Response to Email on Allergy Products Ratings

Why tell the truth about allergy products?

by Mercia Tapping, President, AllergyBuyersClub.com

Dear AllergyBuyersClub.com,

"I am completely befuddled here. Why would one of our authorized dealers (who is purportedly committed to SELLING our products) submit a review ("Courtesy of AllergyBuyersClub.com") listing DISADVANTAGES to our products? Secondly, and more importantly, some of these criticisms reflect allergybuyersclub's product testers' inability to use our products correctly. Furthermore, this failure to consult your territory manager to discuss your findings and explain some of the difficulties you (allergybuyersclub) experienced when "testing" our products does a disservice to not only xxxxx, but to the first-time users of our products. If your site is about providing information and selling as many xxxxx as you can, this section of the site is woefully inadequate and represents an egregious error for future sales of xxxx products." Please do not misunderstand me. I am pointing out errors and criticizing sections of your site to help you make it better. In keeping with the spirit of improving the content on your site, let us discuss this "disadvantages" section of your site, the problems your testers encountered, and an explanation and a solution.''

INFO LINKS Pollen and Hayfever Solution Guide - a quick buyers guide of the best recommended products to solve airborne allergen problems Mold Solution Guide - a quick buyers guide of the best recommended products to prevent and control mold allergy problems Cat Allergy Solution Guide - a quick buyers guide of the best recommended products to prevent and control pet allergy problems Dust Mite Solution Guide - a quick buyers guide of the best recommended products to prevent and control dust mite allergies

My Reply: "Our office manager referred your email to me since I am the company president and responsible for synthesizing our consumer panel reviewers remarks. In order for you to understand why we would publish any negative remarks about any product, it would be important for you to understand the positioning and goals of our site.

Our site appeals to people who are often quite sick, have spent thousands on medical bills and also an extraordinary amount of money on allergy relief products which are quite routinely exaggerated as to their effectiveness by e-tailers and catalogue vendors. Our goal is to educate people to make wise purchasing decisions. We cannot dictate what people should buy, but we can make them aware of the pluses and minuses of their purchasing decisions. In order to achieve this goal , we have developed a tremendous amount of educational content on the main site, an email newsletter, and a consumer panel product testing program.

The unique positioning of our e-commerce site is that it is the "honest catalogue" which will tell you the minuses as well of the pluses of products we sell. It is our goal to build trust with our constituents, customer loyalty, and a responsibility that when the AllergyBuyersClub.com gives out a category seal of approval or a 5 star rating, people pay attention. In examining products, even ones as good as yours, we find you cannot please all of the people all of the time. As your marketing people know in their market segmentation programs, and as I find in my personal advice to people- people need to trade off factors such as price, quality, ease of use, weight, sound levels of a number of different allergy relief products. When I synthesize the remarks of testers, particularly when I personally do not see the remark as being entirely fair/warranted , it is always an ethical dilemma as to whether I edit out the comment or let it stand. I have decided overall to not over editorialize."

Amazon.com, arguably the most successful retailer on the web, has consumer reviews of all their books. Even when a book gets accolades from most people, there are always people who didn't like the book. Amazon does not edit out the negative reviews.

We are about to merge our "People's Choice" facility directly into our e-commerce site, so that our customers can submit a review of the product on hand. We believe it is of tremendous added value to people when they shop on line to have this consumer review information available. We would lose our credibility in our reviews if we did not include some negatives, however mild, about any product. Our aim by providing this level of information is to have the same level of advice or better available to our e-tail customers, as they would have if they went into a bricks and mortar store.

When I grew up In England, I was able to go to the neighborhood store and when I wanted to purchase something costly, the store owner would tell me pluses and minuses and the trade- offs of my potential purchasing decisions. It is this same level of information and honesty that I would like to bring to the Web.

So far I think my positioning of our site has been successful, judging by the mail I get each week. Typical of emails- received in the last week are:-
"...just had to tell you I just discovered your site....you give more information about products than anywhere else...thank-you"
"... your site has been a godsend to us. I have followed many of your suggestions for a dust free bedroom and bought several products ....... my family and I are enjoying a level of health we never thought possible...many thanks"
"Congratulations on your web site.....you have done a superb job....I love the newsletter and your product reviews....keep up the good work!"

As we speak this morning, I got a phone call from a repeat happy customer who decided after talking to me about the pros and cons of the xxxx and xxxxx, to buy the xxxxxx. He raved about how different and wonderful our site was because of our product reviews and ratings. He said that when he first came to the site he thought we were going to be like any other site- just putting down what manufacturers told us to say - and then he said he discovered we were different and were consumer oriented and what a delightful discovery that was. I told him that we were in hot water with one "nameless manufacturer" for putting any negatives about their product.
His comment-"Well of course it can't be xxxxx (I bit my tongue) but who ever it is, I would be glad to speak to them".

Does our philosophy always get us the most sales? I do not know the answer to this- probably not. But I go to bed at night knowing we have given people- sick people- the best advice, and access to the most complete information that we are able to give them." That was what I said two weeks ago - and there has been silence since then.

If you like our approach- please email me and tell me, so I can save them in a safe place in order to help the next rebuttal I may have to make to a manufacturer who wants his product to be presented as perfect for all the people all the time.

Incidentally, I do want to add the vast majority of manufacturers really love what we do, why we are doing it, and appreciate our approach.

First Published: July, 2000
Updated: September 2003

Send this article to a friend

.................................................. .................................................. .................................................. ..................................................