Make the most of your great reviews

 

There is an understandable tendency for businesses to focus on their review score and the absolute number of reviews they have, in the same way as consumers use these two indicators as a short-hand way to whittle down prospective services into a shortlist.

Your business has great reviews - on your own website and on Google. Of course it does, it's a HelpHound client. But don't just leave it there: use them in all of your marketing...

• print
• conventional media - PR and advertising
• social media - Instagram/TikTok/Facebook
• customer-facing displays

We know we are stating the obvious to some of you but we are still coming across businesses that hide their lights under a bushel. Well, not quite, but they do tend to stop once they have great reviews and great scores in the obvious places. 

If you think we've missed anything that works well for your business or would like us to share ideas that have worked for other clients please just call.

How many people are seeing that 1* review?

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that negative Google reviews of your business are either 'not seen' or 'have no impact' (if you want reviews, but don't want them to show up in search there are always the review sites: Yelp, Trustpilot, Feefo and so on). For reasons better known to Google, it stopped showing the number of views a review received, like this...

...a while back. There's no point in us even trying to guess Google's rationale, but it definitely enabled those who persist in thinking that the odd negative review 'doesn't matter' or 'won't get seen by many people' (those 'people' being potential customers) to relax in the comfort of their own self-delusion.

There are two lessons we can all learn from this simple screenshot:

1. That hundreds, even thousands, of people will see any negative reviews of your business
2. That if a negative review is 'liked' - the only statistic that Google still shows (the thumbs up at bottom left)...

...you can be absolutely sure that it has been viewed, and read, by a whole lot more - not necessarily in the ratio of 1:1300 indicated by the first review, but the multiple will be considerable.

So: take negative reviews very seriously indeed - do everything in your power to avoid receiving them in the first place (HelpHound's moderated review management?) and then deal with them professionally when they do arise. 

 

 

Moderation - every professional business's key to reviews

With apologies to regular readers, but this subject is so vital - it is at the core of everything we do for our client businesses and their customers. We're going to keep this article brief - but we will include links to more detailed information and analysis for those who want to mine further down into this vital aspect of managing a business's online reputation.

Here goes...

1.  What is moderation?

This is one of the most important questions we are ever asked - and one of the most important services we ever provide, to both our business clients and their customers. So let's look at a real example; here is a review, posted through the business's website and picked up - pre-publication - by our moderator...

We have purposely chosen this review as it is an excellent example of the kind of review that, if posted straight to Google, would remain on the business's Google page for the foreseeable future; there is nothing in the review that would give us cause to think there was any chance of an appeal to Google succeeding as it does not remotely infringe any of Google's terms and conditions.

 

Indeed, on the face of it, the review is an entirely genuine opinion and record of a consumer's - in this case a patient's - interaction with the business - in this case a medical practice. Also, on reading, it is a pretty convincing argument not to use the business. And therefore potentially hugely damaging.

So: what happened during the moderation process? 

Our moderator acknowledged the review by messaging the reviewer to tell them that we would be consulting the business before publishing the review. Simultaneously the review was sent to the business for comment. We make it completely clear to businesses that their response must be with our moderator by close of business the same day (if a business wants to be sure of provoking a review direct to Google, then any delay at this point is a good way of ensuring that happens). 

In this instance the clinic reverted to our moderator the same morning, addressing each point in the review in turn.  This response was forwarded, immediately, to the reviewer who was then invited to do one of three things:

• Amend their original review
• Have their original review posted
• Message the business via our moderator and leave the review unposted

In this case, as happens in so many*, the latter course was chosen by the reviewer...

Not only the right outcome but the fair outcome. The clinic's reputation was protected and the relationship with their patient was restored. Both parties benefitted.

*The overwhelming majority of consumers - especially where there is a professional ongoing relationship or service at stake - are entirely receptive to a full and truthful explanation of the facts of the matter under review. Indeed, they are often grateful in the extreme for our moderator's intercession.

Moderation is the act of 'having a review read and analysed for factual accuracy and/or misleading statements' by a person independent of the business under review. It is the only legal way for businesses in the UK (and the EU) to ensure that, as far as possible, their reviews are an accurate reflection of their business and its services.

2.  If our moderator finds either of those - factual inaccuracies and/or statements with the potential to mislead someone who may rely on the review (a potential client/patient, for instance) what exactly do they do?

They message the reviewer - in private (example above) - and suggest modifications to the review before it is published. They will also correct obvious mistakes in spelling and grammar.

3.  Will our moderator ever involve the business?

Sometimes. Our moderators are experienced and understand our clients' businesses, but if there is something in the review that needs clarification - the 'he said/she said' kind of thing - they will refer to our point-of-contact at the business as well as back to the reviewer (again, see the example above).

4.  Do reviewers ever object to our moderation process?

Very rarely. We always make it clear that the reviewer always has the right - excluding profanities or allegations of illegal behaviour - to have whatever review they wish published (this keeps every party in compliance with the CMA regulations, which specifically prohibit businesses from using any mechanism that prevents the consumer having their say).  On the contrary, we often receive messages from reviewers thanking us for our intervention. Vanishingly few consumers want to have inaccurate reviews published for the world to see (the actual figure, from our own data, is far less than 1% of the 3% of reviews that enter the moderation process).

5.  What should we expect our business to score with moderation?

This is the question we get most of all: before we answer it - and we will give you actual numbers at the end of this section - we should explain that there are two elements in the customer relationship chain that we, at HelpHound, cannot (and should not) control: the first is the behaviour of your staff, which is entirely your responsibility and the second is the behaviour of your customers. We often meet 'perfect' businesses with far-from-perfect Google scores; what we know for sure is that our moderation process will address a great proportion of those mistaken negative reviews. So...

A (near) perfect business with (near) perfect clients? Or a business that has felt the need to selectively invite 'happy' clients to post reviews to Google? Bearing in mind that 186 reviews divided by the six years since their first Google review = 31 reviews a year = just over one fortnight, the available evidence points to the latter. 

If your business currently scores between 4.8 and 5.0 - it will have the very best chance of maintaining that score with HelpHound's moderation (and it will be fully compliant with the CMA regulations - as will all the solutions below)

This business has worked hard to get 300 Google reviews, possibly in order to dilute the 26 one-star and 3 two-star reviews it has received, almost of which would have been effectively managed by our moderation process (a quick scan of their negative reviews shows a mix of misunderstandings - language issues in the main and plain wrong-headed comments). Going forwards they should be looking to raise their percentage of 5* reviews from its current level of 91% to far closer to 99%. This will see their score rise to 4.8/4.9 alongside their most successful competitors.

• If your business currently scores between 4.5 and 4.7 - it will have a great chance of achieving a score of at least 4.8 with HelpHound's moderation

This firm had a clean sheet - scoring the full 5.0 - until a matter of weeks ago. Its experience illustrates just how vital a moderated review management system is for professional businesses. We cannot guarantee that the 3 one-star reviews posted recently would not have been posted, but the firm would have had vastly more than 14 five-star reviews to counterbalance them. This should be its aim going forward: to invite clients to post to Google as a standard practice.

• If your business currently scores between 4.0 and 4.4 - it will have a great chance of achieving a score of at least 4.8 with HelpHound's moderation

We're going to take an educated guess here: someone within the firm began asking their satisfied clients to post reviews four years ago, then a colleague pointed out the CMA anti-cherry-picking regulations and they stopped doing so. Then some unhappy people - not necessarily clients - posted a handful of critical reviews. So their Google score has gradually declined from 4.9 to its current 3.9. Being the lowest-ranked solicitor in its area will not be helping to drive new clients through the door. But all is not lost: a low score from a few reviews is easily rectified, whilst a low score form hundreds - or thousands - takes time (but will still be achieved)

• If your business currently scores less than 4.0 - the only way, as they say, is up! That is, unless our initial audit pinpoints a flaw in your CRM, in which case we will advise accordingly and delay implementation until the flaw is rectified

To reinforce these four assertions we recommend you read these two articles:

1.  Results: two case histories that demonstrate the uplift in Google score, the subsequent increase in new business enquiries and the resultant critical quantum shift in the quality of customers acquired through Google search.

2. Our guarantee of success: see exactly what we absolutely guarantee will happen when you join HelpHound.

Does all of the above mean that HelpHound can make any business look great in search?

We understand, at first glance, this might appear to be the case, but it ignores two significant factors in HelpHound's own business model...

1. We only work with the professions and service businesses, and most, if not all, service businesses can improve their CRM to the stage where HelpHound's review management will work effectively for them. This is not the case with product-based businesses: a substandard product will always be a substandard product, and we leave those businesses to the review sites.
2. We recognise that the reviewer always retains the option to write their review directly to Google or one of the review sites, so we always advise our clients to facilitate the maximum number of reviews through their own CRM and website. If a business ignores that advice they run the very real risk of negative reviews, often factually incorrect or just plain unfair, being written to Google.       

A vital - and hugely valuable - unintended consequence of moderation

Very soon after we introduced moderation we began being asked, by virtually every business we spoke to (especially those that had taken the trouble to understand the CMA regulations - the law)...

'Do we have to ask all our customers to post a review?'

Our initial response was...

'No, you don't, you are compliant with the CMA regulations by dint of the fact that you offer all visitors to your website the ability to post a review.'

Sighs of relief all round! But then we took a long hard look at the individual negative reviews being posted. And we had an epiphany: we realised that clients of relationship-based businesses didn't often 'warn' those businesses that they were dissatisfied with whatever long-term service they were being provided with - they just resigned/left. And, as any such business will tell you, once a client or patient is gone they're almost always 'gone gone'. The chances of clawing them back are as close to nil as makes no difference. 

But our moderators also noticed a distinct pattern emerging: businesses that had invited all - or just about all - their stakeholders to write a review were receiving warnings of the 'about to go' kind. The review of the clinic at the top of this article is a good example. And, as all businesses know, a customer saved is worth a great deal of marketing £s. 

So we revised our advice: proactively invite as many people as possible to write a review; the 5* reviews are gold-dust, but the 1* or 2* review that is resolved in moderation is platinum.

Lastly...

If you interrogate this blog and its 900+ articles you will find plenty that reference moderation.  The first was written on 26 April 2013, eleven years ago now, but here are two more recent ones that will explain everything that this article has left out in the interests of brevity.

• Moderation: the essential ingredient in every professional business's review management strategy
• Review moderation and why it is a 'must have' for businesses that intend to grow

New to HelpHound? Try this 2 minute quiz

Score 100% and you won't need us. Score less and we will guarantee to positively impact your earnings. This may appear, at first sight, to be a slightly light-hearted approach to what is, for all professional and service businesses, a serious enterprise. After all, adopting the wrong solution will - not 'can' - have serious long-term deleterious effects on all a business's other marketing.

 

Question 1

Does your business host independently verified reviews on its website?

 

Question 2

Are those reviews moderated before publication?

Question 3

Are those moderated reviews copied to Google?

Question 4

Does your business respond to all its reviews?

Question 5

Is your business compliant with the CMA regulations with regard to cherry-picking and/or gating?

That's the 'Quiz' done. Now let us expand on these five questions.

Hosting independently verified reviews

By definition - and by law - a 'review' must be independently verified, if it is not it is defined as a testimonial. It can be fed to the business by a review site (Yelp/Trustpilot/Doctify/Feefo and so on) or from Google. These days consumers, especially consumers of professional services, demand reviews; if they don't find reviews on the business's own website they know they will be able to find them on Google. From the business's point-of-view, especially if it has expended resources on attracting the consumer to its website the very last thing it wants is the potential customer to revert to Google and see its competitors listed under 'People also search for'...

And just before we move on to Q.2 we ought to deal with a question we still hear (albeit less and less): 'Do people read/reference reviews on businesses' websites?' Look at this review (it's only 4 months old):

Already 12 people have taken the trouble to 'vote' it 'helpful'. The number that have seen/read the review will be far higher.

Are all the business's reviews moderated before publication?

There is a reason that most HelpHound clients' reviews, whether hosted on their own websites or on Google, are overwhelmingly well-written and factually accurate: they have been moderated pre-publication. Our moderators correct spelling and grammar and query statements of fact that may be proved to be incorrect or misleading for readers (always with the permission of the reviewer). 

Is the business maximising the number of reviews it gets to Google?

Every time a review is posted on one of our clients' websites the reviewer is automatically invited to copy that review to Google. Not only does this mean that virtually all the business's Google reviews are factually accurate (for more on moderation see here and read on below) and therefore reliable and trustworthy for consumers, it also means that our clients have a constant flow of up-to-date reviews there. Great for driving business and great for SEO.

Does the business respond to all its reviews?

This is the kind of generic response that we see all the time. It fails to address any of the issues raised in the original review and equally fails to impress a potential customer. Below is a response to a Google review drafted on behalf of one of our clients.

Surprisingly few businesses get this right - at the last count nearly 9 out of 10 businesses don't respond to any reviews. It is vital to respond to every review, both positive and especially negative. The response must be unemotional, address the issues raised (without compromising confidentiality) and aim to impress anyone reading it. Even responses to negative reviews can be turned into positive messages if drafted correctly. We are on hand to advise clients on these vital responses and it is a very popular part of our service.

Is the business compliant?

Businesses that we meet for the first time break down into the following four categories...

• unwittingly cherry-picking - defined in the regulations as 'Not allowing everyone the equal opportunity to write a review'
• unwittingly gating - defined in the regulations - and in Google's own ToS - as 'using any method to pre-qualify customer opinions so as to ensure that less than satisfied customers are not invited to post a review'

and in a minority:

• wilfully cherry-picking - selecting customers to invite to write a review
• wilfully gating - sending out a questionnaire and then only inviting positive respondents to write a review

The only businesses we see, with very few exceptions, that are compliant with the CMA regulations* - the law in the UK - are those that are not inviting customers to post reviews, 

*A note on compliance: there is a fairly widespread feeling in some sectors of the marketplace that 'We won't be the first to be fined/sanctioned by the CMA'. This is to miss some fundamental points: non-compliant businesses are very easy to pinpoint, for competitors as well as regulators, they also leave an indelible paper trail of that non-compliance: emails selectively inviting reviews and so on. Always remember that a competitor's best friend is that ex-member of staff who left knowing exactly how the business glowed so brightly in reviews. 

We get it, we really do. If we had a pound for every time a prospective client said 'What? Does the CMA expect us to invite every customer to write a review? Are they crazy?' we would be very well off indeed.

There is a solution that ensures compliance and enables businesses to survive in the world of reviews, and it is called 'moderation'. Let us walk you through it...

The business does not have to proactively invite all of its customers to write a review. What it does have to do is have a publicly visible mechanism that allows any of its customers to write a review at a time of their choosing. The key word here is 'allows'. Look at this website...

That 'Write a review' button ensures that the business is compliant. It also leads directly to one of our moderators. As soon as the review is written...

...it is checked for any factual inaccuracies and/or potentially misleading content. In 97% of cases the review is what we term 'clean' and is immediately published on the business's website (with any obvious typos, spelling or grammatical errors corrected). In the other 3% a conversation - by email - takes place between our moderator, the reviewer and - if necessary - the business under review**.

**A note on moderation and moderators: first, all reviews are read by a person. We are fully aware of some review sites where much is made of algorithmic moderation - 'our software can spot anomalies in reviews' - well, particularly with the advent of AI, we would beg to differ, it takes a well-trained human moderator to a) pick up on both the tone and the content of a review and b) then conduct a 3-way conversation with the parties involved. Interestingly, reviewers are almost always very pleased when a moderator becomes involved. Few people want what the law allows them to want - to have a factually inaccurate or misleading review published for all to see (often under their real name).

Conclusion

By now you will have realised that being able to answer 'Yes' to the 5 questions will put any business in a very strong position from a purely marketing point of view: 'Yes, we display independently verified reviews prominently on our website; yes, we have all those reviews moderated to ensure they are accurate and won't mislead those that need to rely on them; yes, we get as many of those reviews as possible copied to Google; yes, we respond professionally to all our reviews, wherever they may be and yes, we obey the law in doing all the above.'

We look forward to welcoming you to HelpHound!

Further reading

• This article shows exactly how dramatic the impact of professional review management can impact a business, both in terms of footfall and in terms of the marked increase in quality of each piece of business transacted

Why, oh why, not Google?

It's a question we ask all the time. Why would any business invite its customers to write a review to a review website rather than to Google?

There's currently a very high-profile example displaying on three e-billboards on the M4/A4 'Gateway to London'. Here is a similar, but far smaller one...

Now, given that this kind of advertising is designed expressly to drive people to their mobile/tablet/laptop to check out the brand and then switch suppliers, what do we see when we do just that?

We see this...

And this...

And then these, over 50 of them...

And on and on they go - 56 one-star reviews (and, unlike their 5* reviews, many of which are simple ratings, their unhappy customers tend to go into quite a lot of detail about their experience with Octopus - which does not use Google's free review response facility, but that's another story).

And that's about as far as most potential customers will get, they won't mine down into Google for more reviews, why should they? But we persevered on your behalf and found this...

So - again -  the question: 'Why do businesses like this use a review site in preference to Google reviews?' Why not simply ask customers to post to Google (which, apart from all the other advantages outlined below, is free)? 

We put these questions to Octopus Energy, and this is what they said...

NOTHING!

Despite three telephone conversations with their PR department and two separate emails - both containing a draft of this article. So, like any responsible journalist facing a brick wall, we began to mine further down into Octopus Energy's use of reviews, and Trustpilot in particular. 

What did we find?

1.  That out of its 230,000 plus, mostly glowing, Trustpilot reviews, it has over 7,000 one-star reviews.

2.  That these one-star reviews are not just tales of minor dissatisfaction, they often contain a litany of non-communication by the company, much like our own experience. Call after email after call without response, mostly about money - serious amounts, often in the £hundreds and £thousands. You can read them here.

3.  Octopus tends to be quite slow in responding to these, sometimes quite urgent ('we've been cut off', 'I've gone overdrawn') reviews. As regular readers will know, our own benchmark Is 'same working day'.

4.  Its responses are mostly generic 'Thank you for your review, please email us...' and rarely address the issue raised.

Our conclusion

This is, admittedly, going to be very one-sided, due entirely to the Octopus Energy PR department's unwillingness to answer even the most basic of questions. Here goes...

We think Octopus, and companies like it, are choosing independent review sites over Google for one very simple reason...

...that no one will find, and therefore read, their negative reviews.

Their prospective customers might read the individual reviews - that is, if this, on Octopus's home page, were hyperlinked to their Trustpilot listing. But it's not - strange, no?

When we say 'no one' we exaggerate, of course. Those who go to Trustpilot to write negative reviews obviously do read the other reviews - because they often quote them in their own ('Just like John X, I had the same issue.'). But just how many people looking for an energy supplier and seeing Octopus's review-driven advertising (see top of the page and any local billboard or radio station) find their way to Trustpilot? Very few, is our educated guess.

One final point - Octopus are proactively inviting customers to write reviews; so far so fine, but one of the questions we were going to ask them was 'You send out a customer survey by text before you invite the customer to write a review to Trustpilot. Do all respondents to the survey get asked to write a Trustpilot review, or only those that rate their experience of the business highly?' If, as we have seen with many businesses over the years, the latter is the case, it is in breach of the CMA's core regulations.

And this is what we think about the independent review site v. Google argument...

1. Google reviews carry far more credibility - due to being attached to a 'real' person's Google account (as opposed to 'MickeyMouse123' on a review site).
2. Google reviews are far more visible. By a huge factor; your prospective client/patient searches and what do they see? Google reviews, every time.
3. Google has far greater reach - many consumers head directly for Google reviews every time they are considering using a new business - especially if that business is in the professions or is a service industry. When was the last time you considered such a business and thought 'I must check how their customers view them on [Feefo/Yelp/Trustpilot...]'? Google dominate search in the UK to a vast extent  - at last count, 95.53% of internet searches in the UK were made on Google.
4. Anyone can write a Google review. Until recently, it was a common misconception amongst many businesses that the reviewer 'needed a Gmail address'. They don't, they just need to have used one of Google's plethora of services over the last two decades, and few people have not.
5. Google reviews are location-specific. If your business has multiple locations it will receive Google reviews for those specific locations (what consumer, considering using a business in Durham, wants to read reviews of HQ in Reading?).
6. Google is free. Google doesn't charge for hosting and prominently displaying your business's reviews. Why should they? Considering that you are donating your customers' valuable data to Google, that's added value enough for them.

Our advice - to any professional or service business

1. Invite your customers - clients/patients - to write reviews on Google
2. Use a moderated system so those reviews can be checked for factual accuracy and/or misleading statements before they are published for all to read
3. Publish those reviews on your own website - don't hide them
4. Think long term (a) - in five years from now Octopus will look far, far worse on Google than it does now
5. Think long term (b) - Google will still be around in five years' time. Review sites? Maybe not. Imagine your chosen review site folds and with it, all your hard-won reviews end up in the ether (remember Yelp quitting the UK and EU?)?

But if your business is selling shirts or headphones - stick with the review site; you only need the star rating, very few people read reviews of products (as opposed to services) as long as the headline score is 4.8+. And if the review site goes under? You are selling hundreds or even thousands of units a week, so you'll soon reach critical mass on your new review site, and all you will have to do is plaster their stars all over your marketing.

And finally, if anyone - anyone at all - at Octopus Energy reads this article and would like to comment: they know how to contact us.

A New Year's guarantee

To be of any value a guarantee must deliver measurable positive benefits for your business. Because HelpHound is many things, depending on the position our clients find themselves in on joining, our guarantees vary depending upon that position. This post will identify those starting points and apply the relevant guarantee.

Note: we have used real Google business listings to illustrate this article. We make no comment on the individual businesses or the appropriateness or otherwise of their individual Google reviews and/or Google scores.

Starting point: Less than thirty Google reviews

The business in this example finds itself in the same position as many professional practices: it has yet to find a safe way to invite reviews to Google and it may even be cognisant of the CMA regulations that expressly forbid hand-picking clients to post reviews; it has just about kept its head above water, Google score-wise, by inviting two or three clients to write a Google review as and when it is subject to a 1* negative. It has at least one review that contravenes Google's own ToS and would undoubtedly be removed by Google were the business to submit a correctly worded appeal.

 

Guarantee

• 100 Google reviews in 6 months

•  A Google score of at least 4.8 within 3 months of joining

• a 10% upift in enquiries at that point

•  Full compliance with the CMA regulations 

Starting point: More than thirty but less than 100 Google reviews

This firm of lawyers has yet to find a compliant and effective way to invite their stakeholders to write reviews to Google; it is not as if they don't invite reviews, just that they are being invited to a site that is next to invisible in search. Can you see it in this screengrab of their Google knowledge panel in a standard Google search?

But how many potential clients never get past their Google headline of 3.9 from 50 reviews?

 

Guarantee

• 100 Google reviews in 6 months 

• A Google score of at least 4.8 within 3 months of joining

• a 5% upift in enquiries at that point

• Full compliance with the CMA regulations 

 

Starting point: 100+ Google reviews

 

 

A respectable headline score - 4.6 - is only partially masking a steady drip of 1* reviews. A moderated review management system would undoubtedly enable this business to address some of the issues raised before the reviewer felt the need to commit to a potentially misleading or just plain inaccurate - or indeed unfair - Google review. 

 

Guarantee

• 10 new Google reviews per month

• A Google score of at least 4.8 within 6 months of joining

• Full compliance with the CMA regulations - from the date of joining 

• More enquiries through Google searches

Conclusion

There you have it: a 'no lose' situation for those joining HelpHound in 2024. All the business has to do is implement HelpHound's recommendations in full* and we will guarantee your money back if the agreed results are not achieved. 

*At the outset HelpHound will conduct a full audit of the business's exposure to reviews, Google as well as others; this will form the statistical base for our recommended strategy. This strategy will be agreed and signed off by both HelpHound and our client at inception and before implementation.

Further reading

• Fee scale for 2024

• How to help others and make HelpHound 'free' for your business at the same time

Trustpilot - big business's 'useful idiot'?

We get it, we really do, if you are in retail - especially online retail - all you need is this...

As a matter of fact, all your business probably needs is this...

But, before you rush to add to Trustpilot's cash mountain, you might like to consider the following points:

Why would a business want to use Trustpilot - and pay them - when Google reviews...

...are free and unarguably trump Trustpilot for credibility* and, most important of all, visibility. Strange as it may seem, the answer would seem to be just that - visibility. Trustpilot reviews - and the business's headline score, rarely appear in search. This leaves the business free to use them both as, when and where it suits them best.

After all, if you were Yodel, you wouldn't be promoting your Google score...

...would you? But that's exactly what searchers are going to see - every single time they conduct a Google search. Like this...

Another possible use of review sites

Suppose a business came to us, or any other agency, and said 'We want to bury negative reviews of our business as far away from the eyes of our potential customers as possible whilst being simultaneously open and welcoming to comments.' Let's look at a real-life business that would appear - we stress 'appear' - to have done just this (no names):

Best in the world? How does this business look on Trustpilot?

Now, we know the 'Best in the world' bar is set pretty low when it comes to retail banking, but even Trustpilot, with its notoriously generous (some might say 'business-friendly') descriptors can only bring itself to call it 'Average'. That 28 percent represents nearly a third of all reviewers and more than 10,000 1* reviews

But does it really matter when those reviews, and that distinctly 'average' score, are not returned in the first fifty search results when the business's name is googled? Cynical observers might say 'Job done: reviews welcomed but invisible to all but the most diligent searcher.'

Conclusion

All professional or service businesses - as opposed to online retail - should focus on Google reviews. But wait, we hear some of you say, that would mean that all our potential customers will see all our Google reviews in every search they make. But they already do! So get HelpHound's moderation working for you to ensure that those reviews are as accurate as they possibly can be - no factual inaccuracies or misleading statements (and with any errors in English corrected).

*Google's credibility derives, in the main, from the fact that almost all of us know that we can write one whenever we like and that there is no Google mechanism for preventing us (Trustpilot allow businesses to appeal negative reviews - actually any review, but we'd be surprised if a business appealed a 5* review). It also derives from familiarity - we all consume Google reviews, consciously or unconsciously, because we see them and their attendant headline score in every single Google search on a business we make.

Further reading

• Getting your business's Google reviews strategy right will not only protect its online reputation - it will boost it so inbound clicks and calls rise to a higher level and remain there. Read all about the results you can expect here

• In case you missed the link to the advantages of a moderated review system above, here is an article that explains just why it is the key to successful long-term review management