Turn the caller down. Bought reviews come from accounts with no history, arrive in bursts and get filtered or removed, and invented testimonials raise problems under the Competition Act. Ask real customers steadily instead.

The call

The caller is friendly and quick. They have noticed your listing has only a few reviews, or a low average, and they can fix that: a bundle of five-star reviews, posted over the next few weeks, for a fee.

Some say the reviews are written by real people. Others promise to bury the bad reviews you already have. A few hint at a connection with Google that does not exist.

None of the reviewers will have used your business. That is the whole product.

For a business with a thin listing and two bad reviews at the top, it can sound like a reasonable shortcut. It is a poor one, and the review sites' own systems are the first reason why.

What review sites look for

The fourth is the one readers spot too. A review that says great service, very professional, highly recommend, with nothing specific in it, reads as bought whether or not a filter caught it.

Where bought reviews go

Google removes reviews that break its rules, which require reviews to reflect a genuine experience of the business and forbid reviews written in exchange for payment. Removals can come weeks or months after the reviews appear.

Yelp moves reviews it does not trust into a separate section most readers never open, and has been known to put a warning on the page of a business it believes bought reviews.

Facebook and other sites have their own rules and filters. In each case the business pays once, and the reviews disappear on the site's schedule rather than the seller's.

A seller who promises to replace any removed reviews is promising to repeat the same pattern, and to invite the same removal.

The Competition Act

Under the Competition Act, a business may not promote itself with claims that mislead the public on a point that matters, and the overall impression a claim gives counts as well as its exact words.

A review presented as a customer's honest experience, written by someone who never was a customer, is that kind of claim. Arranging it through an outside company does not make it any less the business's own advertising.

Treat this as background on the Act rather than legal advice. Still, a business that would never print invented testimonials on its flyers should not buy them online either.

What is left afterwards

When the bought reviews go, the average falls back to where it was, and the money has gone with them.

Meanwhile the real problem is untouched. The bad reviews at the top were about something, and nothing about it has changed.

And customers who read a run of glowing, identical reviews and then met an ordinary business remember the gap. Some say so, in reviews of their own.

A business caught out can also lose the benefit of the doubt. Readers who notice a cluster of suspicious reviews start to doubt the genuine ones beside them.

A worked example

A bottle depot in a suburban industrial strip takes back drink containers for refunds, with a counter for bags and boxes and a sorting area at the back.

Its listing had a handful of reviews, and the latest three complained about Saturday lineups and a refused bag of containers. A caller offered to bury them under twenty-five five-star reviews within a month.

The owner nearly agreed, then noticed that the sample reviews the caller read out could have described a dentist.

Instead, he replied to each complaint: the Saturday wait and the quieter weekday hours, and which containers the depot can and cannot refund.

He put the busiest times and the list of accepted containers on the website, and a small sign at the exit invites customers to say how their visit went on Google, with the listing's short address.

Reviews come in slowly, in customers' own words, and each complaint now has a calm answer under it.

Building genuine reviews steadily

Ask every customer at the moment the job is done or the visit is over, in person where you can. A card or a line on the receipt with the listing's address makes it easy.

Point people to your Google listing or Facebook page. Yelp, unusually, discourages businesses from asking for reviews in the first place.

Ask steadily rather than all at once. A single email to every customer from the last five years can produce exactly the burst filters distrust; a few requests each week look like what they are.

Offer nothing in return; most review sites forbid rewards for reviews. And do not hand customers a tablet at the counter to review on the spot, since many reviews from one device or connection are a pattern filters remove.

Answer the reviews you have

A low average built from a few complaints does less damage than owners fear, if every complaint has a reply. Readers judge how a business responds as much as the score.

Reply calmly, say what has changed, and move any detailed discussion to the phone. The reply is read by everyone who reads the review, for years.

The counter-case

Some businesses get few reviews whatever they do, because customers rarely think of reviewing a bottle depot, a plumber or an accountant. A short, honest set of reviews is normal for them, and readers know it.

And not every marketing call is a scam. Legitimate companies help businesses ask real customers for reviews; what they cannot do is supply the customers.

Turn down anyone selling reviews, and build genuine ones steadily, one real customer at a time.

When the phone rings

  1. Decline any offer of reviews for a fee.
  2. Reply to every existing complaint calmly.
  3. Fix the causes the complaints point to.
  4. Ask every customer at the end of the visit.
  5. Print the listing's short address on cards or receipts.
  6. Offer nothing in return for a review.
  7. Keep asking steadily, never in bursts.

Step four is the one that replaces the shortcut. A business that asks every customer, every week, builds over months what the caller was offering in a week, written by people who actually came through the door.

Replying to a genuine review written at an awkward moment is covered in a review written halfway through the job.

Frequently asked questions

Do bought reviews stay up?

Often not. Review sites look for new accounts, bursts, distant reviewers and generic wording, and remove or filter what they find, sometimes months later, after the money has gone.

Is buying reviews against the law?

Invented testimonials presented as genuine can be misleading under the Competition Act, which judges the general impression. Paying an outside company to post them does not change whose advertising they are.

Can I offer a discount for reviews?

No. Most review sites forbid rewards for reviews, and a review given in exchange for a discount is not a freely given testimonial. Ask, and offer nothing.

How should I ask customers for reviews?

In person at the end of the job or visit, with the listing's short address on a card or receipt, every week rather than in one big campaign.

Why not use a tablet at the counter?

Many reviews posted from one device or connection are a pattern review sites filter out. Let customers review later on their own phones and computers.

What about the bad reviews already there?

Reply to each one calmly, say what has changed, and fix what you can. Readers judge the response as much as the score, and the reply stays for years.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Offered reviews by a caller this week?

Turn them down, then talk to us. We will help you set up a steady way to ask real customers.

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