This is a 'polished' copy of an internal HelpHound guide.
Why publish it? Categorising helps us ensure that businesses are given the most appropriate information and advice right at the outset of our relationship. Mainly because there remain so many misconceptions surrounding reviews and review management, even now, fifteen years after the first Google review was written. It similarly helps businesses understand the starting point for our relationship.
Your business will fall under one of the following seven headings - every professional service business does - there is a brief description of the relevant issues for that category and a link to a relevant article for those who wish to mine deeper.
We begin with the simplest category of them all...
1. No engagement and no reviews
'5+ years in business' and not a single review. A rarer beast these days, but by no means exitict
We are the first to acknowledge that this is a completely understandable strategy; we hear so many CEOs and marketing directors say 'We'd prefer to fly under the radar.' And the reason for this is simple: they realise that engaging with reviews, especially Google reviews, involves considerable reputational risk for their business, akin to driving uninsured. To pursue that analogy: you might be the best driver in the world, but the other road users still present a huge risk, so you insure your car. It's exactly the same with reviews: your business and all your staff may be as perfect as makes no difference, but customers will - and do - grab the wrong end of the stick (and will write misinformed reviews as a result).
Solution: the business will know it is missing a wonderful opportunity to engage with Google reviews as well as exposing itself to unfair damage should one or more unhappy customers find their way to writing a Google review (from no Google score to scoring 1.0 overnight). It needs 'insurance' against factually inaccurate and potentially damaging reviews, and that means adopting a fully moderated system. A moderated system will ensure that most factually inaccurate or potentially misleading reviews are addressed before they are published anywhere online.
2. No engagement and few reviews
As above, but customers - hopefully happy ones - have found the business's Google listing (after all, it comes up whenever they search for your business, even if they're just looking for contact details).
Solution: they may have had near misses (in this case a heart-stopping 'You have recieved a review' email from Google every time one of those reviews is written). The business needs to engage before it loses its hugely valuable Google score of 4.8 - 5.0. And that means adopting a moderated system to provide the reputational insurance referred to under 1. above.
3. No engagement and many reviews
Imagine being in a business that can afford to ignore reviews altogether? Few of us are so lucky - or should that read 'Few of us wish to work in/for a business that simply doesn't care enough to even respond to reviews posted by the customers that are its lifeblood'?
There are businesses, though, that find themselves in this situation and remain vulnerable (by 'vulnerable' we mean that Google review scores work in both directions: a Google score of 4.8 or more will attract between 15 and 25 per cent more enquiries through Google - sometimes far more; a score of less than 4.0 will deflect that amount of enquiries, at the very least (and can result in a choking off off inbounds althogether - read this horror story).
As for 1. and 2. above, if the business's current Google score is 4.8 or over, all fine, but action should be taken ASAP. If that score is 4.7 or less there will need to be remedial work undertaken to bring the score back up.
Solution: We will agree a plan of action with the business to ensure a steady flow of moderated reviews and, in the case of a business scoring less than 4.8, initiate a tried and tested plan of action to remedy that situation and bring the score back up. Reassurance will be swift: as soon as a business's score improives the upsurge in the flow of inbounds will follow.
4. Engaged: hand-picking customers to invite to write a review
You will understand why we have anonymised this screenshot. How can we be sure that this business is hand-picking clients to write Google reviews? Well, it's a simple case of 'If it walks like a..., if it squawks like a...'. Businesses that don't comply with the law surrounding reviews are remarkably easy to spot, whether that be by looking at the pattern of reviews (a flurry of 5* reviews following a 1* is common) or, in the case of the regulators, examining the mechansism the business uses to invite reviews (text or email - and they both leave a cast-iron paper trail)
Here we run into our first legal issue. It is illegal under UK law to hand-pick 'happy' customers and then invite those, and only those, to write a review. The regulators (the CMA) call it 'cherry-picking' and they have an ongoing investigation into it.
We occasionally meet businesses that say 'our [positive] reviews are so important, and so integral to our marketing, that we are prepared to take a risk'. We liken them to the 18th century traders who saved on the insurance offfered by the men at Mr Lloyd's coffee house: they are taking an unnecessary gamble, but instead of risking the value a shipment of spices from the Orient, they are exposing their business's reputation to a wholly unnecessary risk, especialy given that the cost of compliance is bundled into the cost of the 'insurance' (Here it is - for most businesses less then a BUPA subscription for a single person!)
Solution: Adopting moderated review management provides the solution to both issues: 'insurance' against inaccurate or misleading reviews and complete compliance with UK law. From day one*.
*We can provide no cast-iron guarantees, but it is our considered opinion that the UK CMA is highly unlikely to focus regulatory action on cases where the business in question is currently compliant, so the sooner the business becomes compliant, the less likely it is to be caught in the CMA's net.
5. Engaged: using email or a questionnaire to establish which customers should be invited to write a review.
There is nothing in the CMA regulations (or Google ToS) against sending a questionnaire such as this to customers. Businesses cross the line into illegality when they only invite those who have rated the business 5* to subsequently post a review.
Google's relevant anti-gating rule. More here
This is a similar case to 4. above. The regulators - and Google - have a term for it: 'gating'. And it is illegal in the UK - and against Google's Terms of Service worldwide (a full explanation can be found here).
Solution: Stop! Adopt a compliant moderated system immediately. We cannot be absolutely sure, but again we feel it will be highly unlikely that the CMA will take legal action and sanction a business that was once non-compliant but has since taken steps to ensure future compliance. To date, businesses sanctioned by the CMA, for whatever reason, have almost always been currently non-compliant. As for Google: they have been known to delete all of a business's reviews when they find proof of gating. And who supplies that proof? A competitor or a disgruntled ex-employee usually.
6. Engaged: using a review site
On the left: the business on its chosen review site, all but invisible in search (actually, it does appear - but on page 3, so way less than 1% of searchers will ever find their way there). On the right: its Google score and reviews are shown in every search of its name.
Feefo? Yelp? Trustpilot? Reviews.io? All these solutions pre-date Google reviews. In the case of product businesses - online retail and similar - the stars they 'sell' the business are probably pretty effective. After all, we buy shirts because we like the look of them. As long as they score 4.0 out of 5 on, say, Feefo, we won't be put off making a purchase. But professional and service businesses must focus on Google reviews, simply because it is Google reviews that all your potential customers/clients/patients are seeing in every single search they perform.
Solution: If businesses such as this had known just how dominant Google reviews would be - no one comes close in seach, and Google are way ahead in terms of credibility and longevity - they would have gone down that route in the first place. It's never too late to change. The business doesn’t have to immediately lose its chosen review site, it just needs run a moderated Google-focussed solution alongside and compare the results.
7. Engaged: Inviting all customers to post a review to Google
Now we're getting there. Google reviews are where it's at for all service and professional businesses. Because they show in every single search, from the initial 'How can I find a reliable doctor/lawyer/school/investment adviser?' to 'How do I contact the one I've been recommended by a friend/colleague?' The issue that has led to businesses adopting solutions 1 - 6 is simple: fear of the harm that can be done by just one factually incorrect Google review.
Solution: Now all a business needs is the 'insurance' cover that will enable it to be compliant and at the same time collect genuine Google reviews from its customers. It's called moderation. Read about that here. It may well be the most rewarding ten minutes you spend on behalf of your business this year.
Conclusion
There is only one solution that works perfectly - or indeed at all, when compliance is taken into account - for all professional and service businesses, whether they be in the medical, legal, educational or financial spheres (or those directly associated, such as estate agency) and whatever category from 1 - 6 they fall into above, and that is independently moderated review management.
It only remains for your business to choose an entity to provide that independent moderation. We humbly submit that, with over fifteen years of experience dealing directly with reviews and review sites, including - in fact, especially - Google, of all kinds and being the first to alert businesses to the primacy of Google reviews, HelpHound would be a good place to embark on your business's journey.
And finally
This article focuses on the legally compliant solutions to reviews and review management. And without a compliant solution all the other good things that flow from positive engagement with Google reviews are as nothing. To be candid: what is the point of amassing hundreds of reviews by cherry-picking or gating if your competitors know that's what you are doing (and will be alerting any prospective customers they come across)?
There is, of course, much more on the upside. Here are just a few of the hundreds of articles covering the positive aspects of adopting professional review management.
- Results. We are often asked for proof that inbound enquiries will accelerate once HelpHound is adopted and up and running. Our first objective is to have our clients score 4.8+. once that is achieved on the business's own website and on Google there should be a noticeable and measurable increase in inbound enquiries - calls and clicks - and this article shows real-life examples and case histories. It also shows how the quality of those enquiries rises - markedly, both in terms of conversion and value.
- If you would like to read what we have to say that is relevant to your own business sector please interrogate the blog - just go to 'Search this Blog' on the right and enter 'medical' or 'education' and so on and you will be shown whatever we have written that is directly relevant. If you still cannot find what you are looking for just email - info@helphound.com - or call us - 0207 100-2233 and we'll give you the answer straight away (HelpHound provides specific tailored advice for each of our clients, we are as far from a 'one size fits all solution' as can be).
- Fees. Here they are. We aim to be a profit centre, not a drain on our clients' resources - see 'Results' above - we have had our fees compared to many things over the years, from 'coffee for the whole office once a week' to 'the same as I pay BUPA every month'. What is certain is that your business will fare far better with HelpHound.
*Many businesses we meet labour under the - understandable - misunderstanding that compliance with the CMA regulations means having to proactively invite every single customer/patient/client to write a review. This is categorically not the case; what the regulators do insist on is every single stakeholder having an equal opportunity to post a review. All HelpHound clients' modules [what we call the visible side of our software on your website] contain a button - see red arrow below - that allows exactly that.
The 'Write a review' button leads directly to a form where your customer writes a review which is then sent directly for moderation pre-publication. The 'What is HelpHound?' link goes straight to a page explaining HelpHound's role
The advantage of this mechanism is that the client can write a review whenever they wish (it is this function that ensures the business is compliant with the CMA regulations); that review will then be subject to HelpHound's moderation before it is published on the business's website. If the review contains errors of fact or potentially misleading content our moderator will contact the reviewer (and the business if needs be) to resolve the issue. Over 97 per cent of reviewers welcome this engagement and correct their reviews, or they decide not to post a review at all. Only after this are all reviewers asked to copy their reviews to Google. Just to round out the example above, here they are on Google...
This screenshot tells the current position of a business with its Google score (4.9), number of Google reviews (497), score from its own reviews (4.9 again) and number of reviews hosted on its own website (693). The key statistic to be drawn from these numbers - aside from the excellent scores - is the success that the business has had in converting reviews to its own website into Google reviews: over two-thirds have been copied over to Google - 71 per cent to be precise.
Two more things you may be interested to know about the business above:
- When they joined HelpHound they only had 6 Google reviews
- They recently opened another office
So: decide which category your business falls under (it may have covered more than one in the past!) and then arrange to speak and/or meet one of us. We will answer all your questions and give you a very accurate idea of where your business will be - and what the results for your business will be - going forwards.
