Q: I'm interested in your definition of what review gating is.
As the FTC in the U.S. defines it as "review gating refers to the practice of filtering or selectively soliciting feedback from customers, often leading to biased or inflated review scores". If your product works as said then you are review gating. If it doesn't work as said then why pay for it? You're going to get a lot of businesses and marketing companies in trouble in the U.S. There have been and will continue to be stiff penalties for review gating.
PieterFeedbackLink
May 14, 2024A: Hi EjamMarketing. Thanks for the question.
The newly proposed FTC defines:
Illegal Review Suppression: Businesses would be prohibited from using unjustified legal threats, other intimidation, or false accusations to prevent or remove a negative consumer review. The proposed rule also would bar a business from misrepresenting that the reviews on its website represent all reviews submitted when negative reviews have been suppressed.
1. By default, our software does not deter or suppress anyone from leaving an online review. Any person can log on to platforms like Google, Trustpilot, Yelp etc. to leave any review for any business (that frankly, is part of the problem).
2. Whether you want to ask just your positive customers for reviews is completely up to you and is completely customizable - as it is with competitor platforms and customary survey software.
Some sideline thoughts to describe the complexity of the online “trust landscape”:
- Anyone can logon and create a review about a business, true or false, accurate or misguided, and businesses are being asked to pay/subscribe to popular online review platforms before they can “Manage” their profile and remove fake or misguided reviews. Please see this article for additional context: "How Trustpilot Extorts Businesses" - https://medium.com/@ryanbadger/how-trustpilot-extorts-businesses-91ca4b6a6f62
- Many times, misguided reviews happen before a business had an opportunity to communicate with a disgruntled customer to clarify a misunderstanding or incorrect expectations, before which it’s too late - the review is now public and discoverable on search engines. There is no just mechanism for controlling this (for instance, no way that platforms can individually vet and adjudge the correctness of every online review). (Also granted, that not all negative reviews are incorrect.)
- GPT generated reviews, fake reviews, paid reviews and testimonials are part of a complex online credibility and trust problem.
- To boost, we have evidence of multiple prominent and popular mobile apps using positive-review-only solicitation for app stores.
- Also, “Review gating” can be done with any simple software, i.e. - Survey monkey or Google forms, and we have evidence that our competitors offer this functionality.
Thanks - happy to hear your FTC source and thoughts.
Pieter
FTC Source
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/06/federal-trade-commission-announces-proposed-rule-banning-fake-reviews-testimonials
1888marketingThank you for replying Pieter. But your answer doesn't reflect reality. The FTC when they fined fashinova they sent letters to 10 marketing agencies that were doing exactly what you're doing. From the letters the FTC wrote to the agencies:
1. GoSite, Inc - Your website includes the following description of how clients can use GoSite's review tool:
"You can also send review requests to specific, happy customers to help counteract a negative review and improve your ratings. To prevent negative reviews from posting in the first place, GoSite's review tool has a built-in filter, which allows you to respond to negative reviews privately--through email--rather than having customers post publicly."
The provision or use of either one of these functionalities would violate the FTC Act if it results in a misleading impression about what consumers think about a product or service.
Oggvo, LLC - Your website indicates that clients can use your services to:
"keep [their] valuable reputation under lock and key with a proven system that surveys dissatisfied clients so [they] can handle the situation," and "capture unhappy clients before they do irreparable damage."
The provision or use of any such functionality would violate the FTC Act if it results in a misleading impression about what consumers think about a product or service.
5. Rallio - Your website includes the following description of your REVV service:
"Our platform generates a quick post-sale text survey to your customers so they can provide feedback about their experience in your store. Customers who respond positively are prompted to leave a review and linked directly to that store's Google, Facebook, or Yelp page. . . . If a customer responds to your survey with a rating of 3 or below, they will be prompted to leave a comment and request further assistance. Your team is alerted via email of the poor experience, and the customer can be contacted directly before they post a negative social review about your company!"
The provision or use of either one of these functionalities would violate the FTC Act if it results in a misleading impression about what consumers think about a product or service.
Appsumo agencies can read the article here: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nearmedia.co/ftc-review-fraud-letters-the-platforms-who-got-them/amp/
My biggest problem is you have no skin in the game - the FTC will go after the small businesses and the marketing agencies and you just being the SaaS provider won't have any liability.
And you're absolutely wrong in your argument and you probably know it. So I'd urge anyone looking at this deal to read the letters the FTC has already issued and make an informed decision.
wpatrickm
Verified purchaser
I was concerned about this as well. You can change the survey to allow any rating to leave a review. This way it adheres to Google and FTC rules.