Consumers will often browse review sites prior to making a purchase. On the other hand, in some cases, these reviews tend to be more confusing than helpful. In others, they can be downright misleading. How can you really tell should they are honest reviews or if perhaps the company is paying someone to post positive reviews as part of an "online reputation management" service? How much influence should a bad review play within your decision to use or not work with a specific company?
Today, there are actually lots of business review sites for consumers to browse. Sites like Angie's List, Yelp, Google+, and Yahoo Local are all utilized by consumers. Moreover, sites like the higher Business Bureau offer the opportunity for customers to leave a review about a business. Should the company is online, you will find literally dozens of online websites offering feedback about a company.

In many cases, review web sites are open to anyone wanting to leave a review. Sites like Google + do a decent job of weeding out spam, but no program is going to be perfect. One way to rule out review sites is if the site does not permit the company owner to respond to the feedback or actually review the feedback before it really is posted. Sites for example this are probably there more for income generation through advertisements than actual legitimate feedback.

You should look at the overall picture of the business. How many transactions is the business completing on a daily basis vs. how many reviews are left for the company? Put simply, a company doing 10,000 transactions a month that has 1 or 2 negative reviews within that period is not a true representation of the customer support the company offers. Every company worldwide would be pleased with a customer care rating that high!

The bottom line here is that a couple of negative feedbacks on any business blogs - on front page - review site are no reason to write off a business. Take a good look at the overall picture of customer support and make your decision that way. Also, understand that occasionally, there simply is no satisfying a customer. If you own a business yourself or work in something customer support related, you have likely dealt with at least one person where nothing would satisfy them.

Consumers are much more prone to leave a review after a negative experience than they may be after a positive one. For this reason, do the research to find the overall number of transactions a particular business is doing and weigh that against the overall range of reviews you are seeing. If you-still have doubts, simply call them up and also to see what kind of customer support will be offered. Nevertheless, if you have a positive experience, do the company owner a big favor and leave a review!