



Negative comments good for business


Beau Donelly

I’m not going to lie to you. This is not the best story you will read today. It doesn’t even come close.But it is worth a look.

A new study has found that bad customer reviews, if written politely, can actually help sell a product or service. They may even prompt consumers to pay more for it.

In a series of tests, US researchers examined how politeness affected reviews. It found that prefacing negative information with phrases such as “I’ll be honest”, “I’m not going to lie to you” and “don’t get me wrong” acted as a buffer to the bad news.

So, if you’re still reading this article it’s probably because a carefully selected phrase helped soften the blow that what's to follow is unlikely to be life-changing news. In academic language, this phenomenon is known as the “dispreferred marker effect”.

Published in the Journal of Consumer Research, the findings suggest that word-of-mouth reviews containing negative information preceded with a qualifying statement were seen as more sincere, added to the author’s credibility and made the the brand more likeable. Consumers were willing to pay more for a product when the review was couched in this way.

“People felt better about things in general because of the polite way the review was phrased and that general good feeling makes them feel better about the product being reviewed, so they are willing to pay more for it,” lead author and Emory University marketing professor Ryan Hamilton said.

In one experiment, consumers were asked to value a watch that received different treatment in two generally positive reviews. Both contained negative information about the band of the watch being uncomfortable, but in one review the criticism was prefaced with “I don’t want to be mean but…”.

When that phrase was used, consumers said they would pay $135. When it wasn't, they would pay only $94.

The findings may have implications for businesses that have traditionally been wary of opening up their websites to anonymous product reviews and have worked hard to attract customers who fit their brand’s image.

Consumer psychologist Adam Ferrier was not surprised that consumers would pay more when qualifying phrases were used.

“Consumers don’t like absolute statements,” he said. “If you say an absolute statement the first thing it does is put the recipient on guard. If you soften that statement, it starts to feel more like an opinion. That gives the recipient a sense of ownership, if they decide to agree with it they’ll come to the conclusion themselves.”

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