Estate agents banned - the implications for every business

Today's Times piece is here, yesterday's PIE story is here

The article goes on to report that 'The two men were fined by the Competition and Markets Authority, alongside the other four estate agency groups, paying a combined £370,084 in September last year.'

Most of you will have read about this in the national press or one or other of the business forums. "But we are not involved in commission or price-fixing, so what has this got to do with us?" we hear you say.

Our answer: It has everything to do with you. Why? Because the government agency that imposed both the fine (the Competition and Markets Authority) and the ban is the same agency that regulates how businesses - all UK businesses - use reviews.

Put simply: if your business is inviting reviews from customers and is not...

• inviting all your customers to post a review
• at a time of their own choosing

 ...it is breaking the law.

Put even more bluntly...

If your business...

• is selecting customers to invite to write a review (commonly called cherry-picking)
• employing a mechanism that allows you to prevent those who write a negative review from having that review published
• is choosing the time you invite or allow your customer to write a review (e.g. only at point of purchase)

...it is breaking the law.

We estimate currently that - of businesses proactively inviting reviews to any platform, be that Google or an independent reviews site - over 90% are guilty of one or more of the three practices listed above.

Why? Because they know that a dissatisfied customer is so much more likely to be motivated to post a review and they feel that they are forced to take action to redress that balance. 

There is another way. We are often asked why our clients look so good and the answer is a simple one: first and foremost they are good businesses, focused on customer service at their core, but one of the things that reassured them when they joined HelpHound was our Resolution™ moderation mechanism which enables them to address factually inaccurate or potentially misleading reviews pre-publication. It expressly does not prevent a customer posting a review - even an inaccurate or misleading one - but it does enable the business and their customer to have a dialogue and 'resolve' those kinds of issues before the review is published for all the world to see (and it's just as popular with consumers as it is with our clients).


Further reading:

• The CMA rules - and our detailed analysis
• Resolution™ - an 'owners manual'

2018 - a New Presentation for a New Year

The presentation that follows contains all the key elements of what we will achieve for your business. There is more - from designing the right implementation for you and your website to staff and management training, both initial and ongoing, but we will cover all of this when we meet. We hope that what follows will impress you enough to do just that - contact us and arrange that initial meeting.

Now read on...

The reviews solution you choose for your business must, above all else, be compliant with the Competition and Markets Authority's regulations (and you would be surprised just how many are not). For more read this.

If the solution you choose does not result in your business looking great in search - on Google - then all the benefits of great review management: a great Google score, looking great against the competition - and all with maximum credibility, will be lost.

There is one other crucially important reason for hosting reviews on your own site first, and only then getting as many as possible of them across to Google, and that is Resolution™ - HelpHound's moderation mechanism, which minimises the chances of factually inaccurate or potentially misleading reviews being published, on your own site, on Google or anywhere else.

At HelpHound we are acutely aware that credibility is all; if consumers are to be able to trust your reviews they must know that your reviews are a) genuine and b) unfiltered. Our Resolution™ process allows businesses to interact with the reviewer if we, or the business, suspect that the review contains potentially misleading or factually inaccurate statements, but the reviewer always retains the right to have their review published (as the business always retains the right to respond to that review).

Independent review sites dominated the market until Google entered the reviews arena. Now Google is, as in so many other spheres, supremely dominant - just pick up your mobile  phone - over 70% of searches happen there nowadays - and see whose reviews are shown for any given search. Google's - every time. And one of the unintended consequences of using an independent site if your are a business? Leaving the door open for your less-than-happy customers to write their review to Google.

At the end of the day there is little point in going to all this effort if it does not result in a measurably positive impact in pure business terms. Until September of 2017 both HelpHound and our client businesses were reliant on anecdotal feedback from staff and customers to prove that HelpHound was achieving this - and there was plenty of that - but now Google reports to your business on a monthly basis, with hard figures for both visits to your website and calls you will have concrete proof within months of joining.

So: We hope that is enough to whet your appetite, and for you to invite HelpHound to show you more of how we can have a positive impact on your business in 2018. Just speak to Fiona Christie or Karen Hutchings and they will be happy to answer any questions you have and to arrange for a full presentation for your business.

Further reading:

• Resolution™ 'Taking the fear our of Reviews' - the system built in to HelpHound, protecting businesses and consumers from misleading and inaccurate reviews - and 'the Fear Factor' - more on overcoming the understandable reluctance to ask consumers for reviews
• 'Doctors: what happens if you ignore Google reviews?' - a salutary case-history for any business that has yet to engage with Google reviews
• 'The Red Carnation Story' - how one business showed the way by deciding to embrace reviews
• 'Visits up 27% thanks to HelpHound' - the immediate impact of professional review management

Reviews and the Law - an important update

One of our most important roles as review managers is to make sure our clients comply with the law as it relates to reviews - in letter and in spirit.

The law?

Most businesses, when we first meet them, are unaware that reviews are governed by legislation. But, just as with almost every aspect of business life these days, they are. On 1 April 2014 the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) took over many of the functions of the Competition Commission and the Office of Fair Trading.

This is an extract of a letter from the CMA to businesses - the full letter, and our notes on it, is available here

Under CMA rules - which are enforceable in law -  it is illegal for a business (or their agents) to:

• post fake reviews of their own business
• post fake reviews of another business
• not publish negative reviews
• offer inducement - money or gifts - in exchange for reviews

In addition, it is illegal to do anything to intentionally mislead the public (consumers). This may include:

• describing testimonials (selectively invited customer opinions) as reviews
• selectively inviting customers to write reviews (what regular readers of this blog know we describe as 'cherry-picking')

Common practices that flout the letter or the spirit of the CMA rules

We see examples like the ones below nearly every day. They are mostly innocent, resulting from ignorance of the rules. Just as important, they do the business no favours in the eyes of the sophisticated consumer (or competitor).

This is a screenshot from an estate agent's website. We cannot be absolutely sure that they are contravening the CMA code, but the fact that the 'reviews' themselves are not independently verified and that all twenty-one of the reviews displayed were written on the same day over six months ago might lead to understandable suspicion

• inviting testimonials from customers and displaying them as reviews
• selecting 'happy' customers to write reviews, and, by definition, positively excluding 'unhappy' ones - whether to the business's own website or to an external site

HelpHound's standpoint

Our systems are expressly designed to comply with the CMA rules, in word and spirit. This is why Resolution incorporates the 'promise to publish' and why our clients incorporate a 'Write a Review' button into their websites, offering anyone the opportunity to write a review, whenever they choose to do so (and as often as they wish). 

It is also why the invitation to copy the review to Google (or the nominated external site) is automatic - not at HelpHound's or our client business's discretion.

Your questions answered

Can you expand on HelpHound's 'promise to publish'?

Anyone - and we mean absolutely anyone - has the ability to write a review to a HelpHound client's website. They don't have to wait to be invited - and they will always be invited to publish their review. 

While this may seem a little nerve-wracking for the business - potentially opening it up to unfair criticism (and even 'fake' reviews) please read on - there are very good reasons why our clients have succeeded with reviews. Perhaps most important of all, it means the business does not make the common mistake of inadvertently driving its unhappy customers to write potentially inaccurate or misleading reviews elsewhere - commonly on Google.

How does that work in the context of Resolution™?

Here's a detailed overview of Resolution. Resolution is designed to fulfill two purposes:

• to make sure our clients' reviews portray as accurate a picture of their business as possible, for the benefit of future customers
• to show to potential customers of the business in question that they will be able to write a review - and have that review published - at any time during (or after) their relationship with that business

So a customer can write an intentionally misleading review of our business and have that review published?

In theory - yes. It's the price paid for complete transparency (and the credibility that flows from that transparency). In practice it very seldom happens - and if it does happen the business always has the right-of-reply. 

Resolution is designed to minimise the chances of an inaccurate or misleading review being published by allowing the business and the reviewer to engage pre-publication. But the reviewer will always be invited to post their review. In the many years of experience we have of operating Resolution (and the many thousands of reviews that we process on behalf of reviews and our client businesses) we can count the instances of a reviewer persisting in publishing a review containing an error of fact on the fingers of one hand. Inaccurate or misleading reviews benefit no-one - and that's the reason for having Resolution in the first place.

Are there any more safeguards?

We will do our best to establish that the reviewer has (or has had) a relationship with the business. If we can establish that the reviewer has purely malicious intent we will revert to the reviewer and ask them for more particulars of their relationship with the business. No-one - not HelpHound, nor our clients, nor - most important of all - the consumer benefits from the kind of reviews that have got sites like Yelp a name for publishing false and malicious reviews. 

In summary

This as much about compliance with the law as about being - and being seen to be - open and honest. Our advice can be summed up with two 'Don'ts' and two 'Do's':

• Don't confuse testimonials with reviews - a business cannot, by definition, publish its own reviews without verification by an outside agency
• Don't select - 'cherry-pick' - those customers who you invite to write reviews
• Do allow all your customers to write a review
• Do allow them to write that review at any time they wish

This client got to look like this on Google...  

 ...and this on their own website...

...by doing everything we describe above - in compliance with the regulations.

If you follow these simple guidelines you will find that your business is rewarded by those consumers who appreciate openness and honesty.

If you have any more questions - about what we do here at HelpHound or what you are currently doing with regard to reviews - please do not hesitate to speak to us.

Not yet engaged with Google reviews? Here's what will happen...

Still - in 2017 - we meet businesses that have not engaged with Google reviews. Why?

For a variety of reasons, but three main ones which we will explore here, along with their consequences...


1.  Denial - 'We don't see the need to'
   

It took years for Google reviews to gain traction - and during that time some businesses were lulled into thinking they did not/would not matter. But now they do - and how.  

Consequences:

• unhappy consumers write reviews - in rapidly growing numbers. Just look at these three businesses that had just six Google reviews between them two years ago...

 

• competitors that do find a way to engage will succeed, at the expense of those businesses that do not...

  Three clients of ours that had less than a dozen Google reviews between them when they joined

Answer: Engage with reviews, on Google and on your own website - with HelpHound's advice and support


2.  Fear - 'We are afraid to ask our customers to write reviews'*

HelpHound - and professional review management - will help you overcome the fear - we promise!

Completely understandable. What business would willingly risk its reputation? How can a business know, or at least be as confident as possible, that its customers will not write inaccurate or misleading reviews?

*there is a subset here: businesses that genuinely don't provide a good service or value for money - the kind we see every week on BBC's Watchdog - and thank goodness for Google reviews in their case. Three years ago they would have got away with it, now there's a good likelihood that a significant number of their customers will find their way to Google and write a review there. The rule for consumers in the second decade of the 21st century? Don't use a business that has no reviews on Google - and be wary of businesses that promote their reputations on independent reviews sites instead.



Consequences:

• unhappy customers will write reviews - in rapidly growing numbers. See the examples under 'We don't need to' above.
• competitors that do engage will succeed, by having significant numbers of great reviews, in absolute terms and relative to their competitors - reviews win business
• your business will stand out - but not in a good way (especially when Google begins to rank business by review score in search)

Answer: overcome the fear - engage, with HelpHound


3.  Reviews sites - 'We reckon we have it covered already' 

 The web has evolved so fast - look at all these review sites (and they are only the tip of the iceberg) - all supplanted in recent years by Google

Businesses that have committed to independent reviews sites over the last few years suddenly realise they have the wrong solution - Google is all.

Consequences:

• consumers won't see your reviews, relatively speaking - just compare the visibility of Google reviews and reviews from any independent site, from the world's biggest like Yelp and TripAdvisor to the relative minnows like TrustPilot and Feefo - and credibility? - there's no contest
• consumers will question why you have reviews on an independent site (if they see them) - why wouldn't you have them on Google?

Answer: get on board with a solution that is credible and future-proof: HelpHound - oh, and if an independent reviews site pitches for your business ask them the following questions...

• will my reviews show under my listing in organic search?
• will my reviews show in 'Reviews from the web'
• do you have a CMA compliant* system that minimises the chances that an inaccurate or misleading review will be posted?
• do I own my own reviews?
• can a customer post a review of my business at a time of their choosing?
• why should I choose to get my customers' reviews to your site and not Google?

 *it continues to amaze us that there remain reviews sites out there in the marketplace whose systems fly in the face of the Competition & Markets Authority's rules. If are unfamiliar with these we recommend you spend ten minutes reading this article - compliance is the individual business's responsibility and has the force of law.


Further reading:

• Resolution™ 'Taking the fear our of Reviews' - the system built in to HelpHound, protecting businesses and consumers from misleading and inaccurate reviews - and 'the Fear Factor' - more on overcoming the understandable reluctance to ask consumers for reviews
• 'Doctors: what happens if you ignore Google reviews?' - a salutary case-history for any business that has yet to engage with Google reviews
• 'The Red Carnation Story' - how one business showed the way by deciding to embrace reviews
• 'Visits up 27% thanks to HelpHound' - the immediate impact of professional review management

 

Reviews and the law - detailed analysis of the CMA's letter to businesses

Here we take Jon Riley, the CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) Project Director's open letter to businesses inviting customer reviews, to their websites or to anywhere else, be that Google or one of the many independent reviews sites, and expand on it - point-by-point.

We are doing this now - nearly nine months after the letter was published and in addition to our December article on the same subject, because we continue to see solutions adopted by businesses that are - wittingly or unwittingly - flouting both the word and the spirit of these legally enforceable regulations.

Links: use of online reviews and endorsements and concluded an investigation

Note: When the CMA use the term 'retailer' they mean any business selling products or services to members of the public or other businesses.

The important phrases in this section are 'content....accurately reflect reviewers' feedback on their experiences, hotly followed by 'Fair-playing'. The litmus test of any reviews system is really very simple: does it allow a dissatisfied customer to voice their opinion in exactly the same way as a satisfied customer? If your business can answer 'yes' to that simple question it is likely to be compliant with CMA regulations.

Do not think that the CMA will hesitate to take action. They have the full weight of consumer protection law behind them and there is ample recent evidence that they are prepared to use it. In 2015 three estate agents were fined a total of £375,000 for breaching CMA rules.

Compliance with these three points is crucial. The CMA has legal powers to demand evidence of compliance. Every customer of every HelpHound client is able to write a review whenever they choose, they just need to visit the business's website. HelpHound moderators are trained to monitor communications between our clients and their reviewers to ensure compliance.

Our Resolution™ moderation system is designed to ensure compliance with both these points. Many reviews sites currently have procedures in place which favour the business. Examples of these include 'invitation only' systems where the review site only invites reviews from nominated email addresses and or only allows reviews to be written at point-of-purchase. The CMA would doubtless argue that the purchaser of, say, a pair of shoes or a dishwasher, or the tenant in the case of an estate agent, might be in a a better position to review the quality of the product (in the first two examples) or service (in the latter) months or even years post-purchase. At HelpHound we would agree.

It is made clear on our modules that all genuine reviews are published:

All our clients' reviews are displayed chronologically by default, with the reader being given the following options:

All legitimate, genuine, relevant and lawful reviews are published, positive or negative. The extent of the delay in publication of the review remains in the hands of the reviewer at all times. We advise all our clients against displaying testimonials as they have lost power in the eyes of the overwhelming majority of consumers when compared with independently verified reviews.

Resolution is designed to efficiently facilitate both these points. Some systems incorporate appeals procedures that - perhaps inadvertently - favour the business. One such allows the business to 'appeal' any review, at which point the review site will suspend the review from publication and revert to the reviewer and ask them to substantiate whatever comments the business finds contentious. On the face of it this looks fair, but in reality it allows the less scrupulous business to appeal all and any negative reviews in the near-certain knowledge that few reviewers will persist. With our system the reviewer always retains the right to have their review published - at whatever stage in the process they may find themselves. Furthermore, all reviewers are invited to publish a review at the completion of the Resolution process.

Our T&Cs do not allow threatening or abusive language, but that does not necessarily invalidate the review: we will refer back to the reviewer and ask them to rewrite their review using more temperate language.

There is an interesting reversal of this - we have seen communications from one review site to a business declining to enter into discussion about a negative review of the business and inferring that this might happen if the business in question were a paying member.

In summary

To take the well worn 'duck test' (if it look like, quacks like...it almost certainly is). If, as a business, you are offered a reviews solution that 'favours your business' it is almost certainly non compliant. And this is not confined to external review sites - we have in the last month  encountered a large national business with over two hundred branches that is selectively displaying Google reviews on each branch's web page.

Here is a link to the 60-second summary from the CMA:

As ever, if you are a HelpHound client this article is for information only. If you are not yet a client and you would like us to comment on your current procedure, just contact us.

Important update May 2020: The CMA launches an investigation

22 May 2020: The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has opened an investigation into several major websites that display online reviews.

The CMA will investigate whether these websites are taking sufficient measures to protect consumers from fake and misleading reviews. In particular, it will examine how the websites currently detect, investigate and respond to fake and misleading reviews. It will look into issues such as:

• suspicious reviews – where, for example, a single user has reviewed an unlikely range of products or services;

• whether businesses are manipulating the presentation of reviews about their products and services by, for example, combining positive reviews for one product with the reviews for another; and

• how these websites handle reviews about products or services that the reviewer has received a payment or other incentive to review.

See the full text and the CMA's press briefing here.

And finally...

It is illegal to chop and change review solutions as and when one shows the business in a better light than another. This is especially the case when a business uses a widget to feed its Google reviews to its own website until it receives a damaging one-star review there, when the feed is dropped until sufficient 5* reviews are gained to 'bury' the damaging review. 

In short, any strategy that the CMA sees as benefitting the business to the detriment of the consumer will be deemed illegal - even if it is not specifically mentioned in the CMA regulations.

Further reading...

• Moderation - the answer for businesses requiring professional review management for the long term
• The importance of adopting a medium-long-term reviews strategy
• Why break the rules - when there's no need?
• Fear of unfair or misleading reviews - it's real, so many businesses react by adopting the wrong strategy