給差評的顧客往往是最忠實的顧客？

美國麻省理工學院和西北大學的兩位零售學教授研究發現，在購物網站上給差評的顧客往往是在該網站購物最多且最忠實的顧客。套用一句法國諺語來說，就是“你最好的朋友同時也是你最嚴厲的批評者”。由此也反駁了此前流傳的“購物網站的差評多來自競爭對手或奇葩顧客”這一觀點。

研究人員對某服裝公司的32.5萬條在線評價和亞馬遜網站7000多條書評分析後發現，在購物網站上給出最嚴厲批評的顧客可能根本沒有購買正在評價的商品，而只是對該網站的某項服務或品牌有很深的感情。這些顧客做出的負面評價通常都是有關某個新產品與該公司核心產品系列不一致等問題，希望通過負面評價提醒該公司注意市場策略。研究人員表示，這些顧客通常“自詡爲該品牌的推廣經理”，雖然他們會給出負面評價，但仍然會繼續購買該品牌的產品。

People who write negative reviews on websites are often a retailer's most valuable and loyal customers, American research suggests.

Retail specialists at MIT and Northwestern University found the harshest of critics may not have bought the product they were complaining about, but had strong feelings about a service or brand.

The study, which is the first to take an in-depth look at the behavior of customers who write negative reviews online, has disproved popular theories that peeved competitors or oddball customers make the harshest critics.

Professor Eric Anderson of Northwestern University and Professor Duncan Simester of MIT, examined over 325,000 online reviews written by customers of a large clothing company and examined more than 7,219 book reviews on to produce their study, ABC News reported.

They used data collected by the websites that made it possible to match reviews to purchases made.

The experts concluded that a firm's most loyal customers are also their most negative reviewers, or to quote a French maxim, 'your best friends are also your harshest critics.'

Professor Anderson said that no-one had previously looked at the behavior of individual reviewers before and when they told the clothing company they were receiving negative reviews from their best customers, they were shocked.

They also revealed that the harshest critics had not bought the product they were complaining about and around five percent of product reviews were written by people who had not bought the item they disliked so much.

The researchers found that these reviews were also on average much more negative than the 95 percent of genuine reviews by customers who had purchased a product.

After much hypothesising, the marketing experts concluded that reviewers were acting like 'self-appointed brand managers' who like the company and continue buying from it despite penning a venomous review.

They found that critics were often complaining about a new product that is slightly different from a company's core offering and want to tell a company if they suspect it is making a bad decision.

Professor Simester believes that customers feel the need to lie about buying a product to review it as they are looking for credibility.

He told ABC News that many people underestimate the importance of their reviews, which can have a harmful effect on a company's sales.

He thinks the findings of the research might prompt companies to insist that reviewers have bought a specific product first before giving their opinion on it.