Do you search contacts of a person or a store/ shop on Google? Or check ratings or reviews before going to a restaurant, hotel or booking a service? A recent survey has shown nearly 47% respondents have zero trust in Google reviews, and many find them “biased”.
According to LocalCircles, 45% of those surveyed find Google ratings and reviews “inaccurate” while 37% find them “positively biased” and 88% who look up contact or location details on the search engine often go through reviews and ratings.
The survey attempted to understand whether people refer to ratings and reviews of businesses. Of the nearly 21,000 respondents, 12% admitted that it influences their decision-making while 22% stated it was a “major factor”.
Another question that was asked in the survey quantified the level of trust customers have in Google ratings and reviews. Of the 20,000 respondents, only 3% surveyed said they have “high level of trust” in ratings posted on Google while 7% have “zero trust”.
The credibility of Google ratings and reviews continues to be a big question as any customer is allowed make a suggestion/ recommendation on the platform.
According to the new Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) guidelines, which came into effect from November 25, 2022, prescribing specific responsibilities for the review author and the review administrator are now applicable to every online platform operating in India — both global and homegrown — which publish consumer ratings and reviews.
“We will first see voluntary compliance of these guidelines and if we see the menace of fake reviews continuing to grow, we may make these guidelines mandatory,” Rohit Kumar Singh, secretary of the Department of Consumer Affairs told media.
When asked how biased customers find these ratings, the survey showed only 3% of the 17,690 respondents “don’t have any issue and find them to be quite accurate” while 45% felt the reviews were “inaccurate”.
While the 2022 guidelines provide a framework for online reviews and ratings, platforms like Google must make structural changes to comply. These include ensuring that every user account that is submitting a rating or a review must be validated and tied to a phone number, real email or some government issued identification. That will ensure that people are rating and reviewing with accountability to some extent.
The LocalCircles survey received over 56,000 responses from citizens located in 357 districts of India. 67% respondents were men while 33% respondents were women. 47% respondents were from tier 1, 33% from tier 2 and 20% respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural districts.
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