HKUST Business Review

32 HKUST Business Review Insight 3 4 Know Your Baseline As with any strategic decision, the pros and cons of soliciting reviews will depend on the specifics of your brand’s situation. One of the most substantial benefits of soliciting reviews is that it increases average ratings, but we found that this effect was not evenly distributed: Larger, more expensive, higher- class, more popular, and higher-rated hotels experienced less of a ratings lift than their smaller, independent, and lower-rated counterparts. So, if your business already has a strong reputation, the marginal gain from solicited reviews may be small, and thus perhaps not worth the loss of higher-quality, organic feedback. But for newer or struggling businesses looking to jump-start their online presence, the benefits of review solicitation may outweigh the risks. Weigh Quantity Against Quality Are 10 short, positive 5-star reviews better than three detailed, more critical 4-star reviews? It’s hard to say. The former might nudge your average rating up, which can absolutely bring benefits, but the latter are likely to be more trusted and more useful for converting discerning customers. In addition, critical reviews may also serve as a valuable source of customer feedback, without which businesses may struggle to improve their offerings. As such, it’s generally wise to prioritize the quality of reviews, not just their volume and positivity. Protect Your Organic Advocates Your most valuable reviewers are those who write voluntarily. These organic reviewers write the most detailed, helpful reviews — but their motivation is fragile, and it can be undermined when they are solicited for reviews. So, when possible, avoid bombarding your entire guest list with automated solicitations. When Soliciting Reviews, Encourage Detailed Input If you do decide to solicit reviews, craft your message carefully. Instead of a generic “Leave us a review,” try to encourage quality. Frame the request as an invitation to share detailed input to help future customers, and ask specific questions about your customers’ experiences with your business. This can nudge respondents toward more concrete and useful feedback, reducing the negative impact of solicitation on review length and quality. 1 5 2 Wang Jing is an associate professor of information systems at HKUST, focusing on the gig economy, knowledge communities, online reviews, crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, social networks, and data mining. This article draws on the research paper “The Pitfalls of Review Solicitation: Evidence from a Natural Experiment on TripAdvisor,” authored by GAO Baojun, WANG Jing, DING Xiaojie and GUO Yue. Platforms: Inform and Empower Consumers Finally, for review platforms like TripAdvisor, our research highlights the very real pitfalls that come with solicitation tools. While these services can boost review volume in the short term, they can also degrade the ecosystem’s long-term health and value proposition. To mitigate these risks, platforms can refine their disclosure language to emphasize to users that solicited reviews are still non-incentivized and legitimate. In addition, platforms can provide filters so that users can choose to see only organic or solicited content, and they can also invest in algorithms to correct for the positivity and brevity bias in solicited reviews, to maintain the fairness of their ranking systems. Soliciting Reviews Comes at a Cost In an economy of trust, the authentic voice of your organic reviewers is your most valuable asset. While blasting review solicitations to every customer can inflate your review metrics in the short term, it also erodes review quality, alienates your most genuine advocates, and fundamentally shifts conversations about your brand from valuable details to empty praise. So, before you hit “send” on that solicitation email, carefully consider the hidden costs: After all, you might just be trading quality for quantity, and long-term credibility for an artificial, short-term boost. It’s generally wise to prioritize the quality of reviews, not just their volume and positivity.