Google reviews - eliminating the risk

Despite what their marketing may say - the review sites now play second fiddle to Google, big time. Google dominates...

• in search
• in visibility
• in credibility
• in its power to drive business towards those businesses that look great in search 

The only problem, from a business's point-of-view, is that it cannot control what its customers will say when they come to write their review. 'Quite right, that's where Google's credibility comes from' we hear some of the more savvy of our readers say. And they are quite right. And that's where HelpHound comes in.

Eliminating the risk inherent in inviting Google reviews: Step 1

90 per cent of reviews are fine. They are positive - 4 or 5 stars - and they don't contain factual inaccuracies or misleading statements likely to either mislead another potential customer or do damage to the business. But the one in ten? Ouch! 

90 per cent would be a great pass mark in any exam, but in the world of reviews it's a definite fail. If one in ten of a business's reviews rate it - unfairly - at 1 out of 5, then it is going to suffer... 

• when compared to its competitors
• when potential clients click on 'lowest' and read many of those ' 1 in 10' reviews

Any business that wants reviews to work for it will need to be scoring 4.8 at a minimum and preferably 4.9. To put that into numbers: the business needs 49 out of 50 of its reviews to score it 5 stars. A few months ago we published '4.9 is the new 4.5' and we were deadly serious. In 2020 a Google score of 4.5 would cut the mustard. No longer.

For readers who have a 'perfect business'

We hear you. And we know businesses just like yours. You have highly effective management, wonderful staff and checks and balances in place to ensure your clients/patients/investors are always completely happy with whatever service you provide for them.

But every time we meet such a business we ask one simple question: 'Are all your customers perfect?' And that question always - invariably - elicits the answer 'Most. But - turning to a colleague - what about Mrs X and Mr Y, and a few others. I wouldn't want any of them writing a review of our service.'

That's where HelpHound comes in. By law, in the UK, you cannot allow all your customers except the 'Mrs X and Mr Ys' to write a review. You must - again we stress: by law - allow all of your customers to write a review.

By now you will be seeing where we are headed - after all we have nearly 15 years doing nothing but this - the key word here is 'allow'. Look at this screenshot of a client's mobile website...

It contains all you need to collect reviews safely (for the business and the consumer - very few people really want an inaccurate or misleading review published for all to see) and in compliance with UK law:

1. The 'Write a Review' button does what it says: it allows anyone to simply click and write a review - to the business's own website. This ensures compliance with the CMA regulations and allows our moderators and the business to interact with any reviews (and their authors) that may contain factual inaccuracies or potentially misleading comments before the reviewer is asked to post their review to Google.
2. Any prospective customer can click on the number of reviews - or the 'more' button - to read as many of them as they wish.
3. See the number of reviews? 710. For a single branch of an estate agency. And the score? The vital 4.9.

Eliminating the risk inherent in inviting Google reviews: Step 2

Now, you're asking: 'What about Google'? We are delighted to show you...

When they joined HelpHound? 2 Google reviews. Everyone who writes a review to the business's website is automatically asked to copy their review - after it has been moderated - to Google

We advise most businesses, at least initially, to invite reviews to their own website in the first instance. This allows our moderators to perform their essential function - challenging those inaccurate and potentially misleading reviews and reviewers pre-publication (there's a full description of the process here). A typical benchmark might be 100 Google reviews before we advise the business to implement what we call our 'Multi' invitation - asking the customer to write both a review to the business's website and to Google at the same time.

So - what do we have here?

We have the only safe and secure method for businesses to absolutely minimise the risk inherent in engaging with reviews. No ifs, not buts. Guaranteed. Speak to us and we'll tell you exactly what your own business can expect.