B2B Tech Reviews Are More Essential Than Ever

We live in a world dominated by digital channels. Here in 2021, B2B tech reviews have become critical for how companies select software. Why is that?

We have all become accustomed to using reviews in our personal lives—whether that’s picking a hotel to stay at on vacation, choosing a restaurant to eat at, or buying a product. We’re used to turning to Google first before making any decisions. We search for first-hand experiences because that’s what we trust.

That behavior has translated to the workplace. Tech buyers are seeking the truth about a product before they make a purchase. For years now, we’ve seen that B2B buyers want reviews and testimonials just as much as B2C consumers do.

They want the unvarnished truth.

It’s also important to note that enterprise technology decisions are often expensive and influential. They can have consequences for how a company will function. Business purchases can impact how someone does their job. It can even impact their career.

That’s why buyers need to know everything they can before making a purchase. They need to understand all the potential benefits, ROI, and limitations of the technology they’re about to buy.

It’s also critical for buyers to understand what type of relationship they’ll have with a vendor. Customer reviews allow you to enter a relationship with your eyes wide open.

If you want to use reviews effectively, my first piece of advice is to make sure you’re using a trustworthy website. There’s a whole universe of review websites to consider. Along with TrustRadius there's G2, Capterra, Gartner Peer Insights (GPI), IT Central Station, and many more. So it can be difficult to find trustworthy, high-quality reviews.

Here’s what I recommend you look for:

Make sure you’re using a trustworthy review platform. There’s a degree of fraud in the customer review industry, and certain websites do a better job than others at screening reviews and verifying their legitimacy. Look for review websites that are upfront about how the information is vetted and screened to eliminate fake content and reviewers.

All review content is not created equal. Keep looking until you find review sites that offer high-quality, in-depth review content—not just simple, one-line reviews that lack nuance and depth. Look for quality content that actually has some substance. Those reviews will give you a much better picture of the full range of experiences with a product or service.

Once you’ve found a trustworthy review website, make sure that you look beyond product scores. The scores can help you understand whether a product is widely loved or widely despised. But beyond that, read the substance of the reviews to see how people are characterising the product. Try and find people who have a similar business situation to you, because they’re more likely to have a similar use case.

At the end of the day, reviews are one of the only channels that buyers trust. If you’re looking for a good place to start, feel free to join the TrustRadius community. We’re on a mission to make tech reviews even more trustworthy and valuable.

Given the nature of the B2B buyer’s journey, customer opinions are also crucial for Magnolia. Whether our customers need support for B2B ecommerce or content, we take pride in our presence on several review platforms and the awards that we’ve won over the years. Yet we won’t let those accolades be the final story. Instead, we’ll continue using those reviews to help us improve our product and provide the best digital experience platform for our customers.