One word one could use to describe Trustpilot is enigmatic. We looked up the dictionary definition just to be sure...
Sharp eyes will spot the strapline 'Excellent' and HSBC's Trustpilot score - the highly valued 'social proof'. Which chimes with HSBC's score on the Trustpilot website...
'Summaries are created with AI based on a company’s most relevant reviews–which are up to a year old, detailed, easier to read, and reflect the TrustScore.' Again: no explanation (none that makes sense, anyway), but the phrase 'year old' may give us a clue. Is Trustpilot not counting reviews over a year old (for paying businesses)? If it were, it would run contrary to the policies at Google and other respected review sites (TripAdvisor, for example, requires proof of a complete change of ownership and business structure before it will even consider archiving reviews of a hotel).
Trustpilot also implies that extra weight is given to a business asking for reviews and, possibly (but not explicitly), responding - we assume it describes that as 'engaging'.
Most intriguing of all is the 'reflect the TrustScore' weighting, which perhaps gives a higher weighting to those ('recent', 'relevant') reviews which are around the 4.5 score. We don't wish to be overly cynical, but a dispassionate observer might say that 'join us, and your 'weighted score' will now 'reflect the reviews written by more recent customers' might be considered a pretty powerful sales tool in the hands of less than scrupulous salespeople.
It would be too easy for a critic, and Trustpilot really does have its critics, whether on its own website...
...on Google...
...on other review sites...
...or on other media/forums...
...or amongst the investment community...
Full report here
...to accuse Trustpilot of being far too opaque and open to manipulation* for a business whose core stock in trade should surely be 'trust'.
*'open to manipulation': proof is hard to come by, until you read the content of individual reviews - on or about Trustpilot - it is at this point that it becomes abundantly clear that some businesses are defying the spirit of the CMA regulations (if not the precise wording) in order to boost their scores or devalue the scores of their competitors.
We'll keep you posted, if and when we can clarify any of the above.
And finally - a question for HSBC
Why, when looking for a reviews solution, when your branches - given the first action a sensible person might reasonably be expected to do having seen that full page advertisement in the Sunday Times would be to google their local branch - would your marketing department not search out a solution that would address these awful (and some might say 'unfairly awful') Google review scores?
Just search on any of these branches - e.g. 'HSBC Camden Town' and see what your search returns. We'll save you the trouble...
...Google score and reviews are prominent in every search. And reviews of each branch. A cynic might say, 'Why pay Trustpilot when Google reviews are free?' The same person might also say, 'Why pay Trustpilot when their reviews don't even feature on page one of Google search?' Unless, that is, you just want those four and a half stars to use in your marketing with the minimum of risk that anyone might actually access and then read the underlying reviews. As we say 'a cynic'.
Further reading...
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