When you’re looking for an online makeup school to attend, it’s always a great idea to look for reviews on the schools you’re considering. Honest, no-holds-barred reviews can give you amazing insight into exactly what you can expect from the school.
But most reviews today are online and on unsecured platforms, so they may or may not be legit. Here’s what you should look out for when you’re reading reviews about online makeup academies.
Read on to find out more about what to look for in online makeup academy reviews
Where Reviews Are Posted
Always keep in mind that less-than-reputable companies can easily write fake reviews and make them appear as if they’re from real customers. One of the least reliable types of reviews are the ones posted directly on a company’s website. If you find a review that is on the company’s site, make sure that there is a link back to the original review text. If there’s no link, take the review with a grain of salt.
Reviews on sites like the Better Business Bureau or other third-party review sites that verify customer information are your best bet. But not every company uses these services.
Reviews posted on sites like Facebook or Google can usually be trusted, but you should take the time to check that the reviewer’s accounts are legit.
Reviewer Names
Anonymous reviews have the least amount of credibility. Without a name, it’s hard to know how legit the review is! You want to make sure that the company did not write the review themselves.
Always make sure the review is from an actual human being! If the reviews originate on social media, check out the user’s profile. Does it look like a real person with a normal profile? Did the person just create their profile? Have they reviewed other businesses in the past? If a profile is brand new, has a weird name, or has any kind of a suspicious history, it’s worth questioning its authenticity.
Pro tip: If a review really resonates with you, try reaching out to the person who wrote it! Sending a simple private message about their review and asking a few questions shouldn’t seem odd to most people. After all, they left a review to help others, right?
Timeframes
When looking at a company’s reviews on social media, check to see when all the reviews were posted. Legit reviews trickle in over time.
A few years ago, another online makeup academy had an influx of amazingly-positive 5-star reviews over the course of a few weeks, after having had no reviews for months beforehand. It didn’t take much digging to discover that all these amazing reviews were fake, originating from their own employees.
What the Reviews Say
The way reviews are actually written will give you a lot of insights about their authenticity.
If an online makeup academy has reviews that are star-ratings only with no actual written review from the users, be wary. Some people will quickly rate a business without context and move on, but we’ve found that most people who take the time to review a school will take the time to write at least a few words.
Authentic reviews will sound like they’re written by everyday people. That means there should be a variety of writing styles and voices scattered among a school’s reviews. People on the internet talk in all sorts of ways. Some reviews will be in perfect English, sure. But expect a fair amount of reviews to contain spelling mistakes, strange punctuation, internet slang, long rambling sentences/paragraphs, emoji’s, etc. If every review you read sounds eerily similar and sounds like they were written by a marketing professional… trust your gut.
Similarly, pay attention to the content of the reviews themselves. People review a makeup academy for a number of reasons. Maybe they were impressed by how quickly they completed their training. Maybe they loved their instructor. Maybe they want to share their success story now that they’ve graduated. Or maybe they’re fans of the school but haven’t actually enrolled in a class yet.
When reading reviews, you should see a variety of reasons why people gave the school a rating. If most of the reviews are generic comments like “this school is great!” with little context, you have a right to be suspicious.
The Average Rating
This one is simple: No company with a fair amount of reviews will have a perfect 5-star rating. Take the time to read 4-, 3-, 2-, and 1-star reviews.
The Replies
Look for the 1-star reviews, and see how the company publically replied to those reviews. Did they ignore the review or did they reply appropriately for the situation?
The Bottom Line
Honest business reviews can give you key insights into how a makeup academy will treat you once you become a student. Be sure you take reviews seriously, but also take care to ensure you’re not just falling into a black hole of corporate propaganda!
Do you have any tips on how to check the authenticity of an online review? Let us know in the comments below!
