A few months ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing the CEO & Founder of Viewpoints.com, Matt Moog (pronounced ‘moug’ as in mog-ul).
Although the site launched this year (May 2007 to be exact) and my interview with Matt took place in July 2007, I was surprised to find the website well-populated with reviews from everyday people.
I don’t know about you, but I’m always skeptical of review sites. I mean, how do you know that the positive reviews aren’t from some corporate lackey and the negative reviews aren’t from cut-throat competitors or disgruntled former employees?
Matt was the first person who actually had an answer to that question and it wasn’t what I expected. Essentially, he admitted that sometimes this does happen and it’s a concern for sure, but what he also shared is that people are smart. Surprise! We can sniff out whether a review is overly positive or overly negative and use our deductive reasoning from there. He also made an excellent point that if someone has recently signed up to viewpoints.com and they only have positive things to say about a certain product or service - like if they aren’t engaged across the board - they’ve probably got an ulterior motive. Good answer!
After I saw that Matt could handle the tough questions, I lobbed another at him:
Who the heck needs another review site? I mean we’ve got TripAdvisor, Amazon.com, etc, etc.
But, Viewpoints.com is a bit different. The other review sites focus on the products or services themselves. They don’t focus on the reviewer. Viewpoints.com does.
Let me explain with a short story why this is important:
When I review resorts on TripAdvisor, I always look for recent reviews from people who are from New York. Why? Because I’m from New York and I know New Yorkers have a reputation for never settling for less than stellar treatment. So, I automatically place less weight on a review written by someone in Montana than I do on one written by someone in New York. (Yes, the person in Montana could be from New York, but we’re not going there today, ok?)
That’s what Viewpoints.com does automatically. It let’s you read reviews from people who have things in common with you (or not, if that’s your preference) so that you can really get the full scoop from someone who shares your same situation, preferences and even values. Who knew!?
I’ll give you another example…
I don’t have children so I don’t know a damn thing about car seats and such, but recently I had to purchase one for a client’s baby shower. I went straight over to Viewpoints.com, selected that I wanted to read car seat reviews written by moms who are into auto-safety and don’t like minivans - that description fits my client exactly. I bought the car seat, had it shipped, everyone’s happy and my client thinks I’m the most sensitive, caring being since Barney.
And, it’s not just baby stuff - from Dell computers to Raid Roach & Ant Spray - you’re sure to find a review about your planned purchase from someone whose opinion you respect.
Bottomline: It’s about time.
This entry was posted on Monday, October 15th, 2007 at 11:53 am and is filed under The Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.2 Responses to “Who Needs Another Review Site? I Do If It’s Viewpoints.com”
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August 27th, 2008 at 8:18 am
I love ViewPoints.com and use it daily to read reviews on products or services I am considering buying. I also use other review websites such as http://www.yelp.com and http://www.reviewpage.com when I am searching for reviews, just because I like to keep myself well rounded in terms of reviews.
August 27th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Cara:
I also like TripAdvisor.com for travel reviews. I love the feedback and the candid traveler’s photos.
Thanks for reading and commenting,
Lena