Carsome Called Out For Incentivizing 5-Star Reviews
myTukar says that rival Carsome hasn’t been honouring fair advertising and review practices.
Things are heating up in the used car space as Carro’s myTukar has called out arch rival Carsome over unfair review practices. In an open letter, myTukar appeals to Carsome’s founder and CEO Eric Cheng to adhere to fair advertising and review practices after finding that the company has been incentivizing 5-star reviews on Google with prizes.
What triggered this was Carsome’s latest campaign, which offered an iPhone 15 Pro worth RM5,499 to top Google reviewers monthly. This was not the first time Carsome has offered prizes for 5-star reviews and most-liked 5-star reviews and myTukar took this opportunity to call out their rival on the unfair practice.
The Importance Of Transparency And Honesty
Besides the convenience of browsing and buying a car from one’s device, these used car platforms also pride themselves on being transparent and honest. Whether or not this is true is debatable. By incentivizing 5-star reviews, customers may be compelled to leave inaccurate feedback for other potential customers, distorting the reality of the situation on the ground.
Read myTukar’s Open Letter
Dear Mr Cheng:
Our customers’ voices matter. Which is why we believe they should have a final say in their experiences with us – whether good or bad or lukewarm. 5-star reviews spurs us to keep up the good work, and any negative reviews help us pinpoint any blind spots in our processes in services, allowing us to further improve.
We have noticed Carsome’s long practice of rewarding and incentivising reviews as part of marketing campaigns, with prizes for 5-star reviews and most-liked 5-star reviews.
Rewarding and incentivising 5-star reviews will not only erode trust and reliability in the long run, but also create an environment of mistrust across the used car industry in Malaysia. We have long tolerated this and strongly urge Carsome to cease such activities.
Carsome’s Chief Marketing Officer Ravi Shankar wrote in a LinkedIn update on 29 February: Most brands & businesses aim to be perceived as “trusted”. Yet most don’t provide consumers with a distinctive reason to trust them in a way that’s any different to the competition. Stand out by telling a unique story that goes beyond just shouting, ‘Trust us.”
While we highly agree with this, we’re also baffled by his statement since incentivising 5-star reviews goes directly against what he’s saying. People should be able to trust customer reviews without second guessing if they were paid reviews.
Competition within the industry is essential – that’s what spurs us on to improve our products, services and innovation. However, as role models and leaders in Malaysia’s used car industry, we strongly urge you to set the playing field right again, and to support our commitment in creating a transparent, honest environment for all used car buyers and sellers.
Sincerely, myTukar
About the Author
Subhash Nair Written work on dsf.my. @subhashtag on instagram. Autophiles Malaysia on Youtube.
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