Online customer ratings continue to influence post-purchase

People are likely to reevaluate how they feel about a product or experience as a result of seeing online customer ratings, according to a study in the Journal of Advertising Research. 

Positive ratings, moreover, ‘significantly influenced’ overall satisfaction levels afterwards, whereas negative ratings did not have the same effect. 

Why it matters 

Online customer ratings (OCRs) are increasingly important to customers before committing to purchasing a product or service. One 2019 study found that an increase of just one star on an Amazon listing leads to a sales increase of 26%. 

But post-experience satisfaction “is a key driver of repurchase intentions” and ratings influence future intentions by altering how people feel about something post-purchase, finds the JAR. As a result, brands must make sure they are careful before opening up their product to OCRs because initial negative ratings are likely to foster a negativity bias.

Takeaways 

• “Consumers’ subjective experiences of products and events are altered when they see other people’s ratings of those same products or events,” the study finds. 
• Study participants were asked to assess a product or experience based on quality perceptions, the rating they’d give it, and their overall satisfaction levels. 
• Participants immediately exposed to positive (or negative) ratings of a product or experience ‘significantly’ altered their quality perceptions and ratings compared to a control group with no exposure.
• But overall satisfaction levels were only influenced by positive ratings; negative ratings didn’t significantly change how satisfied people felt about the experience or product afterwards. 
• Researchers suggest that overall satisfaction is more personal than rating a product or experience and that people might be more inclined to inflate their satisfaction as a result of an online customer rating than to deflate it. 

The study

Two experiments were carried out in Sweden, a pilot and a main study. One assessed people’s reactions to a new chocolate bar, while the other assessed a cinema visit. Three groups were studied – two were exposed to either positive or negative ratings immediately afterwards, while a third was a control group with no exposure. See the full study here. 

Sourced from JAR