Manage & Collect
What Reviews To Collect & Where To Place Them On Your Site (For Maximum Impact)
July 23, 2019
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3 min read
So, in the style of Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back, which exposed just how easy it is to rank a fake company on the platform, we’ve decided to share some of the first hand experiences customers have had with other review collection platforms.
I’m a massive fan of Joe Lycett and the humour he brings to consumer rights, but in an episode he highlights there’s a serious undertone to Trustpilot's practices and ‘gotcha’ sales techniques.
One thing recently brought to our attention is a question of balance. A Shopify Plus customer highlighted that their standard review plan allowed a limited number of positive reviews per month, but with no maximum allowance for negative reviews. If they wanted a better balance between the two, they’d need to upgrade their plan.
We encourage customers to embrace negative reviews, as they’re a great way to show good customer service. And if you’re getting an influx of them you need to make some changes. But this customer’s frustration clearly stems from the desire to balance negativity out with genuine positive feedback, something they struggled to do under the restrictions of their current plan.
12 month terms for a Saas tool? We think that’s crazy, not to mention outdated.
Sadly, there’s a lot of companies that disagree. Always watch out for lengthy contracts and hidden costs when signing up for any service, especially if you’re a start-up with limited capital.
We get at least one call a day from a customer caught out by auto-renewal's too. Make sure you’re aware of when your contract is up, as you might not get a renewal notification. And once you’re rolled over, it can be almost impossible to escape.
There’s a lot of online reviews of customers claiming their cancellation requests have been ignored, so it’s definitely something to watch out for.
FREE account while you run out your Trustpilot contract
If you’re a customer collecting reviews and tied into a contract reading this, we can’t change their ways but we can offer a lifeline with a free account until you escape from your contract.
With a lot of third party review platforms, you don’t have to have an account for someone to leave feedback on your business. And when you’re not actively encouraging reviews on a particular platform, the one’s left are likely to be negative.
In a rush to remedy this, too many people fall into long term contracts simply for damage control. Be careful. That damage control could cost you more than it’s worth.
The good news is you also don’t need an account to boost your rating on these platforms. You can, in fact, send reviews there via other solutions. They might not tell you this, but it can be done!
We’ve been dealing with this one for a long time. So many customers come to us questioning the SEO benefits of our solution. Why? Because they’ve been told there aren’t any, or that whatever benefits do exist are limited.
It’s a ridiculous suggestion that’s wearing pretty thin. As a Google Licensed Partner, REVIEWS.io offers the same SEO benefits as any other Google partner solution. And if you want to know more about exactly what those benefits are, we’re happy to talk you through them.
For proof of our SEO ability, just search ‘review collection’ in Google as an example. We actually don’t see this as a great metric for measurement. SEO is far more complex, which is why we think any claims that our ability is limited by how popular a brand appears are, quite frankly, crazy talk.
Maybe we should be flattered that our competitors are reaching out to our customers but we much prefer the inbound sales approach.
It’s not all doom and gloom, tand not all SaaS providers are the same. Instead of lies pushing the hard sell, our business comes from word of mouth. Instead of lengthy contracts and hidden costs for extra features, we work on a rolling basis with transparent pricing, and all new features are given to everyone. Simple, nothing scary here and if you’re not made up you’re not tied down.
If you’re looking to switch to a trusted Trustpilot alternative, check out the reviews of people that already have. Even if you don’t choose us, download our free guide to moving review platform for all you need to know before you sign the dotted line. We’re here to provide all the information you require to make an informed discussion.
