A: Hi trout009, thanks for your questions!

1.) Absolutely, you can change the whole setup (per business) as you wish, we can help you reset your account.

2.) Yes, there is a phrase in Google policy on the selective solicitation of reviews from customers. In this regard, we allow our users to choose - it’s configurable whether they want to only ask happy customers for reviews, or to both happy and unhappy customers. Note that no review platform can identify reviews originating from us, as it’s not possible to trace the origin of reviewers from our survey due to internet privacy protocol. A website cannot determine the referral origin of a web visitor coming from our survey, as our feedback survey is set up so the origin (source) of the reviewer is kept private (as is a best-practice for those who take internet privacy seriously, because the 'referrer' HTTP header contain sensitive information).

Likewise, your account and data are kept private on our side. To our knowledge there has not been any cases of Google penalising this method, most likely due to the fact that its largely impossible to trace and regulate reviews (anyone can sign up for an account with a burner email and post a review).

The topic of the integrity of the review ecosystem is a complex issue oversimplified by many. It’s largely impossible for platforms like Google to trace review origins/fake reviews/negative reviews created by the competition/…/…. This means that the review ecosystem is tainted, and already not a perfect system. A lot of business owners/entrepreneurs will surely only ask their best customers for testimonials and reviews, whether through a tool like FeedbackLink, in-person or over email etc. It’s currently common practise in mobile apps to first ask the visitor “Are you enjoying our app? Yes/No”, and only after a “Yes” to ask for a review on the App Store.

We think that servicing unhappy customers directly is much better than having those customers posting on any arbitrary platform online — currently there are 100+ review platforms where consumers can go to review. Complaints in those posts are lost and businesses may find it hard to get to the root cause of customer unhappiness (and fixing the consumer economy into a better place - i.e. progress).

Additionally, if a disgruntled customer wants to tell the world, they will. No survey tool will stop that. FeedbackLink was not built to deter disgruntled customers from telling the world, it’s built so that disgruntled customers can be turned into supporters before it’s too late. Reviews we help generate are legitimate, authentic and resemble customers’ true feelings - not to mention hard-fought for and well earned.