Please don't wait for this to happen

So often we get the call. And we had another this week. It invariably goes along lines very similar to this...

'Help! The phones have stopped ringing.' Swiftly followed by 'Our Google reviews were looking great until [recent date].'

What is our standard reaction? After an unspoken 'Oh dear!' we kick into emergency first aid mode with 'Give us twenty minutes to look at your image and reviews in search and we'll get straight back to you.'

And what do we always see? One* or more - very recent - one-star reviews. To understand the full effect, here is our latest case...

*One review alone can stop the phones ringing. However much readers of this blog might fight against this finding harsh experience dictates otherwise. So much so that we gave this kind of review a name - a 'killer review' - way back in 2012. Anyone doubting this will do well to read this case history.

Not so terribly bad? Read these reviews...

 

Now you understand just how damaging this is for the business. Note the lack of a question mark at the end of that sentence. It's a statement - not a question. Never mind the reviews - mine down a little deeper and there's some even more worrying evidence in the upvotes (28 in the last two weeks) - every single one representing at least one lost customer - ouch! And how many people have read the review in question and acted upon it (by not contacting the business) without voting? We usually estimate a ratio of between 1:10 and 1:100. 

So - what to do?

Our advice, in cases like these, breaks down into two parts:

1. Immediate action
2. Ongoing strategy

Immediate Action

As anyone can see by reading their reviews there is a CRM malfunction at the business's end. We have advised them to boost investment in customer service delivery. That's the easy part dealt with. Now for the reviews and the future...

• Proper professional responses should be posted under each review. And by 'proper' and 'professional' we mean each point raised by the reviewer addressed head-on in each response - not a c&p 'Thank you for your comments, please call [number] or email [address] and we will address the issue you have raised.' Formulaic responses such as this don't help the reader understand the business's side of the story.

Ongoing Strategy

• Implement a moderated review management system, to include...                    

• a module (see below) that invites and displays moderated reviews to be embedded into the business's own website
• developing a standard template email inviting customers to post their review to the business's website
• including an automated invitation for all reviews ultimately posted there (post-moderation) to be copied to Google by the reviewer
• developing a campaign to invite all existing customers (new and historical) to write a review of their experience, on both the business's own website and subsequently to Google

This is an example of an API-generated review module that allows anyone visiting the business's website to see the business's overall score, read moderated reviews (as many as they wish), post their own review (which will be moderated), and also understand HelpHound's role in the process (by clicking on 'What is HelpHound' at top right). It also enables the business to take the moral high ground if and when someone posts a critical review direct to Google: 'But you always had the standing invitation to write your opinion to us by going to our website.'

The results

Over time (and we are talking weeks and months, not years here) the actions described above will result in the business's overall score rising back to at least 4.8 and maybe even  4.9.  The current damaging* negative reviews will remain (Google will not remove the genuinely held opinions of reviewers, however misguided they may be, unless they contravene its Terms of Service, which, on the face of it, none of the above do) but their impact will be diminished as the flow of 5* reviews picks up.

* All negative reviews are damaging because the score that attaches to them negatively impacts the business's overall Google score. On top of that most, if not just about all, savvy consumers do two things when searching for a business: they eliminate all but the top three or four by score alone (hence the vital importance of scoring 4.8 or better) and then they read the 'lowest' default. 

What should any business reading this article do?

Implement the strategy outlined above - before something like this happens. Remember: the business referred to above had 38 Google reviews rating it 5.0 until less than a month ago. It can happen to any company at any time. Even a company with 500 reviews is not impervious as potential customers invariably read a business's lowest-scoring reviews first.

Not only does this business look great in search - every kind of search - but its management and staff are able to sleep well at night in the sure knowledge that they are very unlikely to receive inaccurate or misleading (almost always negative) reviews. They also know that they have the most effective mechanism currently available to counter any such pile-on as has happened to the business at the head of this article

Conclusion

HelpHound cannot guarantee that the business will get no negative reviews in the future (even HelpHound can not - and should not - prevent genuinely held opinions, however erroneous, being published) but it will at least allow the business to have those reviews moderated to ensure that any that are factually incorrect or potentially misleading - or just plain 'unfair' - are much less likely to see the light of day.

Extremely important note

This business scored 5.0 before this flurry of negative reviews. Sitting pretty. Phones ringing and emails from prospective customers arriving in their inboxes. Appointments being made and orders - and cash - flowing in. And, as we say above, there is no guarantee whatsoever that HelpHound membership would have prevented those highly damaging reviews from being posted to Google. So why do businesses place such value upon HelpHound?

Here we go...

1. Inviting, or just plain allowing, all of your customers to write a review - as the law dictates - is extremely high risk. There are plenty of people out there who are confused or unsure about the service businesses provide for them, especially businesses in the professions and the high-value service sector - legal, medical, financial, recruitment, accountancy, estate agency and suchlike. These kinds of business value the added security and compliance that HelpHound brings
2. Inviting selected customers to post reviews - those the business knows to be satisfied - is illegal, in the UK and EU at least. We know: you think the chances of having the CMA turn up and confiscate your hard drives are vanishingly small, but cherry-picking (to give hand-picking customers to write reviews the name the regulators use) is always obvious to competitors and they'll be the first to alert your potential customers (and the first CMA 'reviews raid' will undoubtedly be prompted by just such a competitor)
3. Our experience - covering a span of well over a decade now - shows that over 90% of customers with a grievance will contact the business before posting a negative review if given a mechanism to do so. They want to be taken seriously. That's all. And they want any misconceptions they may be about to publish to be corrected, they really do
4. Our clients don't score 4.9 by accident - they use HelpHound in conjunction with their other CRM to head off inaccurate or misleading reviews. And it's not an add-on, it is integrated into all their staff training and practice
5. Having a moderated system in place - such as the one HelpHound provides - in the event of one or more negative reviews being posted to Google means the business has a ready-made mechanism to immediately ramp up the flow of positive reviews to counter such a situation (the business at the head of this article is in the opposite situation, it is now doubtless even more frightened to invite its customers to post a review)

Further reading

Once a business is 'insured' by adopting a professionally moderated and legally compliant system to protect it from inaccurate, misleading, and just plain unfair reviews it can then begin to reap the positive benefits of hosting its own reviews on its website and getting a significant proportion of those over to Google. Read how this not only results in a great Google score, derived from a significant - and credible - number of reviews, but also drives instantly measurable calls and clicks, as well as an astonishing uplift in the quality of new business generated.

Reviews in 2023 - the key indicators

Consumer reviews is a fast-moving marketplace - in every sense. In this article we will take a very useful post  - by US company Reviewtrackers - and examine (and comment upon) every point.  If you only read one article about reviews this year we recommend it be this one.

HelpHound comment: Given that Yelp is mostly used to find eateries (and overwhelmingly in the US at that - having withdrawn from the UK and EU) and Tripadvisor those plus travel, accommodation and leisure activities, then it is Google's presence in the review space that we are concerned with on behalf of our own marketplace of the professions and service-oriented businesses. 

If that's taken as a given then we can safely assume that Google's dominance rises to at least 90%. It's also worth bearing in mind that Google's share of the search market now extends to 85% of searches worldwide and a full 96% in the UK. So it's not just where reviews are written that is of concern for businesses; it's where they are most likely to be read. The answer to both, thankfully, is Google.

HelpHound comment: the same as for 'Google is the review site of choice' above. Businesses should clearly concentrate on Google reviews above all others (in fact, except in special circumstances: to the exclusion of all others) - simply because that's what their potential customers are doing - both reading and writing. On top of that, Google reviews are free and are far more credible than reviews from other sources.

HelpHound comment: it's early days but we think the answer is twofold: first, the dramatic rise in working from home. Consumers are using some of their reclaimed 'commuting time' to better research purchasing decisions. Secondly, the steep rise in inflation and mortgage interest rates has made consumers much more careful in their choices - especially where critical (health, legal, financial) and big-ticket (purchases in the £000s, such as property) items are concerned.

HelpHound comment: this is certainly the case where businesses either a) don't invite reviews at all or b) don't request reviews in the correct manner (by text is a prime example - text requests for reviews tend to elicit text-type reviews). If reviews are asked for in the correct manner they will actually be longer than average - and therefore much more helpful (and convincing) for potential customers and the business under review.

HelpHound comment: We always recommend that all reviews should be treated in the same way as any communication from a valued customer. What business would ignore such a  communication via email or a phone call for days? Or not respond at all? Aside from the etiquette aspect, the ability to respond to a review, on the business's own website or on Google, brings an excellent opportunity to highlight positives and explain negatives that should never be missed. 

There is one very important statistic here '94% of consumers say a bad review has convinced them to avoid a business.' Well-written negative reviews are very dangerous indeed, so dangerous that we christened them 'killer reviews' years ago. They can literally stop the phones ringing - here are two examples, one for a small business in Cornwall, a case that made the national media, where we were able to successfully appeal the review to Google and have it removed and another for a business - not a client of ours - that made the fundamental error of suing a reviewer in open court; the collateral damage caused by a single review (interestingly the court agreed and awarded damages to the business) was vastly outweighed by the attendant publicity generated by the media coverage of the case, which caused far more damage in the longer term.

HelpHound comment: it's self-evident - industry leaders look like industry leaders online. This rarely happens by accident, it involves developing a concerted and continuing strategy that runs from top to bottom through senior management to every single member of staff in any way involved with the business's CRM. What rarely occurs is a regulatory audit*: this involves ensuring that such a strategy does not contravene the CMA regulations - such contravention provides competitors with an easy answer to a business's glowing Google score. 

*HelpHound provides this service.

HelpHound comment: this is a very broad-range finding. Our experience - of managing reviews for the professional and service sector for over ten years - definitely shows that the closer a business can get to the 'Perfect 5.0' the more calls and clicks it will achieve through Google. We have never - ever - had a call from a client business suggesting that their review score has become so good that they are losing credibility in the marketplace. On the contrary, we take on many businesses that already score over 4 out of 5 but understand the need to minimise factually inaccurate or potentially misleading reviews in order to improve their scores.

HelpHound comment: as we only work on behalf of pure service or service-oriented businesses (such as the professions, medical, legal, financial services or estate agency, for instance) we have always known that reviewers focus heavily on the customer service aspect of any transaction.

HelpHound comment: show us a business with over 50 Google reviews* that scores 5.0 and we'll show you a business that's in breach of the CMA regulations. Put plainly: that business will be breaking the law. Our very best clients - and all of our clients are dedicated to the highest levels of customer service, that's why they employ Helphound - score 4.9. There's always going to be one!

*that is not a client of ours!

HelpHound comment: There's absolutely no doubt about this one: consumer scepticism about Google reviews evaporates at about the fifty mark. Comments such as 'I bet they just asked staff and friends to post reviews' fall away at that point. All our client businesses are able to assess the success of our involvement by tracking the number of calls and clicks they receive every month. 

It's very simple: get more reviews with a higher average score and your business will win more leads and customers. To do this a business needs to stop taking three paces forward - getting ten 5* reviews - and one step back - a factually inaccurate or plain 'unfair' 1* review. Only a moderated review system can achieve this with any degree of certainty - see point 2. below.

Three further key comments

Great - possibly - for online retail; disastrous for professions and service-oriented businesses

1.  Review sites other than Google should be avoided at all costs ('cost' being the operative word: not just the monthly cost of the review site in question - Google reviews are free - but the cost of the lost opportunity to shine in Google reviews). Below is a paragraph taken directly from a review site's annual report to its shareholders. Our loose translation is that they are saying that as they have lots of business customers in the UK already they are making hay by exploiting the natural instinct of businesses to emulate their competitors. Fair enough, but every business that follows on is missing one of the very best marketing opportunities there is: moderated Google reviews (again, see point 2.). 

 

This article deals expressly with the considerable - and invariable - damage done by directing reviews anywhere but to Google (unless the business concerned is only involved in online retail and any ones stars, on the website and associated marketing, will do, in which case carry on with [XYZ review site] and their blue/green/yellow/red stars).

2.  Reviewtrackers don't mention review moderation, simply because the only moderated review management system currently available is in the UK. And you’re on its blog currently!

Moderation protects businesses and consumers alike from factually inaccurate and potentially misleading reviews, not to mention just plain 'unfair' ones. The No.1 reason given by businesses that haven’t yet engaged with reviews is fear of such reviews. Moderation can’t provide a 100% guarantee against such reviews but to date we reckon our system resolves well over 95% of them before they’re published.

This article explains how moderation enables good businesses to shine - legitimately and in compliance with the law - in Google reviews.

Which of the businesses above benefits from moderation? Which leads consistently in Google local searches? Which receives more clicks and calls? Which saves most on Google Ads? Which is a HelpHound client?

3.  Proof. It's the first, last and - as the song goes - everything. But it is strangely lacking in most review sites' marketing to their business audience. Rareley, if ever, do they quote actual numbers for lead and business uplift.

A snapshot of a client's Google report - from the first full month after joining HelpHound. Yes - results can be that fast!

Not so here at HelpHound. Clicks up? We - and Google - will tell you by exactly how many. Calls through your Google listing - stats available month on month. Impact on the quality of your customers similarly improved? For this, and some independent numbers on the quality of business generated by Professional Review Management, read this article.

Review moderation - the essential ingredient in professional review management

We refer to moderation in most articles, because it is central to what we do for our clients. In this article we will walk you through the process, to make completely clear the difference between using a moderated review management system and inviting customers to post unmoderated reviews direct to any review platform.

Before we go on to discuss moderation and its [positive] impact on our clients' online reputations let us first make one thing absolutely crystal clear: a single well-crafted review - fair or not - can literally stop the phones ringing. Saying 'We hardly ever get a negative review, so we might as well ask our clients/patients/customers to post direct to Google' may work out fine for months, even years, but the panic calls we receive from great businesses saying 'We have just had a single grossly unfair/inaccurate/misleading Google review and it's severely impacting the number of calls and clicks we achieve.' says precisely the reverse. And please bear in mind that HelpHound's monthly fee for what you hope you will agree after reading this article is an essential service (often described by clients as 'insurance for our hard-won reputation) is roughly the hourly rate charged by most businesses in our marketplace (actually, often considerably less).

If you have any doubts whatsoever please look at this....

We estimate that for every reader that clicks on the thumbs-up button at least another ten to fifteen have read the review and acted on it. That's 200-300 fewer enquiries and the number could be a quantum higher. No one will ever know, but we do know that this review will have had a negative impact on new business flows for the business concerned

...and read this shocking tale of how a single review impacted a law firm from the south of England so badly that they felt compelled to take the reviewer to court.

What is moderation?

The word itself has many meanings. Here's what the Oxford Dictionary says...

But, while the OED currently ignores the common web usage of the word, Wikipedia comes closer...

And here's the first mention of moderation on our blog, from over ten years ago.

So, here's our definition...

• Moderation is the act of reading a review before publication to ensure that it contains...

• no factual inaccuracies - reviews containing errors of fact help no one
• nothing that may potentially mislead a reader - for the same reason 
• understandable written English

So what happens in practical terms?

If our moderator - a human, not a computer programme or an algorithm - identifies any of the above (which requires a measure of understanding of our client's business) the following happens...

1. the review is sent to both the reviewer and the business under review, simultaneously, with an accompanying note from our moderator, highlighting the issue that has been identified
2. the reviewer and the business are then invited to respond to our moderator
3. Our moderator will then share those responses with both parties
4. The reviewer is then given three options...
1. To have their original review published
2. To modify their review and then have it published
3. To decide not to have a review published
5. If either options 4.1 or 4.2 are chosen by the reviewer then they will automatically be asked to copy their review to the business's chosen review site (invariably Google)

N.B. Unlike one prominent review site, HelpHound does not publish reviews contingent upon proof of purchase by the reviewer. The CMA regulations clearly state that barriers such as this must not be placed in the way of a reviewer attempting to publish their genuinely held opinion. In practice - and we have well over ten years of experience to back this up - we find that well over ninety per cent of reviews subject to moderation are modified by the reviewer, in favour of the business. After all, in spite of what the most cynical may think, reviewers seldom want to have erroneous opinions published.

The process you see above is the only legally compliant way for a business to minimise harmful factually inaccurate or potentially misleading reviews.  

 

Here are examples of strategies currently used by UK businesses to minimise negative reviews, accurate or not - all of these are illegal:

• hand-picking satisfied customers to invite to write reviews
• pre-qualifying customer opinions to identify those satisfied customers - often by using customer surveys and questionnaires
• having friends and families of staff write reviews
• incentivising customers to write 5* reviews - we have seen examples of Amazon and M&S vouchers and plain old-fashioned cash used as incentives

We would go so far as to say that about 75% of businesses with over 100 reviews, on whatever platform, have employed one or more of the strategies outlined above.

The CMA regulations - see them, accompanied by our analysis here - apply to all UK businesses. They expressly forbid all the strategies above. So what makes HelpHound's moderators' interventions compliant with the CMA regulations? First: the express invitation at the end of the moderation process to have whatever review the reviewer wishes published. Second: the automated invitation to copy the review to Google. And third?

The red ellipse, above, highlights two buttons, each leading to a crucial aspect of the moderation process...

1. The '[505] reviews' button, which enables anyone to read all of the business's reviews (and choose to read them by latest, best, or worst) and then ...

2. The 'Write a review' button, which allows anyone to write a review of and to the business at a time of their own choosing...

Neither of these prevents the business from proactively inviting reviews (by email or at POS, for instance), from all its customers or, critically, from selected customers, because the business is in compliance with the law - the CMA regulations - by having this standing invitation on its website.

A Case History

We have one client who to date has had over 70 cases through Resolution (across multiple branches). Only four of these have resulted in a final published review, either on their website or on Google. They currently score between 4.7 and 4.9 on their own branch websites (with over 800 reviews there) and between 4.7 and 5.0 on Google (with over 600 reviews there). It goes without saying that this is a well-managed and thoroughly consumer-focused business - as HelpHound clients tend to be, by definition.

In Conclusion

Here's what that client looks like in Google search...

Important Note

What follows is the key to HelpHound's service, so we feel it bears repetition: while the CMA regulations make it abundantly clear that 'cherry-picking' customers (their words) - and/or gating (the practice of pre-qualifying customers before inviting them to write a review) is illegal, this does not mean that a business must reach out to every customer or stakeholder to proactively invite them to write a review - to their website, to Google or to any other location.

What the regulations do require is that any business that is going to selectively invite reviews has a mechanism to allow any customer to write a review at a time of their own choosing.

Here is that mechanism - and it appears in a very similar format on every HelpHound client's website

There you have it: everything you could want from reviews - your own, on your own website (that's where the 4.9 rating and the five gold stars from 505 reviews come from under their organic listing - they're from their own reviews hosted on their own website, not from their Google reviews), then copied to Google, all in compliance with UK (and EU) law, and without putting your hard-won reputation at risk by exposing your business to factually inaccurate, potentially misleading or just plain unfair reviews. 

If you have any more questions about moderation, and how it can benefit your business, please don't hesitate to contact us, if you would like to see examples of concrete results - increased calls and clicks - call us or read this article.

The psychology of reviews

We spend a lot of time telling you the facts about reviews and review management, but what about the psychology underlying consumers' interaction with reviews? With well over a decade's experience moderating thousands of reviews every month, here is the distillation of those imponderables that results in HelpHound's review solution standing head-and-shoulders above the rest.

1.  Scores matter

This is a screenshot of a business's Google My Business (GMB) monthly report, one month after full implementation of HelpHound's review management system. It shows just how many potential customers clicked through to the business's website or called the business having found its listing on Google. It also shows the dramatic uplift in those clicks and calls at a traditionally very quiet time of year for their sector.

When we meet businesses for the first time they will do all they can to justify or excuse their [Google] score. We hear all of the following...

• 'No one ever says they wouldn't use us because of our low score or the negative reviews underlying it.'
• 'Scoring 5.0 - or even near to 5.0 - means a business is manipulating the system, we're sure consumers aren't attracted to such businesses.'
• 'We get all our business by word-of-mouth, so our Google score doesn't really matter.'
• 'We welcome negative reviews.'

The psychology:

Believe it or not, consumers overwhelmingly do want to deal with perfect businesses - or as near perfect as they can find. A business scoring 5.0 will get more clicks and calls than a business scoring 4.9. A business scoring 4.9 will get many more than a business scoring 4.6. Guaranteed*. No one calls a business to tell it that they've been put off contacting it by their negative reviews, but any business that thinks negative reviews don't deflect calls and clicks is deluding itself. Even word-of-mouth customers, however highly recommended by friends or colleagues who have used the business, will be put off by low Google scores and the attendant negative reviews.  And, by the way, the second response - 'manipulating...' is often correct. Read on to hear more about that.

* 'Guaranteed'? Yes. And we - and you - can proove it. Try HelpHound for six months and if you GMB monthly report is not showing an uplift in calls and clicks then we'll refund your joining fee.

2.  Responses matter

So many businesses either don't bother to respond at all or only respond to negative reviews. 

The psychology:

Consumers read responses. Those responses, if worded carefully, can turn a browser into a potential customer, even if it's a response to a negative review. Perhaps most important of all, when a disgruntled customer is looking to post a negative review, seeing that the business will inevitably respond will keep that customer's review genuine. Many people are initailly tempted to exaggerate when posting a negative review, just to support their 1* rating - that's only human nature - but seeing that their review will definitely elicit a response will inevitably temper that exaggeration (and often it will mean they decide not to post at all).

3.  Review sites are a waste of a business's time and money

So often we hear 'We score 4.9 on [Trustpilot/Feefo/Yelp/Reviews.io]'. And that's unsurprising given just how many advertisements reference them: 'We're rated excellent on [review site].'

Trustpilot? Oh yes - it makes it onto this chart...

So: it's Google reviews all the way - visibility plus credibility.

The psychology:

The - very basic - psychology of reviews, from a business's point-of-view, is as follows: 'We have few/negative reviews: reviews are rubbish and no one pays a blind bit of attention to them.' or the exact opposite: 'We have many positive reviews: reviews are the life blood of our business.' But then there's the subset: the business that has accepted that reviews are a 'good thing' but has been sold an alternative to Google reviews. We think the chart above answers that question, but it has not prevented tens of thousands of businesses subscribing to the likes of Trustpilot - at a minumum of £200 a month. The logic? Part copying near competitors, part just being 'sold' by the review site.

Consumers love reviews, and rely on them, especially when making vital choices - medical, financial, legal and big-ticket (property purchase, for instance). But they can only be influenced by two kinds of review...

• reviews they see - and Google reviews show in every search on every business, review sites' reviews rarely feature in search
• reviews they trust - and Google reviews are trusted more than any other (and with good reason - their reviewers are traceable to an individual Google user). 

4. Negative reviews hurt businesses

We've already touched on this: consumers - a significant proportion - trust Google reviews. Fact. Just look at how many people write Google reviews, would they do so if they thought their review would not be seen and trusted? A single well-written negative review can literally strangle a business. It has the power to stop the phones ringing and the clicks coming. If you have any doubts whatsoever please read this and this.

The psychology:

We meet so many business people who minimise the impact of negative reviews. Of course they do - who wants to believe that a negative review of their business is going to cause significant financial harm? But they do. Sometimes at the margin, sometimes in ways that stop a business dead in its tracks. Because consumers do trust them. 

Business people owe it to themselves, their colleagues and their potential customers to do everything in their power to ensure that the absolute minimum of factually incorrect or potentially misleading reviews ever make it as far as Google.

But here we come to another crucial point: show us a business scoring 4.8 or better with 100+ reviews and we'll show you a business that is flouting  - intentionally or unwittingly - one of more of the CMA's regulations. Why? Because they know they need a great score but they are worried that by complying with the law - by allowing all of their customers to write a review - they will attract factually inaccurate, potentially misleading or just plain unfair negative reviews.

 

Another point: the higher the Google score the more a business's negative reviews will be read. Why? Because consumers will filter out all the low(er) scoring businesses by just looking at their score, only when they have a 'shortlist' of high-scoring businesse will they begin to read the reviews - and always 'Lowest' first.

So, for the solution, on to point 5.

 

5.  Moderation is vital

Allowing reviewers to post reviews directly to your website is the only way to benefit from moderation. We cannot stress this enough. If a business invites customers to post reviews direct to Google they risk severe harm (of the kind linked to at the end of the first paragraph of point 4. A business may be perfect, but all of its customers most certainly won't be. 

Most mechanisms businesses use to mitigate against this kind of review are illegal, at least in the UK (it is against the law to only invite reviews from known 'happy' customers and it is equally illegal to pre-qualify customers before inviting them to write reviews - by sending them a questionnaire, for instance).

The psychology:

If you accept points 1 to 4, then you know you owe it to your business to adopt moderated review management. Even if that only prevents one really harmful review a year from appearing in a Google search it will have been more than worth the effort - and expense; emotionally and psychologically business people, especially business owners - who are, by their very nature, totally invested in their business's reputation - are inclined to minimise the impact of negative reviews. But that is to run contrary to all the available evidence. Moderation is variously described by our clients as...

• 'the best insurance against unfair reviews a business can buy'
• 'the only way we can ensure we sleep at night, free from the fear of waking to an unfair Google review'
• 'dry cleaning for our reviews'

And, maybe even more importantly, it is valued by your customers. It often surprises businesses, when they see moderation in action, that it is universally actively welcomed by their customers, especially when they realise that it is designed to help them write an accurate review - rather than prevent them haveng their honestly held opinion published.

And one footnote...

Flouting the law is unnecessary  

Your business is unlikely, on the CMA's performance to date, to be prosecuted by the CMA for breaking its core rules...

• by not allowing all your customers to post a review 
• by controlling the timing of those reviews

And businesses often, quite understandably, say to us 'But [our competitor] has been flouting the CMA regulations for years and has received no sanction, why shouldn't we?' Our answer to that is - and always has been - if you can tell your competitor is up to no good - cherry-picking and/or gating - in order to maintain their ranking in search and their Google score, then you need to bear in mind that they - and other competitors - will be equally able to tell if you do so, and that's a very dangerous weapon to hand a competitor. 

That little button ringed in red on the business's website ensures complete compliance with the CMA regulations for our clients; it is also one of the most powerful sales tools they have.

Being able to say to potential customers that 'we enable all of our customers to write a review at a time of their own choosing' is, on the other hand, a very powerful sales tool indeed.

Conclusion

The psychology of reviews is simple: enough of your potential customers trust - indeed rely heavily on - Google reviews to make it vital that your business finds the very best mechanism for maximising your score and minimising the number of unfair negative reviews you receive.

HelpHound is that mechanism. The fact that we can also help you boost your SEO and add huge value to your existing customer relationship management is a welcome bonus, but our core offering will always remain the same: HelpHound will allow you to present your business to the world in the best possible light. Compliantly. 

Further reading...

• Results - backing up our promise of success