Can You Really Trust an Online Review?

I recently went on a cruise with my wife. When I got home, I had an e-mail from the company where I purchased the trip, which is not the same company as the cruise line. The e-mail asked me to provide a review.

Every time I purchase something online I seem to get a request asking me to review the product. Once I bought a winter jacket in August and a week later received an invitation to write a review. I hadn't even worn the jacket yet let alone put it to a true test of how good it is. I've had that jacket for 2 years now and could provide a much better review but nobody would be interested in it because you can't buy it any more. It has been updated and only slightly resembles what I purchased. My review today would say that the jacket is amazingly wind and waterproof, breathes well, but has lousy zippers. If I didn't have such an amazing seamstress for a wife, the jacket would be in the garbage. It is only after 2 years of use that I have come to that conclusion.

Let's go back to my cruise example. How would anyone know if my review of the cruise is accurate or not. Anyone who has taken such a trip knows that one passenger's heavenly cruise can be another's sub-standard one. I have only been on one other cruise and I found each to be amazing and a lot of fun. They occurred on different cruise lines but had similar standards for food and entertainment. I would rank both as 5-star experiences but someone with the experience of 20 or more cruises would be a better judge.

One area where I feel I am an expert is skiing and feel I can give an honest opinion of equipment or various ski areas around North America. It is actually a topic of my YouTube channel. How would you know if you can trust my opinion or not though? I have ridden up the chairlift with quite a few skiers that are on the wrong skis but swear they are the best skis in the world. Nobody has ever spent $1000 on a new pair of skis and gone on to say anything bad about them. It makes them look foolish and so they only sing praises for their equipment.

There is also the other end of the spectrum. Sometimes someone will get a bad product or have a bad experience. Perhaps they took their spouse on a wonderful cruise only to find out the spouse wants a divorce. Do you think the cruise is going to get a good review? Probably not but not because of bad service, poor food quality, or lousy entertainment. The reviewer may be going through something outside the control of the cruise line and the reviewer should not be penalized the company for it.

So how can trust an online review? Look at as many reviews as you can find. In statistical analysis we always throw away the highest and lowest scores as they can skew what is really going on. Look for those 2, 3, and 4-star reviews to see why people didn't give the maximum or minimum rankings. You will discover that the passenger booked a cheap cruise during hurricane season and spent the voyage seasick, which is not the cruise line's fault. Perhaps someone is really sensitive to color and the picture didn't quite match what they received. That doesn't ruin the quality of the product, just the aesthetics, which may not be important to you.

Remember that not everybody is qualified to provide quality online reviews. Furthermore there are reports of AI being used by companies to give large numbers of positive reviews. Be aware of that and look at a number of reviews for any products or services you are considering. Carefully selecting the right reviews will help you understand if it is right for you.

True Customer Service

I flew back to Utah late last night and didn't get to bed until about 1:00 am. Then I woke up at 7:00 am this morning so I could take a car into the shop to have some warranty work completed. My daughter is the one that drives the car and tried to get it fixed last week only to be given the runaround. I went in today and expressed some displeasure at how they treated her. I got a free rental car and headed back home so I could do my morning exercise routine.

The dealership had a nice service where two guys noticed a crack in the windshield. While I filled out paperwork for the warranty service, they filled the crack and charged my insurance. When I arrived back home, I received a nice call from my insurance company asking for a few particulars related to the rock-chip repair. Halfway through the conversation I realized I was having an actual conversation with someone in the United States. Compare that with some call centers located in other countries. Sometimes I can barely understand the people on the other end because of thick accents. The lady from my insurance company told me about how her son had borrowed her car while his got fixed. This is something my daughter had been doing but my car didn't suffer as this lady's had. I had to admit that the conversation went well and I didn't feel inconvenienced by the call.

Last month I wrote about working from home and how call centers are a great industry where people should be allowed to work from home. I hope that my insurance company allows the lady from my call this morning to do so. I'm not going to complain if they don't as I am glad I got to talk to a live person with no foreign accent. Considering I started the day with only 6 hours of sleep, I'm not sure I would have had such a pleasant experience otherwise.

Using a Smartphone for Calls

Saturday afternoon I boarded my flight from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles and patiently took my seat. About 10 minutes before our scheduled departure the pilot came on and informed us there was a slight problem with the plane's computer and that he was going to try to reboot it. For some reason, I pictured him typing CTL-ALT-DEL. Twenty minutes and a few announcements later, we were informed that the computer was not responding and that it needed to be replaced. The process would take 45 minutes. My layover in Los Angeles was only 45 minutes to begin with and we were already 10 minutes into that. I was going to miss my flight to Tokyo.

Missing my flight was not an option. I was scheduled to arrive at 10:30pm Sunday evening and I was hosting a conference at 8:30 am the following morning. Any delay would seriously jeopardize my attendance at my own event. An event that I had spent the previous 6 months planning. I immediately got on the phone with Delta using a special number given to their platinum-level customers. My mobile number identified me and there was no need to enter my frequent flyer number. I thought that was a nifty feature. Soon I was connected with a real person who immediately knew why I was calling. He told me to get off the plane and run to another flight headed to San Francisco. While I ran, he rebooked me on a different itinerary using another carrier for the leg from San Francisco to Tokyo.

I ended up sprinting through the Salt Lake airport and immediately boarded my new flight. Then I landed and sprinted through the San Francisco airport to the international terminal. I got a new boarding pass with my seat assignment and had the luxury of experiencing TSA security for the second time that day. Yes, that last sentence was dripping with sarcasm. For those that don't know me, I hate going through airport security as I do it twice a week, whether I want to or not. I sprinted to the gate and boarded the flight to Tokyo. Yes, I was stuck in a middle seat for the 10-hour flight but I was going to make my conference. In fact, I landed only a few minutes later than my originally scheduled flight.

Yes, Delta has a smartphone app that I could have used to help with my travel. However it wouldn't have booked me on a different carrier. Unfortunately my unique situation required human intervention. At those times, it is nice that a smartphone can also be used as a phone. After all, that is why I carry it.