Authentic user reviews create long-term outcomes
April 19, 2018

Authentic user reviews create long-term outcomes

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with TrustRadius for Buyers

I was collecting reviews for Business Process Automation platforms, while leading a vendor evaluation project. I used TrustRadius to obtain unbiased information about other customers' mileage with vendors' platforms and the quality of support provided during implementation. Digital Process Automation market is a very competitive space and flooded with shiny marketing materials that always promise quick results and high ROI. Despite such claims, not all vendors are able to deliver results to match their promise. Third party reviews were used as another major data point to support our final decision-making process.
  • To determine what to ask a vendor
  • To validate vendor claims
  • To see what other users think of the product I am currently using
In this fast-moving world, some companies are able to innovate their product lines at a very fast pace. Catching these advancements through analyst reports (i.e. Forrester or Gartner) takes a bit of time due to their publishing schedule. The other problem with such reports is analysts' distance to the actual implementation. Sometimes people that are interviewed for such studies are too far from implementation details. So while such reports hit the mark at the higher level (i.e. strategy, positioning, average costs and vendor reputation), many times they miss the micro level details that determine the true mileage with the product. That's where unbiased reviews bring a lot of value. It's the timeliness and the level of directness about the actual implementation that's hard to get anywhere else. Some product issues may only resurface at some companies due to differences in their level of maturity. I always look for useful validations and clues that allow me to target my research. Let's face it - we all have a limited amount of time and knowledge, and there is always someone out there doing things differently and potentially better than us.
Authenticity, real examples that highlight issues and potential traps. Reports that come from real life experience. Best reviews provide a balanced mix of negative and positive experiences and timely lessons learned.
When you are trying to make a decision with long-term consequences for the company, getting unbiased data related to the actual experience is very important in order to maintain objectivity. All evaluation teams bring their own bias and preferences, so by confronting such preferences with experience from other industries, customers, etc., we can attempt to balance our team's thinking. Data based decisions result in better outcomes. Independent and anonymous reviews provide the level of authenticity that's difficult to get through a vendor's sponsored use cases.
  • Attention to details
  • Respecting and protecting reviewers' wishes to stay anonymous
  • The lack of bias
  • Better visualization of ratings would be nice.
  • Better product placement for alternatives, i.e. K2 is compared to Microsoft Biztalk and Tableau Desktop (different category of tools).
  • If you are trying to create a platform that supports buyers research, could you offer tools that would accelerate my ability to collect my research materials? Research is pretty time consuming, requires discipline and rigor.
Analyst reports, use case research, analysis of marketing materials, reference calls, LinkedIn and Twitter
High focus on integrity and the fact that the TrustRadius online review platform works. I used other review sites and the experience was not so positive - in one case, the site has disclosed my identity despite claiming that my review was anonymous.
Any type of research empowers the researcher with additional information that may become useful at an unexpected moment.
TrustRadius comes across as a very trustworthy site.

Evaluating TrustRadius for Buyers and Competitors