Every now and again we will get enquiries from Kiwis using our site or seeing NoCowboys reviews online. I thought it would be useful to point out a few important factors about online reviews and ours, in particular, to make the process of reading them easier.
How are NoCowboys’ reviews different from others?
Our reviews are verified – meaning that when someone leaves a review they are sent an email to verify it before it is published. This process is different to say, Google reviews, where all you need to leave feedback is a Gmail address. That does not prevent fake reviews and personally I would not rely on Google reviews for any choice I would make as a consumer online. Verified reviews such as ours give you an extra level of protection to ensure the validity of feedback.
Currency
When reading reviews, check the dates. You want to make sure that the reviews are not too old and that they are relatively consistent. Reviews on our site – for registered businesses – are generally recent but we recommend checking the dates to give you peace of mind.
You will occasionally see ‘unregistered’ businesses come up in search results on our site. That does not mean that they are unregistered as professional tradespeople or businesses – it means they have not registered with us. We always recommend choosing registered businesses as they have made a commitment to put their reputations on the line.
How to read ‘bad reviews’
There are two things to consider when you encounter bad reviews. Firstly – the odd bad review is to be expected for any business, while a large number tells a different story. As you can appreciate, consumers’ standards may differ, a business may, every now and again, not meet expectations, so the occasional challenging review does not mean the business is not necessarily a good one.
It’s also important to remember that most business owners take bad feedback seriously and deal with it – either to attempt to remedy the situation with the reviewer, or to alter the way they do business going forward.
We recommend reading the reviews as a story of the business itself – so don’t just read the latest two or three. Spend a bit of time and go back over older ones too. Set your mind at ease before making contact.
Images as a part of the feedback
Last year NoCowboys introduced the capacity to add images to reviews left on our site. These give another dimension to the reviewer’s experience and provide you with a visual sense of work done. They are a very handy reference point.
In general
We established NoCowboys to give Kiwis the best information to make the best choices, as far as possible. Over the years online has become THE dominant marketplace but consumers are wary until their doubts have been alleviated. That’s what verified online reviews do – they allow you to learn and benefit from opinions and experiences of previous customers before making contact yourself.
So – do your due diligence – read reviews, make evaluations and when you are satisfied – get in touch with the relevant businesses.
