Review sites - could this be why they are so attractive to some businesses?

Why would any business choose any of these...

Over these?

It has long been a puzzle - and not just to us here at HelpHound, just look at one of them on another review site...

...and, to be scrupulously fair, reviews of that site on Trustpilot...

...and Trustpilot (UK) on Google...

And their Copenhagen HQ?

Here's our question for any service or professional business using Trustpilot or Feefo (or Yelp - although they pulled their sales operation out of the UK and EU a while ago) in preference to Google reviews (we acknowledge that online retailers simply use it to reinforce sales of individual products - although, even in that context, we constantly find reviews of product A being used to promote product B). Why would you pay a review site when Google reviews that are...

• more visible - far more visible
• credible - far more credible 
• easy to collect

...and - wait for it - free?

We wrote about the obvious answer years ago - and there's a clue in many of the negative reviews - the fact that the review sites offer what we consider to be marginally compliant benefits to businesses that have the ultimate effect of reducing the number of negative - 1* - reviews that are published. 

A review site may be just what a business in retail - online especially - needs when it is looking for support for its advertising and marketing. This business, for instance, has more than 4,000 one-star reviews, but few prospective customers will look past their five-star rating to the actual reviews themselves

In the case of Trustpilot, that consists of what we call 'quarantine' where a business can challenge any review - weirdly they don't seem to challenge 5* reviews! - and the reviewer is then required to provide proof that they have used the business - invoices/emails or the like. We can hear some readers saying 'That's a great idea!' but it has at least one disastrous unforeseen consequence which we christened 'deflection' many years ago - the savvy rejected/unpublished reviewers and their one-star reviews simply migrate to Google, damaging the business in question's image there, for all to see. 

But it has now dawned on us that there is another reason...lack of visibility in search. How would not appearing in search be seen as a benefit? Simple really, when you think about it: it gives the business far more control over who exactly sees their review score or the reviews themselves. Use Google reviews and the world, including every one of your prospective customers, will see your reviews. Use a review site and they will only see them when and where the business wants them to (few customers bother to visit the review sites) - in its marketing and advertising and exactly how and where it wants them displayed on its website.

Conclusion

If we were consumers - and of course we are, after hours! - we would be asking any business that has adopted a review site 'Just why?' 'Why not Google?' With a moderated system such as HelpHound protecting a business from inaccurate, potentially misleading or just plain unfair reviews and ensuring that their positive reviews make sense too, and getting them to both the business's website and to Google, there's no reason to give up the vastly superior credibility, visibility and longevity (they'll definitely still be around in ten years' time) of Google reviews.

If you sell products - stick with your review site - if you provide a professional service we heartily recommend you invest the money saved in HelpHound membership and start looking amazing in Google searches - compliantly.

Don't hand your customers' reviews to a third-party

It is so important to think long-term when making decisions about reviews. We have already alerted readers to the value they are giving away in terms of customer data, but what about the reviews themselves.

Perhaps a short story will best illustrate what we mean. There was a national firm of estate agents that, back in 2012, was sold a reviews solution called Yelp...

But Yelp decided to pull the plug on its UK and EU operation in 2016, after the business had invested considerable time and energy getting hundreds of customers to write reviews on their platform (which Yelp retains to this day).

So they joined another review site called Rateragent...

But they folded. So the business responded to a sales call from Feefo...

But then realised that the so-called advantage that site was closed to everyone except verified customers was backfiring, and lots of tenants were simply going straight to Google as a result, so they moved to Trustpilot...

When they realised that, yet again, they had lost control of some very valuable content and their reviews weren't being seen a fraction as often as if they had been displayed on and by Google, and had to begin all over again.

This time they got the correct solution, a solution they could have adopted ten years ago - or eight, or five, or three, but did not: review management...

• Getting their own customers' reviews to the business's own website, where they are able to take ownership

• And then getting them across to Google, where they have maximum impact, far, far more than on any review site

That way they now retain ownership of their reviews and have them displayed on the most powerful medium on the web today. We cannot see a scenario where we will have to advise our clients to redirect their reviews away from Google, but should that become necessary at some far distant date, they will then be able to do so, without losing their historic reviews.

This is also a very good reason not to focus all your business's review efforts solely on Google, besides the fact that Google loves businesses that host their own reviews and gives them credit for that through their SEO algorithm.

The point of this story?

Is not to criticise the review sites, they have a business to run and exist in a competitive marketplace, it is to show you that it is essential that you commit to a solution that...

• doesn't involve you 'giving' your customer reviews to an outside business, then losing all those reviews when you change solutions

• has maximum visibility and credibility 

• that will be as valid in ten years' time as it is today

The proof of the pudding...

These reviews, hosted on the business's website are owned by the business...

...and a high proportion have been copied across to Google...

Professional review management, not just a better solution - the only solution

Sorry TripAdvisor (and all the other reviews sites) - it's just not going to happen

Today a member of staff received this in an email from TripAdvisor...

...just one (more) review. 

But it will never happen. Why not?

Because we - and just about everyone else on the planet - now only write reviews in one place, and it's not TripAdvisor, nor is it Yelp, or Trustpilot, or any of the other reviews sites. And why is that?

Because, like everything else on the web, it's about speed and simplicity now - remember 'app poker' when everyone was competing to see how many apps they could amass on their phones? Well, now we are proud of just how few apps we have. 

Of course there will be the die-hards; they will still write reviews all over the web, and we will all use TripAdvisor now and again - when we cannot find what we need on...

But, for the most part, if we want a restaurant, we will do this...

And this for a hotel...

And this for a lawyer...

And this for an estate agent...

And this for a plumber (how great is that 'top rated' button - unless, of course, your business has devoted all its efforts to getting reviews to an independent reviews site instead of Google?)...

And the future for the reviews sites? Well, we will let the share prices of the only two currently quoted on a stock market answer that question...

TripAdvisor down from a high of $105 in 2014 and Yelp down from $97 over virtually the same time scale (when the underlying stock-market rose by 50%).


Further reading...

Before you - and your business - plunge headlong into getting Google reviews, just pause for ten minutes and read these two articles; doing so may save you a lot of effort (and even pain) in the long run...

• Remember that you cannot 'choose' which of your customers write a review - if you invite one you must allow them all to do so. Why? Because it would be misleading to do otherwise and it's the law. Read about the CMA regulations here.

• To give you the confidence to allow all your customers to write reviews you will need a moderated review management system. This will allow you to do your very best to ensure that factually inaccurate or potentially misleading reviews don't see the light of day (and it's just as popular with reviewers and consumers as it is with businesses). Read all about HelpHound's moderation system here (it has the added benefit of displaying reviews on your own site).

Three reasons to avoid independent review sites

You cannot go anywhere these days without encountering businesses that have signed up to independent review sites. The positive is that businesses are finally waking up to the power of reviews - the negative is that some businesses are being 'sold' review solutions that benefit the review site more than their client.

At HelpHound we have consistently said that 'there is a better way' and those of you who are clients or are regular readers of this blog will know that; but we make no apology for restating the case - and seriously questioning whether any business should commit to an independent review site. 

Why? Read on...

1. You need to own your own reviews - and get them to Google

They are written by your customers about your products and services - so why would you want to give them to someone else? We have seen so many examples of businesses adopting one reviews solution, committing - wasting - time and effort, and then realising that there is a better alternative out there.

 This is a good example of professional review management - with HelpHound and the business working effectively together. the business has over 100 reviews on its own site which are linked to by Google in the knowledge panel ("Reviews from the web") and displayed under its listing in natural search (top left). On top of that over 40 of those reviews have been got to Google, giving the business a great score there too, as well as three great rich snippets (at the bottom of the knowledge panel).

You need your reviews on your own website - and then - almost always, to get them to Google*

*and then Facebook, and just one or two specialists sites (like TripAdvisor if you are in the hospitality business).

2. You need to obey the law - be compliant

So many review sites are not compliant with UK law; either they don't allow anyone to post a review or they only allow someone to post a review at a given time (usually immediately post-purchase). This is against the law - and the onus is on the business to comply. For more detail read this article.

3. Perhaps most important of all - you don't want to be forcing your unhappy customers to post to Google 

Look at this example of a business that decided to commit to an independent review site a year ago:

The independent site in question scores the business 4.5 out of 5, so far so good...

And now look at it on Google:

 A dreadful score - when combined with the negative text of the six one star reviews - gives a terrible first impression of the business (Google reviews are always seen first). We would love to show you the individual reviews, but that would be unfair on the business in question; you will just have to trust us that they wouldn't encourage anyone to use it!

So what has happened? 

Something we see more and more; the business invites its happy customers to post a review to the independent site - leading to a great score (it's not a 'perfect five' simply because the business cannot possibly identify 'happy' customers 100% of the time).

The business's unhappy customers have either not been invited to write a review or they have decided to write it to Google instead - not all of them, but enough to create this negative score and impression.

What should the business have done?

It should have focussed on on its own site and on Google. Here is an example from our latest presentation:

In search...

...and on the business's own site:

 For the full presentation see here

This ticks all three boxes:

• the business owns its own reviews and has got them to google in significant numbers
• its procedures and systems are complaint with the CMA's regulations
• it looks impressive - both in search and on its own site

What more could any business possibly want?

Dialogue - its value for your customer

Much of this blog focuses on what Dialogue can do for a business - and rightly so, but today we are going to focus on its value for your customers (guests/clients)...

visual from Olery

Reviews are trusted. All recent research points to this. But should they be? The answer to this bears some detailed examination; on both sides of the fence: those who write the reviews and those who publish the reviews. We'll take hotels as an example (everything holds good for other kinds of businesses)...

Who writes the reviews?

We dealt with behaviour here, so today we'll simply focus on the numbers. Very few guests ever write a review of any kind - it varies between one in 700 to one in 1500. So, when a potential guest looks at the reviews (or simply the score/ranking) they are taking the opinion of a tiny minority, and that tiny minority are too often from the polar ends of the experience - very happy or very unhappy.

What about the review sites?

They all 'play the numbers game'. The web is a huge help to them here - a page of reviews may contain only 10 customer opinions, but, because it fills the screen, it looks authoritative (imagine a hotel showed you its guest book and there was only one entry a month). They make much of the total number of reviews, but they helpfully grey out the dates so as not to draw attention to the fact that a 100 bed hotel may only get one review a week (one from maybe 500 guests).

Note: scrolling technology - where a web page can be of infinite length - has been around for years, so why isn't it used? The conclusion we might reasonably arrive at is: because they don't want to make it easy for their users to see past the 'first ten reviews'.

And moderation - why don't they moderate their reviews? (OK, some claim to have sophisticated 'algorithms' and technology which will 'identify fake/rogue reviews' - we have human moderators, and we would be sure to replace them with software if it came even close to working).

How about verifying their users? Oh no - that would be a violation of their freedom of speech (or freedom of something, anyway). 

So what are we left with? Unmoderated reviews written by a tiny minority of unverified reviewers who are polarised in their opinions. And people like this dedicated user of a well-known review site...

Are we the only ones who think he might have done just as well blindfolded with a pin?

Our solution:

• Verify the reviewer - make sure they are a real customer of the business being reviewed
• Moderate the reviews - so everyone really benefits from the final published review
• Have a system that gets the 'silent majority' to write reviews - by promising to publish everything, and having an independent agency operating the system
  

Then the consumers gets...

• Real reviews they can trust
• From a statistically meaningful sample of your customers

And you get...

•  Customers with an accurate and reliable perception of the service you provide

Yelp buys Qype - pay attention!

Why should that concern our clients?

First - Yelp is by far the biggest general review site on the planet. Second, because they have bought Qype (for $50m - that's $25* a review!) to boost their presence in the UK and Europe at a stroke.

The implications

So far neither Yelp nor Qype have made a big impression in the UK (although we're already seeing potential clients with damaging reviews on both). That won't last long! Yelp IPO'd on the NYSE this spring and now has a market value just short of $3bn - that's serious financial muscle by any measure. And now that financial muscle is being applied to get reviews in the UK - of your business!

Why do they need reviews of your business (and how do they get them)? 

Simple answer? So they can sell to you. Yelps sales staff (who are also inveterate reviewers) sell on the basis of page views - and every review is a page view.

You will see the Yelp 'Elite' button next to many reviewer's names. Elites are chosen on the basis of the number of reviews they write (and other subjective criteria). In return they are invited to 'events' at various watering-holes and eateries (and write reviews of them). So there's a big incentive for Yelpers to write as many reviews as possible of as many (kinds of) businesses as possible.

Bad behaviour?

Yelpers aren't all quite as nice as TripAdvisor reviewers (or even AllAgents reviewers). Yelp prides itself on 'freedom of speech' which all-too-often translates into 'freedom to pan' and woe betide the business that gets on the wrong side of Yelpers (their active 'community' can quickly gang up). Think of Yelp as 'Facebook for reviewers.'

Click to enlarge - a Yelper reviews his letting agent in London

Like TripAdvisor, Yelp has an algorithm for ranking businesses, and it's just as shrouded in mystery. Unlike TripAdvisor Yelp has a 'filter' and this has caused many a small business a great deal of anguish (positive reviews not being displayed, but negatives showing). 

This point is raised by the Los Angeles Times at 1 minute into this video...

Also, like TripAdvisor and AllAgents, anyone can write a review. ANYONE. Have a look at Qype's entry for Le Gavroche. Is it just us, or do we think maybe just a few of these reviewers have never set foot inside Le Gavroche (or maybe even in the UK)? 

In the past Yelp US has been the subject of criticism about its sales practices...

There's a similar report here

What action do you need to take?

Just as Dialogue defends our clients against the vicissitudes of reviewers on TripAdvisor, AllAgents and Google, so it will for Yelp/Qype. Make sure all your customers are invited to review you through Dialogue and you should be insulated. We will keep a close eye on Yelp's progress in the UK and keep you posted.

*Wow - that would value our sister site - helphound.com - at $5m - thanks Yelp!

Online Reviews - Reading between the lines

We like to think that HelpHound's moderators and buster software can pick up nearly all 'fake' reviews and deal with them.  Other sites however do not always work on this principle so here is are some good tips on how to spot reviews that may have been written by friends and family and public relations people.  Or by a business' competitors.

Use a critical eye to see truth in online restaurant reviews

The Power of Reviews

Blue Cedar's take on what to do about Review Sites.
I think we would wholeheartedly agree.



 More and more consumers rely review sites during their purchasing decision making process.

What should your company do about these directories?

• Be there. As consumers rely more heavily on review sites and local directories, not being present can cause you to be overlooked. List your business with the national  ones –the ones we’ve mentioned, plus HotFrog, Brown Book, and Local.com, among others – and then track down the ones specifically for your local community. If you’re not primarily a local business (for example, you do e-commerce), you can still benefit from local listings. It’s a link to your website, after all.
• Register or claim your business. In many cases, only those businesses that register or claim their listings can respond to reviews, add a link to their website, and in other ways have some control over the listing. Brown Book lets you upload videos and other content. Yelp lets you communicate with those who leave reviews. Merchant Circle hosts a blog for you. Explore the options.
• Encourage happy customers to review your business. Trying to game the system by posting fake reviews will backfire, but asking customers to support you is smart.  Train staff to respond to compliments with, “I’m so glad you liked it! Would you write that at Yelp?”
• Respond to unhappy reviews. You can’t please everyone, but a kind and helpful response can turn a bad review into a good opportunity to show your excellent customer service.  Calm down, if you need to, before you make your response.
• Quote the good reviews. People who’ve made public comments about your company have already shown that they’re willing to share their opinions. Use the things they’ve said as testimonials online and in your marketing materials.
• Watch your analytics. Keep track, with whatever kind of web analytics you use, of the kind of traffic that comes to your site from directories. That information can help you make decisions about advertising and future linkbuilding.
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