When doing research on a new pharmacy software, there are several review sites where you can read the opinions of people who are current users of each system. They can provide helpful input, but there are some things you should watch out for when navigating these sites.
Here are the top 8 things you should be aware of when using other product review sites:
1. Default Sorting By “Sponsored”
When looking over a page of product listings, look at the top of the list for a “Sort By” selector. Sometimes, the listings will automatically be sorted by the most sponsored content.
For a more unbiased order, click to sort by something neutral like listing in alphabetical order. If sorting by the highest rated or most reviewed software, just keep in mind that these can also be influenced by factors such as those listed below.
2. Incentivized Customer Reviews
Be aware that some review sites will pay individuals to write reviews, and some vendors themselves could be reaching out to their customers to post reviews. This could lead to reviews that are lacking in content or pressured to be written in a positive light.
3. Competitive Bidding
Some review sites allow the vendors to control how their product is ranked in listings by “bidding” on their spot (See #1: Sponsored Content).
Vendors can pay more money to the review site to outrank their competitors and maintain a top spot in listings.
4. Pay-Per-Click Model
Competitive bidding, mentioned above, relates back to a pay-per-click model. This means that the vendors are paying for people to click on the link to their company website. The higher a vendor bids for their listing to be ranked, the more they are paying for each time you click on one of their website links. It’s a way of buying visits instead of earning traffic organically.
5. Employee-Written Reviews
Another thing to be aware of is that you could be reading reviews that are written by employees of a company posing as customers. This could be done as a way to inflate the number of positive reviews for a vendor.
This can be difficult to differentiate from real reviews, so just keep this mind when doing your research.
6. Is That a Listing… Or An Ad?
If you are reading a listing of pharmacy software vendors, be on the lookout for a small disclaimer that may identify a listing as an advertisement. Some ads are lumped into the middle of a list of vendors and may look like a regular listing. Be aware that this is sponsored content.
7. Outdated Information
Another issue with online customer-written reviews is that they might be outdated. The company could have updated their software or customer service since a review was written, so it may no longer be accurate.
You could be reading about an issue that has since been solved, or conversely, be reading glowing reviews when the company has actually turned downhill since those were written.
8. Uneven Representation
At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that reading online reviews is only a part of the process. It is highly unlikely that these posts can be a full, even representation of all the pharmacy software vendors in the market. It’s just a small portion of people who happened to write a review - so what about the opinions of all the people who don’t go on review sites?
You may just be seeing polar ends of the spectrum: very satisfied customers, or very angry customers writing inflammatory posts. What about the simply content customers in the middle?
What Makes Pharmacy Software Reviews Different?
On Pharmacy Software Reviews, you can visit our page on Evaluating the Best Pharmacy Software for a more complete, unbiased study of approximately 2,000 independent pharmacy professionals just like you. This randomized, double-blind survey gets honest opinions from a more diverse perspective.
No matter how you do your research, just be sure to know what information you are reading and consider where it comes from.
