Trustpilot - fast becoming the five-star go-to for big brands

Which is right? The Sunday Times* or Trustpilot? First: the Sunday Times...

*For those unable to read the Sunday Times article there is a similar one on the BBC website.

'Poor record on complaints'

Now Trustpilot...

First the headline score on Trustpilot's website - the one that businesses use in their marketing...

Rated 'Excellent'

Surely they cannot both be right? Let's mine down a bit (something very few customers will do until they have an issue with such a business): here is the breakdown of that score...

...which shows that over 1 in 10 customers rate the business at one star. Just to be precise, that is over 18,000 customers (and those are just the ones that have taken the trouble to find the business's Trustpilot listing and write a review) .

So now let us look at some of the headlines of those one-star reviews...

Still 'Excellent'? Oh, we forgot to say, all these 1* reviews were written in the last week!

And do Revolut use those reviews in their marketing? Sure they do, in this order...

...but we assume they do as so many other large multinationals do, they monitor click-through rates assiduously and they find that human nature, whether when buying a pair of shoes or looking for a financial product, is satisfied with a headline score over 4. And we suspect there is a reason the link to their Trustpilot listing comes after the ten selected positive reviews.

Oh! and of course there is the other Trustpilot 'advantage': that their reviews seldom show in a search on a business's name. In the case of a search on 'Revolut'...

Most businesses actively want their reviews to show in this kind of search (given that few consumers actively search out reviews these days - they are used to having them spoon-fed by Google)

...we went as far as page 10 of Google search to see if Trustpilot's reviews were returned. Nothing. Our question: is Trustpilot engaging in 'negative optimisation' to expressly prevent their customers' reviews appearing in search? It definitely looks like it.

Conclusion

Trustpilot is being used - wittingly or not - by businesses to

• a) gain 4 out of 5 stars to use in their marketing (plus the 'Excellent' Trustpilot rating you see above - we'll leave you to decide whether that is appropriate or not)

• b) hide negative reviews - in their thousands.

We issue a challenge to Trustpilot here: show us how many visitors a business such as Revolut gets to its listing over any given timescale. 

And finally

If, on the other hand, you would like your business's reputation to show in every single Google search, specific...

...or local...

...and, unvarnished, on your website...

If you visit this business's website you will be able to click on the number of reviews - red arrow - and be taken straight to all 713 of their reviews and read them in whatever order you choose, including 'latest', 'best' and, of course, 'worst'. You will also then understand the source of their Google reviews.

All in compliance with the CMA regulations - maybe contact us?