Can a 1.5 Star Review Sink Your Product or Service?

Over the years I’ve used both TurboTax and H&R Block (aka Tax Cut). Both function well and got the job done. To be honest most of the time I used Tax Cut mostly because I became familiar with the interface. Human nature I guess. So now that it’s tax season I settled down to purchase this years version but decided to check the reviews just to be sure I was using the best functioning and easiest to use tax software. I mean, this is painful enough right? Plus my employer offers auto import of my W2 into TurboTax.  (this article is my opinion alone, not that of my employer.)

So I was slightly dismayed when I went on Amazon to find H&R Block only getting 3.5 stars. Most of the complaints were about being nickle’d and dime’d for extras which I’ve already become accustomed too. So I thought I’d check TurboTax just to make sure I was wisely spending my $50 or so dollars. Whoa was I surprised! TurboTax had 1.5 stars.

What Happened Next

I was so shocked that such a major company in it’s field would get such bad reviews that I had to read at least a few of the bad reviews. The ones I read were mostly about feeling ripped off and the company not caring. I stopped reading and felt great about ordering H&R Block. Now your experience may vary but that’s not the point of this post.

Social Media Disaster

Amazon is a pretty trusted review repository and this kind of rating can sink even the biggest marketing effort. Turbotax seems to have a modest social effort with less than 1/2 million fans and no apparent reach on Facebook. Maybe they don’t care. But the damage done by social review sites like Amazon can be devastating. Out of curiosity I will follow up to see if they have any reaction to this of if they are just planning on marketing their way out of this. Either way, when looking at social responses, don’t forget to look at reviews.