Positive online reviews slump this year as businesses struggle to upkeep good customer service

Review platform Trustpilot has reported 50,000 fewer positive reviews since April, a five per cent drop on the previous year.
The biggest problem areas raised by reviewers are deliveries, response times to enquiries and mistakes made with orders.
The data was released by the review platform, which also commissioned research of 2,000 UK consumers which found 30 per cent feel companies have used the cost-of-living crisis to treat them ‘poorly’.
In addition, the company has just released its first ‘Online Review Index’, a quarterly analysis of review data highlighting customer sentiment across retail sectors.
Not only are positive reviews decreasing, negative opinions are also on the up – having risen by three per cent.
Mieke De Schepper, chief commercial officer for the review platform, said: “Through Trustpilot’s new quarterly ‘Online Review Index’ we now have the ability to understand how consumers are feeling about businesses from the way they write reviews.
“It’s a unique way to measure how customers are interacting with a range of companies and organisations, and it’s especially valuable as the UK continues to grapple with the cost-of-living crisis.
“On the face of it, receiving fewer positive reviews can be worrying, but businesses should treat it as an opportunity to understand how their customers are feeling about them.”
As well as overall figures for customer sentiment, the company’s tracker is able to measure how different sectors are performing.
Genuine value for money
The electronics, technology and entertainment sectors saw the biggest increases in negative sentiment in online reviews, and across all the sectors the same issues were highlighted.
The biggest problems appeared to be centred around mistakes made with orders, frustration when dealing with businesses, issues around the delivery of products and poor customer service.
For the sectors that had fewest negative reviews — travel, construction, manufacturing and education — levels of customer service were praised highly.
Mieke De Schepper