Rating with the senses: How sensory encounters are reflected on online review ratings?

Abstract Sensory encounters are an essential component of the customer experience. However, most of the research conducted thus far has used self‐reported measuring techniques to address sensory experiences, which have limitations in holistically capturing the sensory encounters. Text analysis coupled with online reviews provides valuable customer experience information and at the same time, the data contains many suggestions regarding consumers’ sensory experiences. Consequently, online review data can be used to gain insights into how consumers’ sensory experiences—visual, olfactory, auditory, gustatory, and tactile—are represented in the dynamics of online reviews. Using a data set of 13,575 online reviews from Trustpilot and expanding upon the vocabulary of senses, we investigate how customers’ sensory experiences during grocery shopping relate to online review ratings. We discover that the interaction is more complex than one might think because the review star rating rises in the presence of visual and gustatory cues, while the effects of auditory, olfactory, and tactile cues are not demonstrated. We recommend marketers to monitor eWOM related to their own brand, as it can provide indications of what kind of sensory experiences customers have encountered.