Why trust is more important than ever

Modern consumers have unprecedented power to influence purchasing decisions and shape brand image.

With social media, we can find all the information about any particular brand with just a click of a mouse. Customer reviews, photos, and videos hold a huge responsibility when it comes to a company’s success or failure. Collecting authentic user-generated content (UGC) is key to building brand credibility.

When was the last time you bought something without reading reviews? Whether B2B or B2C, a buyer’s journey in the digital world begins before they even connect with a brand. Buyers know how to educate themselves, and reading reviews from other customers is an important part of the process.

Reviews shape confident buyer decisions—from discovery and research to building brand trust. They provide transparent insights into use cases, functionality, and consumer experience. Therefore, collecting authentic UGC for your business has become an integral part of survival in the digital economy.

As G2’s Chief Product Officer, I know that user reviews are critical to G2, and I’m passionate about improving the review process to provide a solid user experience. Bazaarvoice’s Chief Marketing Officer Zarina Stanley shares that same dedication, so I’m excited that we can discuss the growing role of trust in reviews.

Although our audiences and focus areas differ—Bazaarvoice specializes in consumer reviews, G2 specializes in business software and service reviews—we agree that the basic principles apply to customer review management in both contexts.

The importance of real customer reviews

Considering the power of reviews, it’s clear that word-of-mouth marketing is still here to stay in every industry. However, simply collecting high-quality reviews is not enough. Those who read the review must believe its authenticity. According to a study by Bazaarvoice, 85% of customers consider negative reviews to be as important or more important than positive ones.

Think about it. Would you trust a brand with the following features? all Five star review? A perfect score will make you question the integrity of the reviewer. Whether a review is positive or negative, brands have a responsibility to ensure that honest customer feedback is the ultimate source of truth about their products and services.

Another key aspect of building trust between brands and customers is ensuring transparency in the review process. We identify who our customers are and ensure they actually experience the relevant products. We’ll also tell you how to collect feedback and review it before publishing.

According to G2’s 2023 Software Buyer Behavior Report survey, transparent verification of online reviews ranks fourth among the most important features for review sites out of 17 different factors. According to our annual survey of global software buyers, the importance of transparency continues to rise, with the number of buyers choosing this feature increasing by 9 percentage points between 2021 and 2023. Clearly, audit transparency is not just a trend but an enduring principle.

Threats to trust and authenticity of customer voice

In order to get trustworthy reviews, we have to acknowledge their versatility. Several challenges arise in becoming the most valuable and authentic source of information for your customers.

Unreliable source

Trust is not built overnight, but it can also be broken quickly. Reviews written by unauthentic sources spread false and biased information in areas such as news, research, and online content.

The faces of many untrustworthy customer review sources have been exposed. In B2B, it may manifest itself in the form of disgruntled employees or competitors. In the B2C space, due to the rise of influencer marketing, it may come in the form of paid influencers who share distorted product reviews on social media platforms. Businesses must rigorously assess the background of reviewers and implement fact-checking mechanisms to filter out unreliable sources.

For example, to encourage impartiality, G2 never allows users to leave reviews for their current employers, former employers, or competitors. We also perform certain checks on our reviews to verify their authenticity. G2 users must use a LinkedIn account or a verified business email when posting comments on our site.

fake reviews

The fastest way to destroy user trust is to have fake reviews appear on your site. Not only can they mislead buyers and damage your credibility, but you may face financial penalties from the Federal Trade Commission. To address this issue, companies must be transparent about their review policies and establish review and verification processes.

The process of auditing and identity verification doesn’t have to be sneaky or complicated. G2’s review form has 40 questions, many of which require detailed answers based on the use of software. You can’t lie about your experience when writing a review takes 30 minutes instead of 3 minutes. This increases the reviewer’s credibility and authenticity.

“We do authentication and moderation to understand: Who is it? Who is leaving their voice? Importantly, have they actually experienced the product, thereby lending credibility and authenticity to what they are saying?”

Zarina Stanford
Chief Marketing Officer, Bazaarvoice

generative artificial intelligence

As generative AI technologies like ChatGPT become more accessible than ever, the potential for abuse exists. How do you maintain credibility by making sure people are still writing reviews rather than generating text? I think this comes down to the nature of the review itself.

At G2, we work tirelessly to become the ultimate place for software buyers. We reject over 32% of submitted comments because they do not comply with our community guidelines, and 5-8% of these are AI-generated comments.

This is not to say that artificial intelligence is useless. The key is to take responsibility for how you handle it. As a case in point, Zarina shared how Bazaarvoice uses artificial intelligence technology to generate prompts for the review writing process. In this case, the AI ​​doesn’t write the review, but helps you improve your customer’s answers with the right prompts.

“The potential of generative artificial intelligence is unlimited. Incorporating artificial intelligence technology is inevitable on the road to innovation. However, for consumers, their choices and voices are irreplaceable.”

Zarina Stanford
Chief Marketing Officer, Bazaarvoice

In the name of authenticity and respect for real user feedback, reviews generated by artificial intelligence or robots will be rejected. However, using technology such as artificial intelligence writing assistants can improve the readability, grammar, and spelling of review content.

The industry needs to be mindful of what we put online to avoid losing customer trust in online content. If they don’t trust the reviews on your site, they will leave and find other spaces to shop.

The role of motivation

Incentives play a key role in shaping user reviews across industries. It encourages customer engagement and generates online feedback. Especially in B2B, most reviews still come with a bonus due to the investment of time.

However, we don’t want to bribe them. We try to incentivize them to take the time to leave honest reviews, not just positive ones.

As Zarina likes to say, you have to keep an element of authenticity. “I trust paid influencers’ comments on brand content/advertising as long as they use the product,” she shared.

The goal isn’t to get customers to say nice things about the product; it’s to get customers to say wow about the product. It’s about getting their honest opinion and making it actionable to build customer trust and prevent churn.

Brands want to compensate influencers who have thousands of followers trying their products. But it doesn’t hurt if they share honest reviews with their audience. When influencers feel obligated to hype a brand without trying their products or avoiding sharing their real, maybe not-so-great experiences – that’s where you lose trust.

“If a reviewer is biased, they need to point it out. Influencers who are incentivized to try the product will only be supported and trusted if they disclose their bias. It’s all part of authenticity.”

Zarina Stanford
Chief Marketing Officer, Bazaarvoice

The need for audits

Imagine you are in the market for the first time to buy an air purifier. Of course, you’ll look at product reviews to narrow down your choices. You find something you like, but when you read the reviews for it, one word keeps coming up: scam. At this point, you realize you didn’t even know an air purifier could be noisy, but now, that’s all you can think about. This is how easily reviews can influence purchasing decisions, making moderation an important aspect of review collection.

Platforms and brands that curate and display reviews are responsible for ensuring their accuracy. They must confirm that the review is reliable and truly represents the product or service in question. Being aware of industry guidelines and best practices for comment moderation can help organizations manage online comments while maintaining transparency, trust, and user engagement.

Additionally, as with product reviews, moderation of UGC is important to comply with applicable laws and guidelines. Review platforms prevent people from saying anything offensive, obscene or illegal, which helps provide a great customer experience.

So while review collection is about consistently demanding honest reviews, it’s also about guiding and stepping in to maintain credibility and trust in your brand.

in reviews we trust

In a consumer-driven economy, the importance of trust and transparency in reviews cannot be overstated. This is not a requirement to create prosperous and fair markets, but a fundamental principle. However, the process of developing customer trust is long and tricky.

Once trust is lost, it doesn’t want to be found again. Managing your brand in a digital world where information is abundant but belief scarce requires a delicate balance of transparency, authenticity and consistency. Your brand reputation depends on your commitment to openness and honesty.

Ultimately, if your company prioritizes these principles, you will attract and retain more customers while contributing to a reliable online marketplace. It’s a win-win situation for customers and companies like yours.

Monitor your user reviews with online reputation management tools and promote your brand in the right way.