Customer reviews have proven to be extremely powerful. But with great power, comes great responsibility, and a lot of businesses and people have been acting irresponsibly when it comes to customer reviews. The importance of reviews and high ratings has caused many companies to make the poor decision to write their own reviews or to have employees ask family and friends to write a positive review.
Soliciting or posting fake reviews is extremely common and illegal, going against the Consumer Review Fairness Act. According to the FTC, “fake reviews may distort the signal of quality in online reviews, and so erode the reputation and trust that they generate.”
Fake reviews tend to favor bad or low quality businesses more favorably than better businesses, according to a study by the FTC that used BBB star ratings as a baseline, making BBB the standard for their research. Their work found BBB's handling of reviews allows users to trust a business' rating is truly reflective of its quality more than other platforms. To increase usefulness, BBB also only allows reviews with at least 10 words.
BBB reviews differ greatly from other platforms in the extent to which we attempt to filter out fake reviews. BBB uses a proprietary algorithm to determine which reviews are likely fake and makes every attempt verify that a review is based on a real marketplace transaction, including requiring a phone number and email address from reviewers. During this verification process, BBB may reach out to consumers to make sure they left a review and said what they said. BBB also redacts irrelevant information or personal attacks.
The BBB process also vets out reviews that may have been written by personal fans instead of customers, including those at accredited businesses themselves. In addition to being against the law, writing fake reviews also violates BBB standards of accreditation, putting a company at risk of receiving an NR - Not Rated - status or losing accreditation. While maintaining a positive online reputation is essential to remaining competitive, keep the following guidelines in mind:
Offering incentives, such as discounts or payment in exchange for reviews which is a common way to solicit reviews, is also not allowed.
Providing any kind of compensation for a review or endorsement requires a disclosure by the reviewer, such as the #AD commonly seen on the posts of influencers.
Requesting reviews through bulk messages is also prohibited.
Better Business Bureau is committed to promoting marketplace trust by doing our absolute best to filter out fake reviews and encouraging fairness.
“Online reviews allow businesses to gain a reputation and facilitate trust in the marketplace,” according to the FTC. As an Accredited Business, you will have access to the Review Solutions app, which allows you to connect directly with a customer to ask for a review and to export reviews to other platforms.
Visit BBB.org for more business tips and resources for your business.