn from it. According to Bright Local, 84% of consumers believe reviews older than three months aren’t relevant. Gen Z goes as far as to care mainly about two-week-old reviews.
Time is on the side of quality, and you can do something about bad reviews. Rushing a product, or even worse, not accepting criticism instead of embracing it, is a recipe for losing a business. So, not all is lost if someone leaves a horrible comment on your website. You can overcome one star on Google. You can even overcome threats to take action against your company.
Good reputation, open communication, and consistent quality seem to be and will always be stronger than any bad review.
