Partnering with HelpHound

Most B2B businesses will tell you - publicly or privately - that many (most?) of their best customers come thanks to referrals from their business contacts*. So if you run a business, current client of HelpHound or not - please read on.

*business contacts: we don't expect referrals from direct competitors, obviously, but most of our successful referrals come from either businesses in the same line of work but in a different geographical area or the referring business's professional advisors, including marketing, advertising and PR agencies.

Going from Zero to Hero as these two businesses have done (the one on the left had two reviews on joining HelpHound, the one on the right none at all, showing great faith!) is not the only reason a business joins HelpHound. Others include compliance - it comes as a surprise to some that it is illegal to hand-pick customers to invite to write reviews in the UK - and SEO (a good flow of reviews through your own site boosts that considerably), to star ratings in local search (very highly valued by most of our clients)

This screenshot shows precisely what HelpHound aims to achieve for all our clients - leading in map and organic search, with a great score from a convincing number of reviews, as well as the 'stars in search' derived from the business's own reviews under its organic listing (many people think those stars in search are 'awarded' by Google, when they are drawn - by Google - from the reviews hosted on the business's own website

Criteria for partnership

The key to recommending a business is that there should be no, or at the very least minimal**, downside for the referring or the referred business. 

**While HelpHound provides the best review management available globally (that we are aware of), we cannot, and should not, make promises regarding the elimination of negative reviews. UK law currently - and rightly - prohibits such activity anyway, and there will always be the tiny minority of consumers who are determined to wilfully misunderstand what a business has done for them. We have operated in this 'real world' for well over a decade now, and our own statistics show that over 97 per cent of erroneous reviews are addressed before they ever reach the public web.

Let us put this in the context of HelpHound, first for the referred business...

• HelpHound is demonstrably the best at what it does - it achieves better outturns, in terms of improved Google scores, flow of reviews and quality of reviews, than any other operator in the review management sector - provably

• Everything HelpHound does - and everything HelpHound advises its clients to do - is in compliance with UK (and EU) law

• Every review that flows through HelpHound is moderated for...

• intelligible English, both spelling and grammar 
• factual accuracy 
• potentially misleading comments

And all of this enables HelpHound to...    

• Guarantee success - positively and unequivocally, from day 1 - and no single client has yet invoked that guarantee. The businesses you refer will...

• look better in terms of Google score - 4.9*** is our aim
• increase their flow of reviews to Google
• have a positive flow of reviews to their own website - massively enhancing social proof, click-through and SEO
• enjoy 'stars in search' - see above
• be compliant with the CMA regulations

***very occasionally, we need to advise a business to modify its CRM before embarking on review management. Our moderation is designed to eliminate, as far as the regulations allow, factually inaccurate, potentially misleading and sometimes just plain unfair reviews. It is not, and never should be, seen as a mechanism for a business whose CRM is deficient to deflect fairly held negative opinions. 

So: your valuable business contacts will be safe in our hands. No comebacks and definitely no backlash. Our aim is for them to all feel eternally grateful that you introduced us, day in day out, year in year out, from day one.

Now, for you - our partner (and the referring business)...

We are completely open in terms of remuneration: our referring businesses receive...

• 25% of any initial charges we make to the referred business 

• 25% of the first annual charges we make to the referred business

• 10% of any subsequent fees charged - for the lifetime of the referral (our first referrer is currently approaching year 10 of such fees)

An example of a single-location business: fees paid to the referring business:

Total fees paid to referrer in year 1 =         £ 1,171

In subsequent years =                               £  735

Referring one business a month - fees at the end year 1 = £14,052

The kind of business that benefits most from HelpHound's service...

It might help if we turn that question on its head: what kind of business benefits least?

• online retailers: if all the business needs are star ratings for the products it sells, there are far better alternatives

• monopolies: unless they really care about their customers - and by 'really care' we mean that they respond to every one of their Google reviews in a timely manner, then it's a 'no' for them as well

So it's service and professional businesses, those that seriously rely on their reputations, both in the wider community and online, in order to thrive...

• legal
• medical
• financial

...and related businesses: accountancy, recruitment, estate agency and so on (not to mention businesses in marketing, PR and advertising!). And subsets of these businesses, depending on their current presence online...

• Businesses with few Google reviews

• Businesses that have flouted the law to get Google reviews (it's surprising how many do - usually unwittingly)

• Businesses that have been 'sold' a review website

• Businesses that have been 'sold' reputation management 

and most of all...

• Businesses that have not yet found a safe way to engage with reviews

Now for the $64,000 question

Can HelpHound reassure us, the referring business, that the businesses we refer will benefit, at the bare minimum, by the fees they will be charged? In other words: can you be sure that HelpHound membership will be profitable for them?

The simple answer is 'If we analyse the business referred and consider that we cannot add value by at least the amount charged, we will advise both you and the referred business.'  

But let us add some numbers - here is a separate article focused on concrete results - and since it refers to an estate agency, let us extrapolate that in terms of hard cash. With an average house price in London of £700,000, and an agency fee of 1.5%, that equates to a fee of £10,500. So one extra transaction a year earns this particular business more than two and a half times HelpHound's initial fee and well over three times our fee from year two onwards. 

An extra reassurance is that we are fully aware that should HelpHound not add value for the referred business, the referrer will soon know, and we will have put the continued flow of referrals at risk. We are here to ensure 100% win/win for all parties.

Our suggestion

You select a single business with which you have built up a trusted relationship. Talk to them and highlight the fact that you have found the following...

1. A safe and secure way to guarantee a steady flow of great reviews - to their own website (SEO and social proof) and Google (score and stars in search)
2. That is guaranteed to work

And then simply send them an email copied to us - info@helphound.com

We will do the rest. We look forward to making the first bank transfer!

Reviews for sensitive and complex businesses - a deep dive

First, let us define what we mean by a 'sensitive' business, or rather let this potential client define it for us...

"If you are going to ask us to invite all of our customers to write a review, then the answer has to be a definite 'No'. It would be far too high-risk a strategy for a business like ours."

And they would be quite right. Businesses such as those providing professional services such as financial, healthcare, legal and the like, can be extremely complex, and as a result aspects can be easily misconstrued. This can lead to misunderstandings that are bound to be perpetuated in reviews. And such reviews can seriously harm a business. The following is just one example (albeit with an extreme outcome)...

If you have any doubts about this, please read the full story of the firm of solicitors that were being so seriously (and quantifiably) damaged by this single ill-founded negative review that they took the reviewer to court (and won damages - 'won', when you read the full sorry tale, is not really the right word for what happened subsequently).

Fears, well-founded as they are, quite understandably lead businesses in the sensitive and complex sectors mentioned above to either...

• avoid engaging with reviews altogether or...

• flout the law - the CMA regulations - and cherry-pick customers they know for certain will write a 5* review

So what, exactly, is HelpHound's role in this apparently unresolvable conundrum? Between 'going for it' and risking your business's reputation* in the quest for a great Google score and all the business you know such a glowing image in search can drive through your door and 'burying your head' and missing out on that gold rush? Read on.

*'risking your reputation': the CMA has sharp teeth - and is on the case of businesses flouting their regulations - but far more likely is a business noticing that a competitor is cherry-picking and using that fact against it to win business.

Lifting the bonnet 

We have a deep understanding the above-mentioned CMA regulations, as you might expect from a business that has been intimately involved with all aspects of online reviews - Google and otherwise - for well over a decade now. 

The two golden keys to effective review management, especially for sensitive businesses, are firstly: to understand the fundamental difference between...

• inviting all of your customers to write a review and... 

• ...allowing all of your customers to write a review

The former would be fine in an ideal world, where every consumer understood precisely what every business was attempting to achieve for them and exactly how.

Fortunately, the regulators recognise that this ideal world does not exist in reality, which is why the second of the above - enabling all of your customers to write a review - applies, in the UK at least.

...and the second of these golden keys?...

• moderation - the act of employing an independent body to mediate with customers who may write a factually inaccurate or potentially misleading review, pre-publication

Combine this seemingly innocuous button on the business's website...

...with what happens immediately after anyone posts a review...

1. The review arrives in HelpHound's internal inbox
2. The review is read by a HelpHound moderator
3. Basic errors of spelling and grammar are corrected
4. If our moderator suspects the review contains any errors of fact or potentially misleading statements, they immediately engage, privately, with the reviewer and, if necessary, the business
5. The corrected review* is then published on the business's own website
6. The reviewer is then asked to copy their review to Google 

*In over 97 per cent of cases, the reviewer either corrects their review or asks for it to be deleted altogether. To be in compliance with the CMA regulations, it is essential that customers are allowed to post whatever review they wish - providing, of course, that it does not contravene UK laws of libel, for instance.

There you have it:  the most watertight review management service on the planet. Your business can confidently go about asking for reviews from selected customers, safe in the knowledge that it is compliant with the law and safe from misinformed, as well as simply plain unfair reviews.

One final point: we guarantee results - see here. But we obviously cannot guarantee that no negative reviews will ever appear, for one of two reasons:

• Businesses do make mistakes: in that case, it is always our advice to apologise and move on, whilst pointing out that mistakes, as evidenced by the business's overwhelmingly positive reviews, are extremely rare occurrences and confirming what restitution is being made (for the benefit of those reading the review)

When this client joined it had 2 Google reviews and none on its own website. As you can see, it now has over 500 Google reviews (and well over 700 on its own website); during that time it has averaged one 1* review a year. A typical outturn for a well-managed business.

• Occasionally, a customer will bypass whatever systems you put in place, but in these rare instances a HelpHound client will always have the moral high ground; they are able to say, in their written response to the negative review, that the customer always had the opportunity to write a review by visiting the company's website - and, again, they are able to reference the business's positive reviews

Conclusion

The process we describe above has been tested and refined over fourteen years. It works. It has enabled businesses in extremely sensitive areas to thrive, attracting enquiries from the web in volume. Not all of these clients have been able to amass hundreds of reviews, such is their sensitivity. Here is one final example...

No - nil - Google reviews when this business joined

We would encourage you to google the Harper Clinic - a women's health clinic in Harley Street - and read some of their reviews. If they can amass nearly 50 reviews, in compliance with the law, from women seeking such an intensely private service, just imagine what HelpHound can do for your business, however 'sensitive and complex' it may be?

Further reading

We hope this article has covered everything you need to know to take the first step towards putting your business's review management on a secure professional footing. The following articles explain everything in even more detail, but by far the best 'next step' is to speak/meet with us so we can answer all your questions in precise relation to your own business.

• Compliance

• Results

• Moderation

• Fees and charges - and our guarantee of success 

Google reviews - eliminating the risk

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

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

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

Eliminating the risk inherent in inviting Google reviews: Step 1

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

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

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

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

For readers who have a 'perfect business'

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eliminating the risk inherent in inviting Google reviews: Step 2

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

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

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

So - what do we have here?

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

HelpHound - proof of concept

How many businesses pitch to you without it? Whether face-to-face, on their website or in an email, you are left saying 'Yes, I get it, but please can you prove it will work for my business?'

The simplest answer we can provide our clients is...

Never - not once - has this guarantee been invoked

...but we appreciate you might like a little more if you have never witnessed HelpHound in action before, so here we go:

1. Before we begin working for you, both parties will agree on the following...

• a target Google score (normally 4.9 unless there are special circumstances*)

• a target number of reviews - in absolute terms 

• a target number of reviews - monthly

• a point-of-contact within the client business - in each of your business locations if deemed necessary

• the wording of the initiating email inviting the review(s)**

• a method of successfully inviting reviews to both the business's own website - thereby enabling the reviews to be moderated - and then to Google that fits in with the business's daily routine

• whether or not it is recommended to invite reviews to the business's own website and Google at the same time, either from the outset or at some future date (if the latter is the case, a target Google score will be agreed)

*'special circumstances': good businesses can often have unusually low Google scores, sometimes because they haven't engaged or have engaged in the wrong way - using a reviews site, for just one instance, can often result in dissatisfied customers unfairly dominating a business's image on Google. We will have identified if this is the case before we speak for the first time. If so, both parties may well agree on intermediate targets on the way to the final objective.

**review(s)*: depending on the business's precise circumstances, we will advise whether the initial customer review should be invited to the business's website, to Google or both simultaneously. Whatever is decided at the outset will be kept constantly under review.

Besides resting secure in the knowledge that your business has now adopted a legally-compliant*** and safe - safe from factually inaccurate, potentially misleading or just plain unfair reviews on both your own website and on Google - method of inviting and displaying reviews. There will be other valuable benefits...

***So many businesses currently look great only because they are flouting the CMA's core regulations, commonly the one that forbids cherry-picking 'happy' customers and then only inviting those to write a review. There are two reasons to stop doing that: the first is that the business's management and staff will sleep far more easily in their beds at night, and the second is that the business will no longer be handing its competitors an 'Of course they look great, but then they are breaking the law...' stick to beat it with. There is a third reason - the benefits of adopting professional review management are much the same as those for adopting any other kind of professional advice (legal, accountancy etc.): it enables the business to get on with its core service

• an uplift in the rate of enquiries through the business's website...

This feed tells anyone visiting the business's website that it has received over 700 reviews (and allows them to read as many as they want), just about all of them rating the business the maximum 5 stars; that there is nothing preventing anyone from writing a review, reinforcing both transparency and credibility (see the 'write a review' button next to the number of reviews) and enables them to understand our role in the process ('What is HelpHound?')

• an uplift in the rate of enquiries - clicks and calls - through Google and an improvement in the business's overall SEO - measured by an improvement in the business's ranking in Google local search and its appearance in all kinds of map searches

We don't need to tell you that looking great in Google search is crucial these days. Our role is to enable our clients to get as close as they possibly can to the Holy Grail: leading search, both organic and map, with the highest score and the most reviews. That way, they will feature on any potential customer's shortlist. Your business will also have the crucial social proof needed to reinforce all its other marketing efforts, from advertising and public relations to referrals

        

To Summarise

Don't join HelpHound until we can prove to you - beyond a reasonable doubt, as the saying goes - that we will add value, both in terms of added professionalism but most important of all, to your business's bottom line.

Further reading

Look closely at this client of ours - leading local organic search; and unlike four of its competitors, not needing to spend £thousands a month on Google Ads. What else do you see? A score of 4.9 from 734 reviews? Not Google reviews this time, but the reviews on their own website - can you put a value on those gold stars in search for your business? We hope so

1. Results - estate agency, where enquiries and instructions both rose along with a measurable increase in the quality of business transacted. And the medical profession - and one of the most sensitive specialisations at that. If we can do it for both of these kinds of business we can do it for yours. Without appearing to state the obvious, when you are reading about what we have helped these businesses achieve, please imagine where your business will be with similar assistance.

2. Our guarantee - and our fees, nothing hidden, no surprises plus a reward for success

3. There are nearly a thousand articles on here, so feel free to interrogate this blog for just what you need. Alterntively speak to us and we'll share some of our decade plus experience with review management of all and every kind for all and every kind of business. Challenge us: we relish the opportunity to earn our clients' approbation.

Deflection can hurt - if you are using a review site

What, exactly, is 'deflection'? In short, it is when a business uses a flawed review management system that impacts its Google score, and therefore its image in search.

We all know Openreach. Here they are, using Trustpilot...

And here's their Trustpilot listing...

And here they are on Google...

Why the marked difference? And does it matter?

It's human nature. A consumer has a great experience and the business asks them to write a review to its chosen location, in the case Trustpilot, and so they do. We all generally cooperate with those with whom our experience has been positive. But when it has been negative? Many people will take on board the idea of writing a review but will expressly seek out the arena that will be seen by the most potential customers: and that's Google. The review has been deflected away from the business's choice to the place where it will have maximum impact. Hence the term we use in the title of this article.

This is precisely what has happened to Openreach. But does it matter? Part of the reason we have chosen Openreach to illustrate this point is that, almost uniquely in the business world, Openreach is using reviews primarily to monitor staff performance. It is certainly a valid use, but not the principal objective of most businesses when they look to mobilise the power of reviews. Openreach has no competitors (it is an effective monopoly) - the rest of the business world does. The rest of the business world uses reviews to drive business through the door.

So the strategy has to be reversed: Google reviews must be the business's first objective.

But - before rushing headlong, if your business is in the professional or service sector (as opposed to online retail, for instance) you will need to score as close to the perfect 5.0 as possible while maintaining compliance with the UK law. The way to ensure this is to collect reviews via your website. Here's a good example...

 ...so an independent moderator - HelpHound in this instance - can resolve any errors of fact or misunderstandings before the review is made live. Then to Google...

Left: the business's search on mobile. Right: then the first tab Google offers? That's right, it's 'Reviews'

Where the business's own reviews (see red arrow below) - not Google's (a surprise to many) - show in organic search and boost the business's SEO...

This shows just how successful a business - a single branch of Winkworth Plc* - can be if they address reviews in the correct way: independently moderated then onto their own website and then Google. Job done!

*so successful that they now have two branches.

Further reading

• Results - the proof that great review management feeds directly through to the bottom line

Reviews and trust - there is no future for the first without the second

Yet again the regulators have seen fit to step in - this time in relation to fake reviews, specifically those posted to Google. It is time we revisited the rationale behind regulation and reviews.

In an ideal world...

Everyone who wrote a review...

• Would be in a position to understand everything to do with whatever product or service they had been sold and were reviewing

• Would be in a positive - or at the very least, benign - frame of mind, both at the time they interacted with the business that sold them the product or provided them with the service and later, when they came to write their review

• Would have perfect command of the English language, or whatever other language they wrote their review in (Google accepts reviews in 149 languages)

And every business that asked its customers to write a review...

• would welcome every review with open arms

• would not place any barriers in the way of someone wanting to review their product or service

• would respond to every review posted - anywhere

And every review platform would conform to these basic tenets...

• it would favour neither business nor consumer

• it would ensure that no barriers were placed in the way of a consumer wishing to post a fair and accurate review

• it would offer an effective appeal route for the business under review against inaccurate, potentially misleading or plain unfair reviews

• it would ensure that its reviews were as visible as possible to consumers

The current regulatory situation

In the UK, as regular readers know, online reviews are regulated (by the Competition and Markets Authority - 'CMA'), and such regulation is backed by the force of law.

The CMA has been conducting an ongoing review into the use and abuse of reviews for many years now. Here is their advice to businesses - which remains current to this day. Periodically the CMA will announce action it is taking or agreements it has come to - here is its latest, this time with Google.

At this stage we should mention that, in the UK at least, there are examples of businesses taking reviewers to court for posting defamatory reviews. Here is one such. For obvious reasons, both commercial and reputational, this is a rare occurrence, as the legacy press and social media rarely shine a favourable light on 'big business' taking customers to court. This makes a fair and evenhanded regulatory and legal approach to reviews even more important. But such action does conclusively prove one thing: that businesses would do well to take every measure to avoid such negative reviews, especially the 'unfair' ones.

The future

So far, quite reasonably, the regulators have focused their attention on the sites that host reviews. They are also right to refine that focus to concentrate on Google, as it now hosts four out of every five reviews on the web (see its remarkable dominance here).

This was reinforced when we were privileged to have an in-depth conversation with a senior staffer at the CMA last year. The central thrust of his message was 'Just because the CMA doesn't constantly repeat the fact that we have an open investigation into abuses of online reviews does not mean that we have closed the file, the opposite is true.'

So the next logical move by the regulators will likely be on the following two fronts...

• against the legacy review sites that have been driven to offer more and more questionably legal benefits in order to compete with Google reviews (bearing in mind these sites invariably charge businesses and Google does not). These range from control over who is able to write a review to the ability to challenge a genuinely held customer opinion in the hope that the customer will simply give up and not insist on their review being published

• against businesses that are in contravention of the CMA's core regulations - the main ones being 'cherry-picking' only demonstrably happy customers to invite to post reviews and 'gating' - identifying that same cohort using a questionnaire 

We also hope they will widen their remit in relation to the review sites...

• sites that offer businesses boosted prominence in rankings in return for financial reward
• sites that muddy the water by selling leads to businesses on the back of reviews
• sites that discriminate against reviewers who are unable or unwilling to provide proof of purchase*

*this, on the face of it, would appear to be a perfectly reasonable thing to do. It is only when faced with a real-world situation when the consumer has genuinely lost their receipt or cannot see why they should be required to provide one to a third-party review site that the injunction by the CMA to allow the review to stand must apply.

To summarise

From a business's standpoint, today in 2025, there are few* reasons to use a review site and many reasons to use Google reviews...

• they are the first reviews any prospective customer sees of your business
• every one of your business's locations will have a distinct Google profile with reviews attached
• they have greater credibility than other kinds of review, simply by virtue of readers understanding that Google knows a great deal about the poster
• just about everyone on the planet is able to write a Google review without 'joining' or 'registering'

*these 'few' reasons become fewer by the year. The exception is retail which understandably requires stand-alone reviews for each and every product they sell. So sites such as Bazaarvoice still have a role to play. Our advice to all service and professional businesses is to focus entirely on Google reviews; should they already have a presence on other sites that should be maintained, at least for the time being, alongside Google.

A very important question for businesses that already have an established presence on Google

How do you collect your Google reviews? 

Many - most? - businesses, if they are being candid, will admit that they are selective in inviting customers to write a review to Google. This is against the CMA's aforementioned core regulations - against the law. 

So what? - we hear people say all the time. And our answer? We have sympathy, but your business does not exist in isolation. We agree that it is highly unlikely that your business, of all the 5.5 million in the UK, will be the first to be sanctioned by the CMA (although the long list of those fined by HMRC for breaches of AML should at least give you pause for thought - imagine your business appearing on a list like this - and then featuring in the local/national press as 'ABC Plc fined by government agency for breaking rules relating to their customers' online reviews.'). 

Look at it this way: you know your business is in breach by cherry-picking 'happy' customers to invite to post a Google review. So your staff know as well. And they move on - sometimes to direct competitors. How do you suppose a competitor will use that knowledge? Is there even an outside chance that, when faced with a potential customer, they will be tempted to say something along the lines of "Yes, their Google score and reviews are excellent, aren't they? Perhaps if they complied with the law and allowed all their customers to write a review, as we do, then maybe they wouldn't look quite so great?"

This innocuous link - 'Write a review' - makes the business compliant with the CMA regulations at a stroke - it also leads to the key benefit of review management: moderation

Resulting in the business looking like this on Google...

Initial search (left) and their Google reviews tab (right) showing their score and all their reviews collected since they joined HelpHound...

From 5 to 500 - not so hard when you combine a great business with the correct - compliant - review management

The key here is that no well-run business needs to remain in this position (few reviews or in breach of the CMA regulations). By the simple expedient of employing moderated review management it will a) protect itself from factually inaccurate or potentially misleading reviews - that's what gives our clients the confidence to be so proactive in inviting reviews - and b) achieve a great score on its own website and on Google.

It will also be demonstrating that its reviews can be trusted - both those on its own website (see above) and those on Google.

Google - penalising schools and parents

After Google's announcement to schools in the UK and Ireland...

We published our initial response last Monday. Since then, we have spent time reviewing that response and the response of the educational community, including specialist sites such as Edugeek and Schoolsweek and sites used by parents, such as Mumsnet. 

We get Justin Cowley, the deputy head of Mendell Primary's point - he petitioned Google on behalf of 60 other teachers and schools, on the basis that 'out-of-date and off-topic reviews were of no help to anyone, parent or school'. But only so far as it goes.

We have commented, year-in year-out, on the fact that the responsibility for ensuring that Google reviews add value - in this case: for parents searching for the right school for their child is split, equally, between Google and the schools. 

Google's responsibility

 

Every teacher on the planet will recognise this kind of review. The question is - was - how would Google not have a mechanism to allow the school to have them deleted? They certainly don't add vlue for Google. One click - on the three dots to the right of the review ('report this review') and job done.

 

Google allows appeals against reviews publsihed on its site. The problem is, and always has been, that those appeals don't cover the kind of 'Mrs S hates me' or 'All the kids at [insert name of school] are snobs' review that so dilute the overall value of the reviews they host. But they should. Schools should be able to have this kind of review deleted. Full stop.

The school's responsibility

 

If estate agencies, with half-a-dozen staff and a similar amount of clients - per month, can achieve these results, why not schools? 

 

...is - was! - to mobilise it's parents to write on-topic valuable reviews of their own, and their children's, experiences of the school. But so few have. Schools will invest time - and somethimes even valuable financial resources - promoting themselves. But so few have taken the opportunity to mobilise Google reviews. Is anyone seriously saying that a Google review such as this...

 

 

...is not helpful? To both future parents and the school concerned? The review was deleted by Google this month.

Conclusion

The plethora of agencies already offering to replace - at a cost to schools - Google's imperfect but easily fixed free reviews service proves our point. Commercial entities are always the first to fill a vacuum. Let us know if you receive a sales call for Trustpilot or any of the other review sites. The very first to do so? You guessed it: Google...

The first page of a local search - full of schools now paying Google to appear before the organic listings (some still don't realise that 'Sponsored' listings are paid for by the entity listed) - no reviews by parents of course! And the cost of the advertisement? Up until recently between £3 and £4 per click through to the school's website. Now, with more schools forced to use that avenue? Please let us know in the comments below.

And finally...

We thought all of you English teachers out there would appreciate this - genuine - Google review, still showing for a school in Derby in spite of Google's recent announcement...

Further reading...

• Google - forcing schools down the Ads route?