Embracing Change: Managing Online Business Reviews

Although I’ve been dying to write an article on funny Yelp reviews (it’s almost here, so stay tuned), I was just as happy to see that Amazon themselves published a list of Amazon’s funniest reviews.  

In an age where businesses of all types are struggling to find a process for managing online business reviews, Amazon has tapped into humor and some time-tested customer service guidelines to develop its strategy.

Such is the attitude of a winner. It follows some simple rules for managing online reviews:

1. Don’t take yourself too seriously. When things seem to get out of control on social media, instead of panicking, think, “What if I joined in? What would I see, what would I learn? How would these audiences see me?”
2. You can’t eliminate what’s out of your control, but you can tame it. You can dominate the conversation by being an honest participant in it.
3. Give credit where it’s due and ride their coattails.

 Amazon published its list of Funniest Reviews in response to a Brain Pickings blog post by Maria Popova [@brainpicker], Modern Masterpieces of Comedic Genius: The Art of the Humorous Amazon Review. Popova writes:

New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff conceives of humor as “a conflict of synergies” in which “we mashup these things that don’t belong together that temporarily exist in our minds.”

That’s precisely what makes the art of the humorous Amazon review, in which the deliberate incongruity of medium and message heightens our amusement and delight, a particularly effective yet under-appreciated modern form of comedic genius.

With great love for Popova’s work here, I turn back to Amazon to give them kudos on listening, playing along, and tapping into a great opportunity to distinguish themselves from other “review” spaces.

So, what are the funniest reviews on Amazon? Here are some of my faves:

• “I believe that wearing this t-shirt has made me a better man, which is remarkable because, well….I’m a chick.”     Diane P. — Re:  Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt by The Mountain
• “Has anyone else tried pouring this stuff over dry cereal? A-W-E-S-O-M-E!”       J. Fitzsimmons  — Re: Whole Milk 1 Gal:
• “As shown in the picture, the slices is curved from left to right. All of my bananas are bent the other way.”   J. Anderson   — Re: Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer:

Re: Bic for Her…