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 The poll was run for a couple of weeks in Linkedin and was completed by 89 people. The overwhelming response was that negative comments would have a impact and would slow down the purchase process.

 What surprised me was that 5% of recipients would even stop their purchase based on a negative comment. The means that those of you that do run an online store and don't think about the impact of negative comments should really stop and think again. Time to determine a strategy for dealing with these and maybe even monitoring your competitors for negative comments would also make a lot of sense.

Here were some insight full comments from a number of contributors to the poll.

 

I am definitely affected by user reviews -- if they seem unbiased and genuine. I am very careful to try to figure out the reviewer's true agenda -- if he is a corporate shill or a self-promoter. But if a 'regular person' told me about a negative experience with a product it would definitely impact on my buying decision -- and might alter it completely. Andrew Hupert

 

Negative comments will impact me but usually i won't stop at only one or two pieces of negative comments. i'll read more comments and even turn to another review sites, so as to learn whether it is an objective flaw which causes the negative response or a deliberate action. Linda Ying

 

At the moment negative commentary is overly represented compared to positive feedback due to lack of online community management by brands I would change my product choice based on rating from large sample of users and feedback from credible registered sources eg. http://www.eatability.com.au/au/sydney/ Interesting results, out of the respondents, nearly 37% in males said it will take longer to convince their female counter parts after reading a negative comment on purchasing a Porsche, and 5% in males gave up altogether. Jay Zhang

 

 

It really depends how much love you have for a certain brand and product, there is always going to be someone who bad mouth about your products, especially in CHINA. As long as the # of negative comments don't go too far, the impact won't be that strong so to change the buying pattern. Hao (Marshall) Luo

 

 

You can't trust all negative or all positive reviews-- reviews can be manipulated, like almost anything. Dennis Yu

 

 

It all comes down to whether I trust the source of that negative comment. Being in the business of influence management, I'm even more suspicious nowadays. Only trust those I know or have a previously established reputation. Napoleon Biggs

 

 

Usually the tone and clarity of the comment will be of more value than whether the review is negative or positive. Earle Hager

 

 

I mostly focus on the 'big picture' and the average score a product receives from all users. When looking at negative reviews, I tend to believe the reviewer may an 'agenda' where he gives a product a low score because he was on hold too long or the UPS guy lost his package. There is also the possibility where the negative reviews are purposely generated by those who may have other interests. The fact that negative reviews are included (on a web site) is a positive sign that those that screen the reviews are fair to all who took the time to review the products! John Lockyer

 

 

Depending upon the need and cost of the product, I probably would do a little more research. One negative comment may or may not raise a red flag. Pat Hartman

For those that find a negative comment it is difficult to know what to do. As a starter here is some research from eMarketer that shows what others have done.

Thanks to all those that participated in this poll and I guess we should all look at negative comments from a number of different perspectives but undoubtedly these do have an impact on purchase intent... like it or not... we are human and comments matter.