Google reviews: scoring 4.6 is not enough!

How often do we meet a business basking in the glory of what they consider a great Google score? Daily, probably.

To be fair, it's almost certainly taken a considerable effort to achieve that score, and no one wants to be told they need to do more when they reckon they've already done all they can. But that's why HelpHound exists: to enable businesses to successfully build - and improve - on their already great efforts.

To return to our headline: why is a Google score of 4.6 'not enough'? It's all in the numbers. Let's look at two examples.

The business with few Google reviews...

While no business would relish a review such as that written by 'Jack Forest' above, most sensible consumers will discount one or two such negative opinions. The business has, quite correctly, responded, thus neutralising, as far as possible, the impact of the original review. The impact on the business's score, however, bringing it down from a perfect 5.0 to 4.7 remains.

A note for those who, understandably, think the review above is 'unfair' (the business has made clear in its response that they have no record of any dealings with the reviewer): Google's conditions for removing reviews are very tightly drafted indeed. That does not mean the business should not appeal to Google to have the review taken down - we conduct such appeals on behalf of businesses and are sometimes gratified when they succeed when apparently not in contravention of Google's terms of service. If in any doubt whatsover, consult us.

The business with many Google reviews...

Now we have our score of 4.6. Including nine 1* reviews. Some are more damaging than others - read about 'killer' reviews, those that have the power to stop the phones ringing, here - but collectively they are undoubtedly off-putting for potential clients. 

We are sure that we can all agree on one thing: that the business would rather not have any of these reviews, not just because they reduce the business's overall Google score from a perfect 5.0 to 4.6 but chiefly because of the negative impression made when a prospective client reads them. They will result in a drop-off in inquiries, in the same way as scoring close as possible to 5.0 will result in an increase (see here for concrete examples of this).

What should the business do?

Take these three steps...

First: respond to each and every review. 

At least then the readers - potential customers - will see that the business takes their customers' reviews seriously. Don't argue - thank them for their feedback (albeit sometimes with teeth gritted) and sign off with a name, not 'customer services'. Remember who your core audience is: all those potential customers who will be reading that review.

Second: institute a proper review management programme. 

At first sight a hundred reviews may seem like a lot, but it's only two a month for four years. 

Businesses that build moderated reviews (see 'Third' below) into their CRM, by incorporating them into all their marketing, online and off, and their sales pitches, and then 'warn' their customers that writing a review is the norm, get very high response rates when they ask for the review.

 

Third: - and most important of all going forwards - adopt a moderated review management system. 

Over ten years of experience has led us to conclude that over eighty percent of inaccurate, misleading or just plain unfair reviews will be addressed by a properly moderated review management system. Simply inviting reviews - on your website, in your correspondence and face to face - means that the likelihood is that your unhappy customer/client/patient will post their review to you first, enabling an independent* moderator such as HelpHound to step in and enable such reviews to be corrected before they are published on your website or on Google.

And when a 1* review does find its way to Google, how much more powerful is the response that says 'Thank you for posting this review, here is our response to you....if, in future, you feel that we haven't performed to the best of our ability please don't hesitate to contact me directly or write your review via the button on our website, where you can be assured of a response on the very same day.'

The Golden Key...

Is this link on the business's website (the Write a review button)...

Leading to this box... 

        

Once the review is submitted it is automatically sent straight to a moderator where it is checked for accuracy and then either posted to the business's website or referred back to the reviewer for correction. All reviewers, whether their review has been corrected or not, are then invited to copy their review to Google. Simple, effective - in protecting the business's reputation from unfair and inaccurate comments - and compliant.

Moderation, besides aiding customer retention (a customer with an issue successfully addressed in private is a continuing customer, a customer that posts a one star review direct to Google is very unlikely to generate repeat business, or referrals for that matter) is estimated to add between 0.2 and 0.5 to a business's Google score.

Conclusion

Every business in the service/professional arena must have a moderated review management system; inviting reviews direct to Google or employing a review site are simply not options for high value fee-based or transactional businesses. They may be alright for online retail but they are simply not fit-for-purpose in the highly competitive world of finance, medicine, law or the likes of estate agency or recruitment, where a single client lost or gained is worth thousands to the business.

Further reading

• Moderation - the 'Golden Key' to review management:  a detailed analysis and explanation

• Compliance - many businesses are unaware that selecting customers to invite to write reviews is illegal. Moderation means that such selection - often done to protect the business - becomes redundant

• Results - moderated review management doesn't only protect businesses from unfair and inaccurate reviews, it drives enquiries through Google and the business's own website

* Independent moderation: we are often asked 'If you work for/are paid by the business, how can you be truly independent when moderating their reviews?' A fair question. 

Our answer: if we were ever found to be favouring the business - or even more seriously, attempting to suppress a fairly-held negative opinion - all our credibility would simply vanish. Our name would be terminally tarnished and our moderation process, besides becoming questionable in the eyes of the regulator, would lose all value in the marketplace. 

Here's a link to Part 2

Trustpilot - so many businesses barking up the wrong tree

 One of us received this email marketing today...

As you can see, they proudly boast of their image on Trustpilot, which is, indeed, very positive indeed. Here's the detail...

Nearly a thousand reviews, almost all of them rating their business 5*.

So what has the business done wrong? Well, along with so many others they have chosen - or 'been sold' - the wrong solution.

Before we mine down into the reasons behind that choice, let's conduct a quick Google search on the business...

One Google review and one Google rating.

And it's not just Trustpilot. Review sites of any kind, and the aggregators that feed off them, are no longer viable solutions. Just look at this estate agency - they've tried them all...

And this is the impression everyone searching for them online is given...

Most potential customers won't get as far as their website - the 1* reviews on Google will be enough to deflect them.

So what should the Fine Art Warehouse - and any other business relying on a review website - be doing?

Cancelling Trustpilot and refocusing all its efforts on Google reviews. It's as simple as that. Think of yourself in the position of a customer - which reviews are going to impress you most 700+ Trustpilot reviews or 700+ Google reviews? And this advice goes for any other review site.

Google has more reach and far more credibility amongst consumers, their reviews appear far more often in any given search, and they will still be in business in 5 years' time (Trustpilot's share price has fallen from 450 p to 79 p in the last 14 months). 

Oh - and Google reviews are free!

A single review can strangle a business

The catastrophic human cost of lack of moderation at social media sites such as Instagram has made front page headlines in recent days. Our view - that all social media platforms, including review sites, should be made legally responsible for the content they publish - is well-known to our members and regular readers of this blog. 

But what about businesses on the receiving end of fake, false, malicious or just plain inaccurate or misleading reviews? What is the real-world impact of these all too often seen reviews on businesses? 

Sometimes we hear businesses say 'As long as we score 4.5 we're happy'. It's a natural response to something most businesses feel they have little control over. But this attitude denies the power of a single review to halt a business in its tracks, to stop the phones ringing or to see the clicks dry up, never mind unsettle existing loyal consumers when they see them as they are googling your business to find your phone number.

Let's look at what over ten years of fielding calls from seriously concerned business owners and managers has taught us...

1.  A well-written 1* review will be read, and re-read, for months and years to come

This is what we call a 'killer review'; it is written by someone who is not disguising their identity, is a frequent Google reviewer and a trusted Google local guide; it makes  believable statements about the business and their interactions with their customer. It will have lost the business enquiries and future business

 

That feeling you get when you first see that review - or are sent it by Google? That sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach? It's the reflection of the reaction of your potential customer: 'Oh dear! I'm not sure I want to use a business that even one customer has had such a negative experience of.' 

Note the stress on well-written. You can discount rants - most consumers see through those these days. 

 

2.  Once a review is published the horse has bolted

A business's chances of getting Google remove a review are negligible (but see 'appeals' in 3. below and Google's own T&Cs here) unless the reviewer has contravened one of those T&Cs; such contravention does not cover criticism of the business, however misguided, unfair or just plain factually incorrect that may be. 

It is therefore essential to have some mechanism in place to enable the business to respond to such reviews before they are published.

 

3.  1* reviews are always read first, no matter the business's overall score

The business can be scoring 4.9, but if that one negative review is written convincingly it will lose the business significant amounts of enquiries.

What can the business do? It can appeal to Google to have it taken down, as long as it contravenes their terms of service (we draft appeals on behalf of clients all the time) and it must respond to the review. Not with a 'never heard of you...' but addressing all the points made in the review, however unfair or inaccurate they may be, calmly and coherently. And sign off with a name, not 'customer services'. You will never convince that kind of reviewer to change their review or take it down, so your response is aimed solely at readers of the review.

 

4.  1* reviews, providing they are not obvious rants, are believed by consumers 

It is tempting to say 'we run a great business and all our other reviews confirm that' but leave a well-written one-star review unaddressed and it will hurt your inbound enquiries - for the foreseeable future (a one star review written five years ago, if it is one of a few, will still be being read today).

 

5.  The higher-value the service the business is offering the more diligently the 1* reviews will be read.

We estimate that all the one star reviews - within reason, but certainly up to half-a-dozen - of the following services will be read by a potential customer/client/patient... 

• financial services, investment management, accounting 

• medical and healthcare 

• legal 

• business services - such as employment agencies, PR and marketing consultants 

• high-value transactional businesses - such as estate agency  

all of which involve transactions with at least £4 zeros on the end, not to mention 5 or 6. 

Put yourself in the position of...

• someone investing a sizeable lump sum
• someone with a life threatening medical issue
• someone looking for a family lawyer for the first time
• someone considering moving from one advertising agency to another
• someone looking for the best local estate agent to sell their major family asset

...and we're sure you will agree that spending a few minutes reading reviews is the very least they will do, even if the business has already been personally recommended or has the best marketing on the planet.

 

The solution 

All of the above are the reasons why our clients value our moderation so highly. By moderating every single review written through our clients' websites we can ensure that the accuracy and relevance of each and every review is of the highest order. Moderation cannot absolutely guarantee that no rogue reviews will ever be published - that would be against the CMA regulations which categorically protect the consumers' right to have their opinion published - but we estimate (and we have over ten years' experience to back up this contention) that our moderation resolves the issues contained in over 95 percent of such reviews before they see the light of day.

Of course consumers can always write a review direct to Google, but by inviting them to write a review through your website you will succeed, far more often than not, in channelling their review in that direction, and therefore benefitting from our moderation. You will also have the moral upper hand when responding to those reviews which still go direct to Google: 'We did invite you to post a review...and we would have been able to resolve [whatever issue the review raises] at that point if you had accepted our invitation.'

The fact that the overwhelming majority of such contentious reviews are, by definition and by their very nature, one or two-star also enables us to accurately estimate that HelpHound's moderation increases the average client's Google score by between 0.2 and 0.5 - so from, say, 4.3 to 4.7 or 4.8. That in itself will ensure the business rises up the rankings in local search.

Think of moderation as an insurance policy: it protects your business's hard-won reputation against damage - its as simple as that.

Further reading

• Moderation - a full description
• The CMA regulations - why UK businesses that select customers to write reviews are breaking the law
• Results - the good news!

Partner with HelpHound

Here are the reasons we think you should partner with us. And when we say 'partner' we mean a partnership of equals - we share all our revenues with our partners. Unlike the dictionary definition above, where only the profits are shared!

1.  Free Membership for your business - then a significant income stream

By introducing just two businesses you effectively gain free membership for your own business.

And that's just the beginning - by introducing more than four businesses a year (that's just one every three months!) HelpHound Partners begin to earn a significant income stream. Extra revenue for your business for no input bar the introduction - you earn the gratitude of the referred business and earn an income for your business at the same time - and we all help each other in these troubled times.

2.   Thanks from the businesses you introduce

Referrals or introductions, call them what you will, almost always involve some element of risk for the referring business. Not so in the case of HelpHound: our members never fail to see their online image improve. 

Any business you introduce will...

 

• look more impressive on their own website

• look more impressive in Google searches - how much do you think a competitor would value being in the position Winkworth in Blackheath finds itself in here?

And...

• increase its Google score by between 0.2 and 0.5 on Google 

• be compliant with CMA regulations - most businesses are currently in breach - knowingly or unwittingly - where reviews are concerned

• support its SEO - it's no accident that Winkworth Blackheath lead local search in the example above

• show stars in local search; the five gold stars next to the rating of 4.9 and the '247 votes' above are not Google stars, they're taken directly from the business's own reviews on its own website (as you can see if you compare both screenshots or perform these searches for yourself)

• receive measurably more inbound leads - through their website and through Google; Google reports just how many on a monthly basis. Our clients report flows of calls and clicks increasing by an average of 15 and 25 percent respectively.

• drive revenue up - measurably, as a direct result of their HelpHound membership

3.  No downside

None whatsoever. Except our membership fee, of course. But then they can even negate that by becoming a partner in their turn.

What kind of business is best suited to becoming a HelpHound Partner?

The simple answer is 'any business at all'. We will never turn away a prospective client or partner, but those businesses best suited to generating significant revenue through a HelpHound Partnership are those that already have an advisory relationship with their clients, those in...

• advertising
• any sales or marketing enterprise - estate agency is an obvious example
• public relations
• web services
• legal services
• financial services - accountancy being the most obvious
• insurance

...we're sure you get the drift. The sort of business where the client will not be surprised when asked, 'Would you like an introduction to a business that will help you look even better than you currently do in Google searches?'

Of course, the best possible introduction is 'Would you like to know how our business got to look so great (whilst complying with the law)?' So, if you are reading this and are not already a member then that's the first step. But the day after you join there's nothing to stop you from introducing your first partner business.

Welcome to HelpHound Partnership - where everyone benefits.

And finally... the mechanics

Simply send an email to your business contact along these lines, copying in fiona.christie@helphound.com...

'We use HelpHound to maximise our review management without losing sleep, it's the only safe - and legal - way of having all our hard work and great customer service reflected in our Google score as well as the underlying reviews. I'm dropping you this line to introduce them to you.'

And we'll take over from there. The next thing you will see is a credit from HelpHound against your own membership fee.

And our current fee scale? It's here.

Looking the best your business possibly can

We've already established in the previous article that scoring 4.0 on Google will leave a business languishing at the bottom of the Google rankings in most business sectors, certainly in the sectors that are key for professional businesses: financial, medical, legal, estate agency, recruitment etc. To even begin to make the top 5 in local search a business needs to score 4.7 or more.

Now let's look at the solutions many businesses in these sectors are currently adopting in order to achieve such scores.

1.  Cherry-picking

Everyone's favourite: simply hand-pick happy customers and then invite them, and only them, to write a review. How do we know? Easy. It took us less than a minute to find this example and then about the same amount of time to establish that this law firm is cherry-picking by analysing the pattern of its reviews: out of a total of 46 reviews five are older than 3 years and two - both rating it 1* - were posted after 2019. It almost certainly cherry-picked its happy clients in 2018, achieved a perfect 5.0 with 44 reviews and hasn't asked anyone for a review since then.

And - be sure - if we can tell so can the CMA. Cherry-picking is illegal.

2.  Gating

Really just a sophisticated version of cherry-picking: send a questionnaire out to every customer asking them to rate the business and then only invite those who respond with 10 out of 10 or 5 stars to write a Google review.

There's a variant that involves using one of the diminishing band of review sites - get the customer to write a review there and then only invite those who have posted a 5* review to the review site to copy that review to Google.

Again: illegal.

3.  A moderated system

Moderation: 'the act of having an independent agency read and check every review before publication' is the only sure-fire - and legally compliant - way of ensuring a business looks as good as it deserves. 

Why? Because moderation focuses on identifying reviews that contain errors of fact and statements likely to mislead the reader. 

And, by their very nature, those kinds of reviews also tend to be ones that carry the 1* ratings. If they can be corrected before publication, then the business's score will rise.

There's a reason we are able to drop the anonymity of the business above: that's because they are fully compliant with the law - the CMA regulations. They don't cherry-pick and they don't gate. They are able to sleep at night for two crucial reasons: they don't fear the CMA will come knocking and they know that unfair, inaccurate or misleading reviews will benefit from moderation.

We often meet people who say 'but we can respond to our Google reviews and correct errors of fact and any misconceptions then'. So you can, but by then most of the damage is done: the score is set in stone (as well as the impact it has on the business's overall score), irrespective of your response (Google* won't change it, even if you have cast iron proof that the review is in error); as well as that the harmfully and unfairly negative review will stand and will be read by your prospective customers. 

Why not just invest in moderation and that concern - and the potential harm caused by a factually incorrect or potentially misleading review - goes away?

*Appealing against a Google review. In short: unless the review has contravened one of the following...

...you will struggle. That doesn't mean you shouldn't appeal, we conduct Google appeals on behalf of clients on an almost daily basis and are sometimes surprised when one that does not fit neatly into one of the categories in the above checklist succeeds, but you will note that the following are not prima facie grounds...

• errors of fact
• misleading statements

...and that's exactly why moderation is so valuable.

Results

We estimate that our clients score between 0.2 and 0.5 more on Google than if they had simply gone it alone - compliantly. That may not seem like a lot, but in the context of a competitive marketplace where over 90 percent of potential customers are influenced by Google scores and reviews and almost all businesses score above 4.0 it is almost always the difference between being at or very near the top of a ranked Google search and at or near the bottom.

Conclusion

If your business falls into either of categories 1 or 2 above - don't panic, you're not alone! - but you need to seriously consider 'going straight' by adopting a moderated system - as soon as possible. If your business has yet to engage with Google reviews for fear of the damage factually inaccurate or misleading reviews might do to your Google score then solution 3 is for you.

It's not only the CMA you need to be concerned about, your competitors will soon cotton on - if we can easily identify businesses that are cherry-picking so can they, and they won't hesitate to use that information in competitive pitches in order to devalue your Google score.

Spin that around and be able to say 'We invite all of our customers and stakeholders to write reviews, so the score you see and the reviews you read are a genuine portrayal of our business.' And you will find out just what a business winner moderation can be.

Is 4 out of 5 a good score?

The simple answer? Yes, if you are selling clothing or white goods. Consumers will buy a shirt or a toaster that scores 4 out of 5.

But for services? Medical, financial,  legal and so on? No way. Let us explain. First some numbers: let's assume the business has 100 reviews - and that the reviewers have scored the business either 5* (happy) or 1* (unhappy) - a score of 5.0 self-evidently means 100 x 5* reviews. A score of 4.0 means 75 x 5* reviews and 25 x 1* reviews (75 x 5 = 375 + 25 x 1 = 25 = 400/100 = 4.0). A business with fully a quarter of its reviewers rating it 1* (given that a reviewer cannot rate a business 0 stars) will not look good by comparison with most of its competitors.

Take the firm of solicitors above. Scoring 4.0 means that no less than six of their 25 reviewers rate them at 1 star. The comments made in those 1* reviews will deflect business - they will prevent people from picking up the phone and/or clicking any further. And so will the score. Far from saying to themselves '4 out of 5, that's not bad', prospective clients or such a business will be faced with ninety-two out of a hundred such firms scoring 4.5 or better, the same goes for the  medical sector...

The odd one out, somewhat surprisingly, is the financial sector. We continue to see scores such as these...

What is the legal profession doing that the financial advisers are not?

Simply? Asking for reviews. If you don't ask for reviews you don't get them (that is, you don't get the ones you deserve - you will get the odd review from the most motivated of all reviewers: seriously unhappy customers).

Our advice

1.  Ask for reviews. But remember, by law you must enable all your customers to write a review. No cherry-picking (just about any business scan score 4.7 by only inviting happy customers to post reviews - but it's illegal). 

2.  Adopt a moderated system such as HelpHound. This will enable you to sleep at night without the fear of unfair or inaccurate reviews causing harm - and harming your score.

3.  Aim for as close as possible for a perfect 5.0 score. Few businesses achieve it over any length of time, but 4.7 - 4.9 is our benchmark for clients. Any lower and we take a long hard look together. 

 

 

The fake review saga rumbles on

Which? on 28 July...

Whose responsibility is this? Let's look at the stakeholders one by one...

• the consumer

All these sites' terms and conditions contain wording to the effect that 'the review should be a record of the reviewer's personal experience of the business under review'. And the overwhelming majority of reviews contain just that. The problem is that the tiny minority of inaccurate or misleading or just plain fake reviews will do harm - to the business and to potential users of the business alike. Few review mechanisms have addressed this effectively.

Consumers need review mechanisms they can trust; it is up to the platforms and their business clients, as well as the regulators, to ensure such mechanisms are, as far as possible, delivered.

• the business

Businesses - again, the overwhelming majority - fall into two camps: those that have realised the potential that reviews have to drive business in their direction and those that are scared stiff of them. Many of the latter have only joined the former by gaming the system - by hand-picking those that they are as sure as they possibly can be will be complimentary and write a 5* review. This - and this still comes as a surprise for many - is illegal in the UK.

Businesses need to find ways of delivering reliable reviews to consumers. And they need to stop gaming the various review platforms.

• the regulator

The CMA addressed the issue of review manipulation back in August of 2016 - six years ago now. Unfortunately, as in many other areas of marketing, until the CMA uses its powers to enforce its regulations and makes an example of a business that is flouting them, businesses will continue to break the law. We have an ever-expanding file of law-breakers and so we must assume do other businesses where they have found their competitors to be gaining an unfair advantage. We know our clients are often asked 'What's the difference between you and XYZ (when you both have such similar Google scores)?' and the answer invariably impresses: 'If you look at our website there's a 'Write a review' button on there which anyone can use to write a review whenever they choose.'

The regulator needs to sanction a business - any business - that is flouting the law.

• Facebook, Google and Trustpilot - and the many other sites that host reviews

Our opinion on this is a matter of record, and it's shared by Which?: that platforms that host reviews have a duty of care to stakeholders - the reviewer, the business under review and the reader of the review - to do all they can to ensure that the reviews they host are written by genuine customers and contain as little content that is fake, factually incorrect or potentially misleading as possible. Those that dismiss this as extreme should pause to think of reviews of essential services - medical, legal and financial, for instance - where health and wealth are at stake before saying 'does it really matter if the odd review is inaccurate, misleading, fake or written by a competitor?'. Unfortunately, all of the platforms quote the 'freedom of speech' mantra and do little to prevent such reviews appearing under their banners. This, as matters stand in 2022, is where HelpHound comes in.

Businesses need to realise that these sites are not going to move any time soon and adopt a moderated solution - now!

One click - on that 'Write a review' button - is all it takes: full compliance and moderation both flow from there.

What about HelpHound?

First the process: with HelpHound there are two main avenues that someone must follow to write a review - they will either be invited, by email, by the business, or they will see the 'Write a review' button on the business's website (above). In both cases, once written the review will be read by a HelpHound moderator before it is published. All reviews are published unless they contain content that is factually incorrect or has the potential to mislead a reader. If this is the case our moderator refers back to the reviewer and, if appropriate, to the business under review (it should be noted that the reviewer retains the right to have whatever review they wish published - this maintains the system's credibility and complies with UK law).  After moderation the review is published on the business's website and we then automatically invite the reviewer to copy their review to Google. In every case.

Now: let us examine the potential for fraudulent misuse of our system. 

• Who can write a review? Anyone with an email address. So there's no way to ensure the reviewer is genuine? No. None at all - except the content of the review (we do confirm email addresses, but that means nothing, anyone can acquire a new Gmail address in a matter of seconds). And that is one of the main reasons we moderate all reviews. It is unfair to both the business and the future consumer that may rely on the review when deciding whether or not to use the business to publish reviews without moderation.

Perhaps an example may help here: the reviewer writes a review saying the business overcharged them. If we published that review without asking for the business's version of events the business may well end up being unfairly criticised and anyone reading the review would be - again, unfairly - put off using the business. Some will say that the business has a 'right of reply', and so it does. But this will not alter the impact of the unfair rating on the business's all-important overall Google score. Consumers - like it or not - select businesses first based on their Google score: a business coring 4.8 will receive more enquiries than one scoring 4.6, all other factors being equal.

• So the business could write its own reviews? In theory - yes. But HelpHound has a 'two strikes' rule (you can see it referred to here, as far back as 2016) whereby we promise to 'sack' any business caught doing this after a single warning. We have had to warn a handful of client businesses over the years - almost always because one of our moderators has spotted a review written by an over-enthusiastic member of staff who thought that  their wonderful experience of working for ABC Plc was worthy of a review. HelpHound's reputation rests on the quality of our moderation - in the reverse of the way in which sites like those in the Which? headline are harmed by their lack of such oversight.

• So a competitor (or a disgruntled ex-member of staff) could write a review? Yes. And they do - occasionally. But they never make it through moderation. We will - and do - email anyone where we have cause to suspect their review is in any way flawed and, unsurprisingly, few in the above categories respond! In the rare cases where they do we will ask questions that they will find impossible to answer convincingly - the name they used when transacting business, for instance. 

• How can a HelpHound moderator spot a fake review? It's remarkably easy - and over 99 percent effective. The way the review is written will almost always give it away. Add in the fact that our moderators can communicate with both the reviewer and business under review during the process and the success rate rises as near as makes no difference to 100%. 

• Is there an inherent incentive for HelpHound to filter out negative reviews of its clients? No, simply because almost all genuine reviewers, if denied the right to have their review published through HelpHound, will simply resort to writing their review elsewhere - mostly to Google. And remember that all reviewers, whatever their opinion or star rating, are automatically invited to copy their review to Google. It's built into our software. On top of this, we really don't want the negative publicity of the kind that the review hosting sites receive when the press and the likes of Which? decide to test the system.

Conclusion

Google, Facebook and the review sites - despite their protestations of action - don't look like they are about to make any fundamental improvements any time soon. So, for both your business's and your customers sake it makes sense to employ a moderator such as HelpHound. 

The immediate impact of doing so? You won't have to worry about fake, inaccurate or malicious reviews any more and you won't have to worry about flouting UK law. Most of all: you will be delivering reliable opinions of the service your business offers to your prospective customers/clients/patients. 

We estimate that the hard number attached to our service results in our clients scoring on average 0.2 - 0.4 more than they would otherwise - both legally and legitimately.

And finally...

We appreciate that all of this, although essential, is fairly dry. If you would like to read a consumer's take on just how influential reviews can be and a dispassionate industry influencer's - estate agency in this instance - take on just how successful one of our clients is, relative to one of their closest competitors, please read on.