iRespectOnline

Geelong Social Media | Digital Marketing

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Reviews & Testimonials

reviews

 

One of the best ways of demonstrating social proof of a business’s value is through the provision by clients and customers of reviews and testimonials.

We all know that consumers value word of mouth, however they also tend to trust businesses when they read (or hear video) testimonials because they have an expectation that the review will be genuine, provided in good faith and independent.

There are guidelines for businesses provided by the ACCC (Australian Competition & Consumer Commission) and we will outline these in this post.

It is important to understand that it the onus is on the business to ensure that reviews are genuine and not fake.   Failure to remove a fake review could breach the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.   Fines can be substantial.    The ACCC fined removalist business Citymove $6,000 in 2011 for posting fake testimonials from people who were not genuine customers).


What is a fake review?

When a review appears to be impartial but in fact the review was written by:

  • the reviewed business itself
  • a competitor
  • someone paid to write the review who has not used the product
  • someone who has used the product but written an inflated review to receive a financial or non-financial benefit*

*if a product has had a sponsored review, then the commercial relationship must be clearly disclosed (ie paying a blogger to write a review on a product)

Be aware of behaviours which the ACCC considers to be misleading:

  • asking friends and family to review a product without disclosing their relationship to you  (we see this on Facebook pages often).   They must disclose their relationship to the business within the review
  • soliciting others to write reviews either of your own business or a competitors when they have not experienced the service or used the product
  • do not write reviews yourself when you have not experienced the good or service reviewed or which do not reflect a genuinely held opinion.

These are importancustomer reviewt to be aware of.   The concept of a genuinely held opinion means that you may not have experienced the good or service, but you have had dealings with the person or business in such a way (perhaps through provision of free advice or online information) which mean you are not afraid to put your own good name against their product or service.

[ctt tweet=” Always remember that when you put your name against a business, product or service, you are endorsing that business.” coverup=”I8aeN”]

Offering incentives (prizes, money, discounts, benefits, trading reviews for goods/services) for reviews

  • You can only offer incentives where the incentive is offered to a reviewer equally whether it is positive or negative (you cannot offer an incentive for a positive review).  Reviews must be treated equally and negative reviews not removed,
  • At the time of making the offer it must be clearly stated that the incentive will be granted whether review is positive or negative
  • You must also disclose on the reviews that an incentive was offered  so that readers are aware .

Our recommendation is that you do not offer incentives.

Editing or Omitting reviews

[ctt title=”A business may be seen to be misleading consumers if they edit or omit negative reviews” tweet=”A business may be seen to be misleading consumers if they edit or omit negative reviews” coverup=”Rt1b2″]   Ensure that your business has a content moderation policy which outlines how reviews are managed and under what conditions they maybe removed and that this policy is easily accessible by reviewers.   Usually this would be where the review contains malicious links, or spam or where they are know to be fake.     Fake reviews (usually on online platforms) generally use the same “speak” and often are repeated over and over on the site or on several sites, don’t make sense (often you see fake spam comments on blog posts also) or there is a massive spike in reviews at the same time.      There are always exceptions, for example after a successful event a business may see a genuine “spike” in reviews.

Be aware that your business reputation and integrity is at stake.     Be transparent and fully disclose any commercial agreements around testimonials.

If your business is the target of harrassment via fake reviews

The ACCC advise Businesses who are affected by fake negative reviews to lodge a complaint to the platform which publishes and review and also to any regularatory authorities.  In extreme cases where there is ongoing harrassement or threats, the Police may need to be contacted.    Unfortunately a very small proportion of people will post reviews which are not a genuinely held opinion, but motivated by dislike of a business or a staff member.     We often see this in online platforms where people rally others to their cause who have not experienced the good or service but start posting negative reviews.      This can seriously damage a business reputation.

 

In rare casesreviews the negatives can actually boost a business as was seen recently with Irish business The White Moose Cafe, when comments made by the manager towards customers who were Vegan in regards to their needs, sparked an online social media war.    Thousands of Vegans posted one star reviews, but the cafe owner found the controversy brought in more and more customers (no doubt of the non vegan persuasion) and many more reviews.  They now have over 15,000 reviews with an average of 4.8 out of 5 – and they sell t-shirts.    We don’t recommend trying this.  So many things could have gone wrong including worst case some kind of violence.   In fact we are watching for any flare ups.  There are many pages and groups started against the Cafe, with equally as many started against the people who are against the Cafe – and this is behaviour that concerns us should people outside of the restaurant become involved.   It certainly makes for an interesting case study.

 

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You can learn more at the ACCC site Managing online reviews

 

 

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Crowdsourcing for personal use

crowdsourcingThis article is an opinion piece written to generate discussion and was first published by Fiona Lucas on LinkedIn in July 2015.

I have long loved the concept of Crowdsourcing to enable underfunded areas of society to be able to continue to produce works.  The Arts in particular come to mind.  Certainly in Australia young film makers would often not get an opportunity to produce works without it.      In fact I’m an avid supporter of many a venture, having backed films, tech gadgets and medical devices etc (Oh my did anyone see the “button” seeking funding lately – talk about first world tech wanna have 🙂  )

I recognise that this might be a post which raises various emotions also.

Only for enterprise?

The move towards crowdfunding for personal items has been recent.   Where it is aimed at helping someone to achieve a specific aim out of their reach such as medical treatment, an experience for a child with disabilities, to turn a life around and create employment or to produce something which gives back to others I think is commendable.

This is different again to crowd sourcing to launch a business venture where value and profits should be returned.  Should it only be for business ventures?  No, as outlined above it can be a way to completely change a life around and add so much back into society.  [In full disclosure there is an aspect of my own business, in regards to cybersafety education which we are considering looking for support for.   The reasons we are considering this is that we do not want to become a charity or non profit and compete for grants in an already crowded space, but we also are passionate about creating change in the world and without access to grants or support from large corporations it gets increasingly difficult.]

We all know that from small seeds big trees can grow, and an independent social enterprise can sometimes have more freedom than a charity particularly as they are not so bound by regulations as charites who have large government grants are, and have the flexibility to move quickly with changes.

Could it affect a business reputation?

What made me consider writing this was that lately I have seen quite a few entrepreneurs and business people crowdsourcing to travel, attend conferences and the like.     There is something about this which made me feel uneasy, yet at the same time I thought, if people want to fund them – then why not. In fact I did support one because I like them – which probably triggered this entire thought process!   But it’s the bigger picture that gets me.

As we turn to these sources for income many questions arise.    For me, a successful business person should not need to ask for further funds to attend what will no doubt be a tax deduction in the first place.     It began to make me wonder about the effect of this on one’s reputation.      Might this reflect badly upon their perception by others as a successful operator?   I do acknowledge however that often donations are made by family and friends. I guess it depends where and how the campaign is promoted to a large degree.  I think there can be a disengagement or disconnect when on one hand funds are sought and yet the same business may be promoting large ticket items for sale.

Pressure on charities and other non profits

Then the questions became deeper – could successful people seeking additional success through crowdfunding for personal use mean that people supporting them will not make the same charitable donations that they have in the past?  After all there are only so many dollars one donates.   Will this place further pressure on charities?    Add to the mix the trend I am seeing in governments where funding is cut for services and entities turn to crowdsourcing to be able to continue to be viable.    Will they also find it harder to complete with business people and entrepreneurs for the same dollar?  In Australia there are already quite substantial regulations around the use of crowdsourcing in regards to legal and tax obligations and I assume this is the case for most developed nations. I assume this will tighten as more people seek to use crowdfunding and perhaps we will see more campaigns structured as loans?

“Isn’t it just being greedy”?

Despite my reservations I do feel that if people will fund someone for a house or car or travel then, well they have made their own choice about that and it’s important that we do have freedoms.  But the bigger ethical picture just sticks in my craw  – if they don’t really need it, isn’t it just being greedy?

What is your take?  Where are we heading with this?

 

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