Never has there been a more important time to have a professional audit of your review management

The world of online reviews just kicked up a gear; in fact, truth be told, depending on a business's engagement with review management, it either kicked up two or three gears or even went into reverse.

Let us explain. What has happened regarding online reviews in the last few months? There's a full article here, with a link to an exhaustive explanation, but these are the bullet points:

• The UK government has introduced a whole new Act of Parliament (the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 - which is being implemented in stages from 2025-27). Its effect is to give the regulators - the CMA - vastly increased consumer protection powers, and these include specific powers to sanction businesses failing to comply where reviews are concerned

• The UK regulators have been given serious sanctioning teeth by the government: fines of up to 10% of a business's total global turnover is just one such example

• The UK regulators have invested heavily in AI detection tools (previously they relied on manual investigation and whistleblowers). Now detection of non-compliant practices will take place automatically and 24/7*

*previously there was an understandable feeling amongst some SMEs of 'they won't pick on us, we are insignificant in the grand scheme of things' and, to a certain extent, such businesses probably had reasonably good grounds for thinking that. Now, investigations will likely be programmed irrespective of business size.

• The UK regulators have already initiated action in relation to reviews - both businesses and review platforms - for misusing reviews and misleading consumers

• The Italian regulators have fined a well-known UK-listed review site €4,000,000 for misleading consumers and disguising benefits to businesses. Other EU and UK regulators may well follow suit

• AI search has been introduced by Google - and more and more consumers are relying on it every day. This has meant that reviews have become an even more important ingredient in SEO

To summarise: over the two decades since online reviews have existed, businesses have come to realise just how vital it is to look good, especially in Google search, with great reviews and scores, and how useful these are when used and referenced across all their other advertising and marketing. 

Alongside this, many businesses have taken the 'easy route' (or the route they have been sold). The former frequently involves two breaches of the CMA regulations: cherry-picking and gating; the latter, the likely employment of a review site that is not working in either the consumer's or the business's best interest.

All of this will come to a head in the following months: non-compliant businesses (we estimate around 65% of all businesses listed by Google) will see a massively increased risk of 'a knock on their door' from the regulators, businesses that make the very best of compliant review management will thrive.

A HelpHound audit

ChatGPT imagines a HelpHound Audit - in practice, it will often contain far more detail

We have been in business as long as online reviews have existed. We know the subject inside out. Maybe most important of all: we don't run a review site. We simply provide key advice to businesses on how to make the very best of their review management. In some cases, we even find ourselves, yes, even in 2026, introducing businesses to the whole concept of review management.

What we can say, with absolute certainty, is that every business we have ever audited has unearthed a benefit that has resulted in greatly improved CRM.  Often that benefit has been a significant game-changer.

What happens next?

You contact us. All we will need is your website address and a contact email. If there is any additional information we need, we will contact you straight away. Having received that, we will tell you, within 24 hours, when to expect your audit (it could be days; it could be 2-3 weeks in more complex cases, definitely no longer). 

How does HelpHound benefit?

We are currently in the fortunate position - for us and for our clients - of providing the only current compliant solution to review moderation in the UK. Some businesses we audit will see value in that service. It's as simple as that. 

Further reading...

• Review management for today's world - a two-minute read that is key to everything a business needs to succeed in the world of reviews in 2026

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

The ever-widening gulf between professional review management and reviews sites

Many clients have joined recently - having previously been with one reviews site or another. At first they can be under the impression that they have adopted a similar - but better - solution. This is very definitely not the case. In this article we will set out the fundamental difference between a reviews site and professional review management.

Reviews sites - are for 'product' businesses

They give (rent) the business some software - this software enables the business to invite and display reviews. It's as simple as that. And it works very effectively for high-volume online retailers: they get stars next to their products that encourage purchasers to buy. They don't need to be moderated - the occasional one star review of a pair of shoes or a shirt won't put purchasers off...here's an example:

...and you can bet they are selling thousands of these shirts.

The key here is that the software is cheap because the review site doesn't need to support the business that has bought it, it just sits on the website and does its job. The numbers take care of themselves - when you sell hundreds or even thousands of a certain product you only need a tiny percentage of customers to write a review.


But for 'service' businesses? It's review management all the way

These two issues come right to the fore - high-value service businesses need a very high percentage of their customers to write a review, and they need to be as sure as they possibly can be that those reviews don't contain errors of fact or misleading comments.

Let's take the example of estate agency - after all, we've all had experience of it (we could be talking legal, medical, financial or any other high-value service or profession) - point by point.

1.  Doing nothing is simply not an option any more - five years ago few consumers had discovered Google reviews, but now just about everyone has, and they know exactly how to write a negative review there if they are unhappy. Businesses that adopt a 'head in the sand' policy where reviews are concerned leave the field clear for their unhappy customers to dominate their reputations.

2.  Moderation is essential. A single well-written but factually inaccurate or misguided review can stop the phones ringing overnight. Moderators read reviews and revert to the reviewer if the review - or any of its content - gives cause for concern.

3.  Then the business needs to get its customers (clients/patients) writing reviews in significant numbers. This requires a certain mindset on the part of the business: a determination to get its staff engaged in the process. Let's look at what won't work first...

• simply sending an email asking for a review. The response rates for this hover around one per cent, and that is simply not enough for most (all?) low-volume high-value businesses. For example: an estate agency branch processing a dozen sales or lettings a month might have to wait a year to get its first review!

Getting the volumes of reviews your business needs...

At HelpHound we call it the 'rule of 50 per cent'. What we mean by that is that we advise our client businesses to set targets for management and staff as follows...

• encourage at least half of all your clients to write a review to the HelpHound module on your own website, and then...

• aim to have half of them copy their review to Google

That's only one in four, so that leaves plenty of room for the 'I never write reviews' and 'I haven't got a Google account' brigade to drop out (by the way, it is estimated that over twenty-five million people in the UK can write a Google review by now - not just because they have a Gmail address - although that's a useful pointer, but because Google owns so many platforms that require Google registration: Youtube and Blogger being two of the more high-profile examples).

When your business first joins this is going to look like a mountain to climb - and it is, for the simple reason that your clients will not have been 'primed'. What do we mean by priming? 

Priming is where you, and all your customer-facing staff, reinforce the fact that your client will be required (note the use of the word 'required') to write a review at the end of whatever process you are involved in. If your client knows they will be expected, as a matter of professional courtesy, to write a review, your success rate will soar. What follows are extracts from a memo we give all our clients on joining...

Then the email - with a direct link to the box on your website where they will be writing their review...

And so will we (know it's not the email), so we will be able to provide you with advice on improving response.

Now comes the most important step of all - step 3 - the call.

There you go - in the second tip - the 'rule of 50 per cent' again. Miss out the call and results will plummet.

It's not easy - but it is simple

When this client joined HelpHound they had just two reviews on Google and none on their own website, With our ongoing support and advice they have now achieved 108 on Google and 171 on their own website: proof that the 50% rule can not only be achieved but exceeded

It's not easy, and we're the first to admit that, but if you look at our clients - on their own websites and on Google - you will see that it is possible to succeed. If you speak to any of those clients - and we're sure that they will be happy to speak to you - one of the things almost all of them will stress is just how they leaned on HelpHound from day one - on our experience of dealing with hundreds of businesses in very similar situations and the professional advice we give, the quality of which we are proud to stand by.

It's also why we don't promote our service with discounts and free trials - have you ever known a solicitor or an accountant do that? No, of course you haven't; professional advice doesn't come free or with 'trial periods'. But it works, and we have the experience and  resources to ensure that our professional advice will produce results for your business. How can you tell? Well, aside from speaking to an existing client you can do two things: look at the results we have achieved for them (here's just one case history - and here is what some of our clients have said) and then try HelpHound for your own business (and just like other professionals, we never ask our clients to sign time-constrained contracts either).

And our last tip?

Get all your management and staff to write just one Google review themselves - not of your business, obviously - but of a business that they have recently used, then they will be able to empathise with (and guide) your customers when they are asking them to write their review of your business.