Review Rescue - a new service from HelpHound

You are reading this article because your business currently scores 4.4 or less on Google, like this...

or this...

or this...

or even this...

...and you know you need to take action. The only issue is 'what kind of action'? Please read on...

Here are two questions...

First: What is your reaction when you see businesses that score like these on Google?

Is it...

a)  'Avoid them like the plague', or...

b)  'Ignore them (the scores) and carry on', or...

c)  'Feel sorry that the image of the business may have been unfairly tarnished by a tiny minority of highly-motivated dissatisfied customers'?

Second: do you use the Google filter when searching for businesses?

a)  'Yes', or...

b)  'No', or... 

c)  'Never heard of it'*

*We use the word 'heard' here advisedly - you will have 'seen' the filter but may not have 'noticed' it or been conscious of it. Google introduced it into map search first and then, when it proved popular (Google never do anything by accident) they migrated it to mobile - where over 70% of searches now take place. This means that savvy searchers are now filtering any business that scores less then 4.5 out of their searches completely. There's more on the Google filter here.


Anyone who has answered 'b' to both these questions is probably so cynical they will be impossible to convince that reviews, Google or otherwise, matter at all. For the rest of us - and academic research suggests we are in the overwhelming majority - let's proceed to the next step. 

In the real world a business that scores under 4.5 out of 5 on Google will fall into one of two categories...

a)  Deserving of such a rating - couldn't-care-less, sloppy customer service, unreliable (in fact, all the things that are said about them in their negative reviews, or...

b)  Generally great at what they do, with effective customer relations strategies in place and staff committed to delivering a high standard of service but as yet to engage with Google reviews**

**Important note (1): there are currently many businesses that think they have a viable solution to Google reviews: they simply hand-pick customers they they have a very good reason to think will post a five star review. This is, for reasons which I am sure you will appreciate after some thought, against the law in the UK. It also runs the risk of the business being sanctioned by Google for what they call 'gating'. For more on the UK government regulations relating to this, please read this article.

At HelpHound we are - self-evidently - only interested in helping businesses that fall fairly-and-squarely into the second category. Why? Because our service only works for businesses in that category - we cannot (and would not) work to enable a shoddy business to look good.

The issue we are addressing is straightforward - by now almost every business on the planet is receiving Google reviews. But thanks to the element of human nature already alluded to often perfectly good businesses are finding their image is being unfairly tarnished. If your business is showing signs of any of the following...

• An unfairly low Google score 

• A low Google score by comparison with your competitors, which, again you feel to be undeserved

• Feedback from customers*** referring to reviews that you consider to be unfair, inaccurate or misleading

***Important note (2):You won't necessarily know your business is being hurt - potential customers don't walk into your premises and say 'I'm not using you because I've read your reviews' but that is exactly what happens. You are much more likely to get the flip side of this when you have great scores and reviews: 'I chose your business first because you look great by comparison with your competitors in search.'

You will know when reviews are working for you though - business will pick up by a marked - and measurable - extent. Just look at these results...

...and read the full story here.

The solution

We call it 'HelpHound intensive'. For a period - usually not exceeding six months - we will place your business and its review management processes into an intensive care programme which, providing your business fulfils the criteria mentioned above, will achieve the following...

1. A score in excess of 4.5 on your own website
2. A score in excess of 4.5 on Google
3. A minimum of fifty reviews on your own website
4. A minimum of twenty-five reviews on Google

...but you won't need to wait six months to see the benefits - the Google My Business report for Curchods you see above was sent to them within weeks of joining (and they had started from scratch).

No smoke and mirrors

Everything we advise you to do will be in compliance with the CMA regulations. Everything we advise you to do will be 'best advice' for your business - no one-size-fits-all widgets, just pure professional advice. 

A note about reviews sites

These sites - certainly for high-value professional and transactional service businesses - have been dealt a death-blow by Google. Since Google reviews became the vehicle of choice for those wanting to 'get back' at businesses that they see - rightly or wrongly - have done them a disservice, we have noticed a very common, and harmful, syndrome that has now reached epidemic proportions: it's called 'deflection' and it means that happy customers are writing to the business's reviews site of choice and unhappy customers are writing to Google, meaning that the business looks much worse than it should on Google. If you suspect that your business has fallen - or may fall - victim to this, please read this article carefully.

And finally...

Like any other professional adviser, we stand or fall on the value of our ongoing service to you, our client - so we don't tie you into any kind of contract.

When are consumers going to rumble reviews sites?

It cannot be long now. Here is Spark Energy on Trustpilot ('Great')...

...and here it is on Google...

Today the spark went out - Spark Energy went bust. Which reviews will you - and your potential customers - be trusting from now on?


Further reading...

• 'Deflection' is what happens when dissatisfied customers write to Google rather than the business's reviews site of choice - you can see it's happened here.
• 'Fear' - the reason so many businesses opt for a reviews site is a well-founded fear that should they invite their customers to post reviews direct to Google their image there will be dominated by the 'unhappy minority'. That's why review management - HelpHound - exists, to ensure that the absolute minimum of unfounded, unfair, inaccurate and misleading reviews are posted.

The demise of the reviews sites - and an important warning

Here we go again. But bear with us, this is an important warning for unsuspecting businesses. 

The gloves come off...

It is high time we spoke even more frankly about reviews sites - so businesses relying on HelpHound for advice understand the position (even more!) clearly.

Reviews sites, through no fault of their own, have been made redundant - by Google. Not maybe. Not perhaps. Redundant - full stop. 

Ten years ago, around the time most reviews sites were founded, Google was yet to enter the reviews market; a market they now dominate as they do so many others. Let's look at this in more detail...

Reviews sites mainly break down into two distinct categories:

• Reviews of businesses: TripAdvisor, Yelp and Trustpilot, to name but three of hundreds
• Reviews of products: Feefo in the UK, Trustpilot again

But Google now cover both those - for free. 

And you - the consumer - want reviews of a - any - business? You google it. 

And when you do that - guess what you see? Google reviews. 

That is, if the business has any (it staggers us just how many businesses persist with reviews sites - when the evidence is there every single time they search. Just take 20 seconds and search for your business - on your mobile, because that's where your potential customers are looking, at least 70% of them).

Does your business look like this...

What do you see - and all consumers see - lit up in lights in these searches? Google reviews, of course

Or, like so many who are still inviting their customers to post to a reviews site, like this...

   The reviews sites are here, if you look carefully enough (under 'Reviews from the web') - but how many of your prospective customers are going to take the trouble to search them out?

And products? Google has well-and-truly stolen a march on product reviews sites, by launching its free offering in January of this year...

 We're betting the reviews site's salespeople are keeping very quiet about this.

This has inevitably driven the review sites - whose bread and butter was online retail until Google gazumped that - to divert at least some of their sales efforts towards service businesses. 

So what are the reviews sites offering to such businesses? The easiest way to answer that is to look at their most recent marketing. This advertisement appeared last week (aimed at estate agents, but it could just have well been targeting any other kind of service-based business)...

Interestingly enough not the site that contacted our clients - but it could easily have been.

...point by point...

1.  'Gain valuable insight' - Google reviews will do that.

2.  'Influence customer behaviour' - agreed. But Google v. reviews sites? Rightmove answered that in their survey - recognition of Trustpilot was at 11% and Feefo at 2% - Google - has anyone not heard of them?

3.  'Generate more sales' - agreed, again. But again - whose reviews are more likely to influence purchasers? And just as important: whose reviews are more visible in search?

4.  'Improve customer service': there's no doubt that taking account of reviews helps businesses and their staff improve the service they are delivering, but it's not an argument for a reviews site over Google reviews.

5.  'Build brand credibility': Now they're losing us - how does using a reviews site (with very low consumer recognition - see point 2 above) over Google 'build brand credibility' - except, possibly, for the reviews site?

6.  'Improve you SEO' - we are glad they qualified this claim with 'can' as we monitor Google very closely and we have seen little, if any, hard evidence of SEO benefits accruing from employing a reviews site.

7.  'Increase conversion rates' - accompanied by a very precise number - 13.5% (we'd love to see the source of this). We have no argument with the contention that showing reviews on your website 'increases conversion', but we are just as concerned with getting consumers to your website in the first place - and that means Google reviews.

To sum up...

No business needs a reviews site in 2018. Those employing them should save their money and choose the free Google alternatives (which, apart from their functionality, must have more credibility as well - they certainly have more brand recognition!).

So what is HelpHound's role in all of this?

Service businesses do need someone to add value to Google - and that's why HelpHound exists. To give business's the confidence to engage with Google reviews without fear of risking their reputations - or contravening the CMA regulations. To provide support and advice all the way along the journey and to ensure our clients always have the best advice - in the strictest sense of that phrase - when they join and ever afterwards.

And to enable the business to show their own independently verified reviews on the business's own website, of course!

Our advertisement?

Let's try something like this...

'Want to generate more business? - HelpHound will ensure...

• great reviews on your own website - safely (all your reviews will be moderated, to ensure accuracy and, as far as is possible, authenticity)
• great reviews on Google
• stars and ratings in organic search
• stars and ratings in local search
• stars and ratings in 'Reviews from the web'

Your business will, in short, look great everywhere, by working in concert with Google, not competing with it. And proof? Google will provide that, month-in month-out, via your Google My Business report...

Every business receives their Google My Business report every month. Thank you to Curchods for allowing us to share theirs with our readers.

...and we wouldn't want to crow, but these figures are unarguable and, we would humbly suggest, just a little better than 13.5%.

HelpHound - all the advantages of a reviews site and all the advantages of Google rolled into one, with none of the disadvantages.


Further reading...

• 'Aggregator' sites - such as reputation.com and Trustist - also lack these vital mechanisms to protect high-value service businesses - and you don't want to be importing inaccurate and potentially misleading reviews into your own website.

• The CMA regulations - you need a reviews solution that will allow every one of your customers to write a review whenever they choose - only then will you be compliant with the CMA regulations.

• Results - you've seen the Curchods' Google My Business report in the screenshot above - now read the whole story.

Why are online estate agencies using reviews sites, not Google reviews?

Regular readers will know our views on two important issues...

1. Reviews sites
2. Killer reviews

...but we are going to revisit them here for the benefit of all. The BBC, as some may know, has taken an interest in what the marketplace calls 'online' estate agents (Purplebricks featured on Watchdog recently). It was reported today that a BBC researcher is asking - via Twitter - for anyone with experiences of using 'online' estate agency. Should anyone doubt the angle the BBC is taking they would do well to note the title of the programme the researcher is working for: 'Rip-off Britain'.

Now, all disruptors come in for criticism - not everyone liked/likes Laker Airways, or Google, or Uber, or AirBnB - some of it undeniably justified (growing pains?) but there are aspects of the marketing practices adopted by some of these businesses - the online estate agencies - that bear further scrutiny, and that's what this article is all about - from the reviews perspective, anyway.

1.  Reviews sites

We have one simple question for these businesses (the online agencies, not the reviews sites): 'Why not ask your customers to post to Google?'

 All our clients' customers are asked to post to the business's own website (that's where Google sources the stars and rating at top left, as the 'Reviews from the web', centre right) and Google - helpful, for both business and consumer? We certainly think so.

Google provides a highly visible reviews platform, much more visible than any reviews site (see the screenshot above) and totally dominant in mobile search. So we are at a loss as to why any business would choose any other solution. Unless, that is, the reviews sites are offering 'added value' over and above Google. But they are not; what they are offering, consciously or not, is a mechanism that has the potential to be abused by the businesses in question.

Abuses?

You run a business. You don't want inaccurate or misleading comments appearing anywhere your potential customers may be looking - that's fair enough, but the key words we have used are fundamental: 'inaccurate or misleading'. But never a day passes here at HelpHound that we don't come across a business that is guilty of abusing reviews - mostly out of fear, sometimes cynically. Here are the most common...

• 'Cherry-picking' - inviting only 'happy' clients to write a review - against the CMA regulations
• 'Friends and family' - (actually, more commonly - staff). inviting only sure-fire bets to write a review - also against the CMA regulations

Then we move onto the reviews sites...

• 'Invitation only' reviews sites - sites where the business controls who writes the review and when it is written - what we call 'closed' reviews sites: against the CMA regulations. These specifically state, in their core rules, that any reviews mechanism must be open for the customer - any customer - to write a review at a time of their own choosing

• 'Malicious appeals' - some reviews sites will suspend reviews pending appeal. This function was no doubt introduced by the reviews sites with the best of intentions. The flaw (and abuse) begins when you understand how some businesses use this function: by appealing just about every negative review, knowing what the reviews sites will do next (and how they differ from Google). If you appeal a Google review, the review stands until Google are satisfied that the business has grounds for appeal - only then will it be taken down (and, trust us, the appeals process is rigorous). We know of at least one reviews site that will suspend a review immediately it is appealed by the business and only reinstate that review upon proof-of-purchase by the reviewer. This behaviour is also non-compliant with the CMA regulations.

Important note: using a non-compliant reviews mechanism has far-reaching implications for businesses...

• the CMA has the power to impose significant fines - and will use that power
• those fines come with publicity
• competitor businesses - if and when they become aware that a business is using a non-compliant solution - will draw potential clients' attention to that fact in negotiations
• it leaves an indelible paper-trail - there for all (CMA/competitor businesses) to see, forever

Is there any solution?

More and more now we are meeting businesses that are aware of the CMA regulations - and have therefore decided to retreat from any reviews solution ("if we have to invite everyone, then we would rather invite no-one"). They understand the power of reviews to drive business, but they (quite rightly) have weighed this against the possibility that the solution they choose may be non-compliant. 

How does HelpHound square this circle?

Every HelpHound client has a 'Write a Review' button on their website - enabling anyone to write a review at any time. This sometimes concerns businesses until they realise that if they don't allow unhappy customers to write to them (where the review will be moderated, at least) they will take a much less desirable alternative - they will write their review to Google

By focusing first on our clients' own websites - we enable them to invite reviews there (from anyone at any time - therefore compliantly). At this point all reviews are moderated and with any that are inaccurate or potentially misleading - that crucial phrase again - we invite the business and the reviewer to engage with each-other, pre-publication. Both know that the reviewer has an absolute right to have their review - whatever its content - published, but in practice the system works wonderfully well, for both parties. The company is saved the pain caused by an inaccurate or misleading review, the reviewer is almost always grateful that they have avoided being corrected in public (via either HelpHound's or Google's response mechanism), and, perhaps most important of all, consumers who read the reviews (and use the business's Google score as a guide - as so many now do) are not misled one way or the other.

At this point - after the review has been published on the business's website - the reviewer receives an automated invitation from HelpHound to copy their review to Google (it could so easily be a reviews site instead, but why would it be?).

Results

We would like to say that results are universally great, and they almost always are. Our clients, by definition, tend to be good businesses run by committed management. But we cannot make a bad business look good - it's one of the reasons that we are popular with businesses and consumers alike: if a business looks good on HelpHound it is good! As one client - in estate agency, no less - said to us 'HelpHound is the gold standard - and we wouldn't have it any other way; we look good on HelpHound because we are great at what we do for our customers.'

Good businesses will thrive with proper professional review management

But that's not the only feedback we get from businesses - there is another positive benefit (that feeds through to the consumer): 'As soon as we introduced HelpHound to our staff they all upped their game - because they knew they were going to be reviewed.'

The key, though, is that HelpHound is currently the only viable solution for high-value service businesses such as estate agency, wealth management, accountancy, legal and medical services - where the accuracy of reviews is paramount for everyone concerned.

Further reading...

• Fear - don't be afraid of adopting review management for your business
• Review aggregators - moderation is so important, that's why aggregator systems - which, by definition lack moderation (if there's a damaging review on Google or Facebook an aggregator will show it on your site) - harm their clients reputations in the long run
• Independent review sites - this article is nearly two years old - how right were we then?

There is a better way - seriously!

Here are two examples of businesses that presumably think they have reviews taped - but don't. They differ in the detail, but the results end up being very similar - they put customers off the business that's paying for the opposite.

The cruise line

In today's Times there is a double page advertisement - and prominently displayed in the bottom right corner, where advertisers know their readers are most likely to look, an invitation to check out the business's reviews on a reviews website...

  With a page at the Times costing well north of £20,000, this is serious spend in anyone's book

Before we look at that site, let's take a look where the overwhelming majority of consumers look these days - Google...

Now the reviews site...

 And a simple scroll down...

You can see from the time stamp on these two reviews that we have not 'cherry-picked' them - they were the two most recent reviews when we visited the site today

With one in five of their reviewers - 22% to be precise - rating them one, two or three stars (and a three star customer is hardly going to be writing a glowing review - or returning) then the business is effectively paying to promote the opinions of its dissatisfied customers. Laudable you might say - offering their prospective customers a range of opinions - except for one thing: some of those opinions are either misleading, inaccurate or factually incorrect. This helps no-one, not their prospective customers nor the business itself. There is - as all our clients know - a better way.

The other very simple questions we are asking ourselves - given that P&O could very easily invite its customers to write a review to Google is 'Why pay to have the same result on a site with less visibility than Google?' and 'Why does the bottom right of your advertisement not say 'Customers rate P&O cruises **** on Google'? Would your prospective customers not be just as happy reading Google reviews - that anyone can write, whenever they choose?


The estate agent

This one is a little more complicated, but bear with us, it may well result in you choosing the right reviews system for your business. 

Since we have no evidence to say that anything the business has done was willfully non-compliant we have redacted the business's name, but rest assured we have a file containing all the relevant screenshots.

The facts of the case...

Here is a screenshot of the business's Google score today...

What is so interesting - or unusual about that? The first thing is the pattern of reviews written to Google. here it is...

  All posted on 3 September - along with dozens more

The second thing is the date they contracted a reviews site? You guessed it - around the end of 2016 - how do we know? Because they issued a press release (Oh! And 342 reviews - nearly 10% of all the reviews they have - almost all 5 stars, were written in a week between 3 and 10 September)...

 Note the date of submission - alongside dozens more

The pattern on Google is interesting as well...

Another interesting set of statistics - before they joined the site the breakdown of their reviews was as follows...

And now?

Now we can say for sure that joining the independent site improved their image there - but on Google? We have said it before, and we will continue to say it as long as it applies...

"Adopting an independent reviews site drives unhappy customers to write their reviews to Google"

Further Reading...

• Everything a business does that is reviews-related must be complaint with the CMA rules - here's a summary of them.
• More thoughts on the impact an independent reviews site has on Google scores and reviews

Reviews sites - the end game

As regular readers will know, we have been 'sellers' of the independent reviews sites for quite a while now.  At a meeting with a potential client in early November we were rigorously examined over our reasoning and realised that the arguments against the independent sites and for Google reviews have, if anything, only become stronger in the last few months, hence this article.

We strongly recommend that anyone considering a reviews solution for their business read the following. 

Introduction and background

Reviews websites (including websites incorporating reviews - such as TripAdvisor and Booking.com) sprang up in the early days of what some were then calling Web 2.0 (shorthand for the responsive web) - in the mid noughties, from roughly 2004 onwards. Their USP - for businesses - was that their site would show prominently in search and would become the 'go to' site for consumers looking for that kind of business. Sites like Yelp (appealing to everyone) and TripAdvisor (for hotels and restaurants) boomed. That was then. At the beginning of the current decade Google joined the fray. 

This is where our story starts - Google disrupted the world of reviews as only they know how. In this article we are going to look at the current position of reviews sites by reference to two different models (we are calling them 'A' and 'B') and then comparing them with Google and Google reviews. Then we will go on to draw a definitive conclusion - for that, read on.


Review site A

• is an 'open' site - meaning that anyone can write a review on whatever business they choose at a time of their own choosing
• in order to 'ensure accuracy' the site has a mechanism whereby the business can challenge any review. That review is then suspended pending the reviewer providing 'proof of purchase'

Advantages - for the consumer

• The ability to write a review of any business at a time of their own choosing 

Disadvantages - for the consumer

• The same as under 'Advantages' - it is well-nigh impossible for the reviews site to identify fake or malicious reviews - written by competitors (negative) or the business (positive) or those with a grudge (disgruntled ex-employees, for example)
• human nature being what it is, very few consumers - expecting to see their negative review appear live on the site - can be bothered to jump through the 'proof of purchase' hoop. This is seen as an advantage by some businesses (but see 

Advantages - for the business

• The virtual guarantee of a positive review, providing the business picks the right target consumers and the timing of the invitation to review
• Potential star rating in PPC through Google partnership*

Disadvantages - for the business

• The 'open' nature of the site is open to abuse - by competitors or disgruntled ex-members of staff, for instance
• Any system that makes it in any way difficult for a consumer to write a negative review on a reviews site will drive those reviewers to the obvious alternative - Google. We rarely go a day without coming across a business that has adopted a site like this that then goes on to look great on that site and much less good on Google

*Google partnership - reviews sites can become Google partners so their clients business's scores show under their Google ads. Seen in isolation this, at first, looks an attractive proposition. In reality - when Google reviews and the rest of the reality of this article is taken on board, that advantage is far outweighed by the disadvantages of such a solution. The message to businesses is loud and clear - look great in natural search and the calls and visits will flow.

Notes:

On face value, a sensible solution. But - and there is a big 'But' - the system is open to abuse: businesses have been alleged to systematically appeal negative - as opposed to potentially inaccurate or misleading - reviews, leading to 'score inflation' and an inaccurate impression of the business being created, on the reviews site and in search. 

At the meeting referred to in the introduction to this article a director of the business began by saying "I hope you are not going to recommend one of those 4.9 sites?" We were able to reassure him that we were not.


Review site B

• is a 'closed' site - meaning that the only people invited to write a review are those the business chooses, and the review is written at the time of the business's choosing

Advantages - for the consumer

•  the knowledge that every review is written by a genuine customer of the business in question

Disadvantages - for the consumer

• the inability to read reviews written at the time of the reviewer's choosing (for example: customers are commonly invited to review products immediately post-purchase - the consumer, asking themselves 'How did those shoes wear?' is unlikely to find an answer to their question on a closed reviews site). 
• there is no facility for that same consumer to return to write a review after weeks, months or years' of using the product or service under review
• there is no facility for multiple stakeholders in a transaction to write a review - in a property sale, for instance, there is often more than one person who may feel they have a valid reason to write a review. If they are not invited by the reviews mechanism employed by the business they have little alternative but to write their review on an 'open' site - Google being the obvious first port-of-call 

Advantages - for the business

• the elimination of spurious reviews, such as those written by competitors or disgruntled employees - by only inviting customers with verified email addresses
• the virtual guarantee of a positive - 4 or 5 star review
• potential star rating in PPC through Google partnership

Disadvantages - for the business

•  none (excepting reputational - see 'Conclusions' below)

Notes:

This kind of site tilts the playing field too far in the direction of the business - especially in the case of service businesses where there may be multiple stakeholders in the transaction. It is also reliant for accuracy - and compliance with the CMA regulations - upon the business inviting reviews from all its customers - again, straightforward for product-based businesses such as online retailers but problematic from a credibility point-of-view for service-based businesses. 


Google

Now for the 'big daddy'...

• Google is an 'open' site - meaning that anyone can write a review on whatever business they choose at a time of their own choosing

Advantages - for the consumer

• the ability to write a review of any business at a time of their own choosing
• the knowledge that that review will be viewed by the widest possible audience

Disadvantages - for the consumer

• the same as under 'Advantages' - it is well-nigh impossible for Google to identify fake or malicious reviews - written by competitors (negative) or the business (positive) or those with a grudge (disgruntled ex-employees, for example). If the review passes Google review policies it stands.

Advantages - for the business

• visibility - second to none

Disadvantages - for the business

• the 'open' nature of Google reviews is open to abuse - by competitors or disgruntled ex-members of staff, for instance
• dissatisfied consumers are estimated to be motivated to write a review by a factor of fifteen times, so businesses who do not find a solution to Google reviews will statistically be over-represented by that kind of customer

Notes: 

Your business needs Google reviews. The reviews sites' visibility in search has been eroded to the point where no serious industry commentator would suggest that there is a viable alternative to Google reviews - especially if, as you inevitably will, you will be asked to justify your reviews mechanism to your customers. The only question each business needs now ask it just how to engage with Google reviews.


Conclusions

There are three issues at play here - and we will deal with them under three headings: reputation, competition and compliance.

• Reputation

If your reviews solution is bought into question it is your business's reputation that suffers. Uncertainty over their reviews filter and the number of self-evidently fake reviews published by Yelp, for instance, has led to many businesses to fight shy of their reviews solution.

• Competition

Your competitors are constantly looking for gaps in your marketing armour. If they are able to question your reviews solution they are able to considerably strengthen their competitive edge. No business should put itself in a situation where it has to defend its chosen reviews solution. Businesses who choose a solution other than Google will need to have a cast-iron answer for potential customers who ask them why they are not using Google reviews - and, currently, there is none (we would be the first to advise our clients if there were).

• Compliance

The CMA has teeth and it will use them (see this). Here is an article that analyses the CMA's letter to businesses with a commentary on every point. The main thrust, though, is that businesses must not use a system that gives them an edge over their customers - the customer always has a prima facie right to have their review published at a time of their own choosing.

In summary: if reviews sites had not existed pre-Google reviews, no-one would be inventing them now.
  

And finally - the killer punch  

There are two kinds of businesses that harness the undoubted power of reviews: reactive - where there is no sales interaction, such as online retailers, and proactive - where there is a human sales process, such as estate agency or financial advice, where the business acquisition process is invariably competitive. Let us see why adopting the right solution is just so critical for the latter (we'll use estate agency in this example)...

An agent finds themselves pitching against a competitor (don't they always?) and the competitor has used reviews sites like 'A' or 'B' above. All they have to do is draw the potential client's attention to the flaw(s) in those solutions and their pitch - and, crucially, their probity, is fatally undermined. 

Our Advice

Business reputations take years to make and, Weinstein-like - can be ruined in minutes. It is incumbent on all businesses to choose a reviews solution that not only benefits them in the short term, but protects and enhances their reputation in the long-term. That is why HelpHound exists - as professional review managers we are here to ensure that our clients always have the best reviews solution for their business, and if A or B above were that solution, that is what we would be advising.

Google has disrupted the world of reviews to the extent, currently, that Google reviews are the only solution - they have the highest visibility (by such a margin as to be untouchable) and they are least open to attack under the three headings above. 

That does not mean they are the perfect solution for businesses or consumers, far from it. And that is where HelpHound comes in: we add value for both sides of the equation. For businesses we allow them to publish independently verified reviews on their own sites whilst minimising the chance that an unfair, inaccurate or misleading review is published (on their site or on Google) and for consumers we ensure that the reviews we and Google publish are a full and fair guide to that business's suitability to their needs.


Further reading:

Stockmarkets have consistently downgraded quoted reviews sites for years now. Here are just two articles...

• Yelp
• TripAdvisor

...and, in both cases, the core issue, besides a rocky earnings path, is the bogeyman in the background: Google reviews.

Fear inviting reviews direct to Google? You would be right to do so - the following articles explain...

• a guide to HelpHound's moderation process
• the Fear Factor - how some businesses were afraid of engaging with reviews

Some reviews sites think they have a powerful brand, and suggest that will help add credibility for the business. Yelp is the biggest reviews site in the world, with a market capitlisation just short of $4bn - but we meet people every day who have never heard of it. Rightmove recently conducted a survey of consumers and found that the major reviews sites targeting estate agency had name awareness in low double figures at best...

'Where reviews were read, most (42%) were on Google, followed by [the] agents' own website (36%), Trustpilot (11%), allAgents (6%) and feefo (2%)' 

• Here is the full article

And with that we will end.