Reputations Can Be Earned Via B2B Reviews

from the honesty-is-the-best-policy dept

While consumer reviews for all kinds of products are ubiquitous in online forums, the same is not quite true for business-to-business (B2B) reviews. And for the most part, the use of B2B reviews to evaluate products sold to other businesses hasn't become as incredibly widespread. Sure, there are a whole host of 3rd-party firms that will rank and rate products and services at the enterprise level. (eg. Gartner, Forrester, etc.) But those services aggregate multiple opinions in ways that can water down the actual experiences of customers. Some scathing reviews are averaged into the results of a survey, and other glowing endorsements are buried in the numbers on a graph. In many whitepapers, the customer case studies are usually solicited and screened, so while they are reassuring, they lack the more complete transparency of, say, feedback on an eBay seller.

Fortunately, the trend of B2B reviews is growing and being adopted by well-known firms that have figured out that verifiable customer reviews are an important marketing tool. The consumer market teaches retailers that the presence of a few negative reviews actually benefits the overall perception of an online seller. From a few studies, the reputation of a service provider that has dealt with complaints admirably is often better than a competitor that tries to hide complaints or negative reviews. Customers seem to understand that everyone makes mistakes, and that the true test of reliability is how those mistakes are handled. If there's no data on how a company deals with complaints, experienced customers recognize that as a red flag.

Obviously, though, an overwhelming flood of bad experiences is never a good thing. But if that feedback is easily gathered and addressed, then at least there can be a benefit for both customers and their suppliers. Open communication lines can help resolve and improve products more quickly. And providing a venue for customer reviews is a significant first step.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Pete Austin, 9 Dec 2009 @ 1:55am

    Danger of Lawsuits?

    I wouldn't give a bad b2b review because I'd be worried about lawsuits. I know this is a real issue for ex-employee references, which are a more common type of "review".
    http://legalpad.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/11/will-bad-reviews-make-for-good-lawsuit.html

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Ximporter, 27 Mar 2011 @ 10:16am

    b2b trust

    Seems trusting sites like alibaba and globalsources is harder than we expect.

    http://sourcingchinainfo.wordpress.com/2011/03/27/13/

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Rachael Lamb, 15 Aug 2011 @ 12:26am

    purchase order

    In early July I placed an order of products off a b2bzoom website my shipment was accidently placed on the wrong door step and was returned to the company which I ordered from. I have tried numerous times to recover my products or the money which was through paypal, but have been unsuccessful. If someone could contact me or return my money I would be so grateful. I have the tracking number of the package but it only goes as far as Milwaukee ant then I'm at a dead end. PLEASE HELP

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    giftofbag, 6 Mar 2012 @ 11:02am

    Danger of Lawsuits?

    I wouldn't give a bad b2b review because I'd be worried about lawsuits. I know this is a real issue for ex-employee references, which are a more common type of "review".

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    marketing lists, 13 Jan 2014 @ 3:31am

    Reply:

    In our country most of money come from UK and US so that might be reason that B2B trend is growing...

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.