FTC Targets Fake Online Reviews: Embracing Authentic Feedback for Business Success

In today’s digital landscape, customer feedback and reviews play an enormous role in a business’s success. Positive reviews can build trust and credibility, while negative reviews can tarnish a company’s brand and negatively impact revenue. Knowing this, many businesses across all industries cherry-pick, falsify reviews, or use other tactics to positively skew their brand’s reputation.

In response to growing frustration about review validity, the Federal Trade Commission recently proposed a new rule to reduce the number of fake or paid positive online reviews. The proposed rule would penalize:

• Selling or obtaining fake reviews and testimonials
• Review hijacking
• Buying positive or negative reviews
• Insider reviews and testimonials
• Company-controlled review websites
• Illegal review suppression
• Selling fake social media indicators

Whether this rule passes or not, this issue is top-of-mind for consumers, which means it should be taken very seriously. In fact, according to Speigel Research Center, “68% of consumers put more trust in reviews when there is a mixture of positive and negative feedback,” indicating that they’re skeptical of perfection.

Having an authentic and trustworthy online presence is far more valuable than thousands of fake or only positive reviews. Consumers, especially those seeking a service that involves inviting someone into their home, want to engage with businesses they can trust. Online reviews influence those decisions. Remodelers, home builders, and contractors who want to build confidence with their clients must embrace the idea of collecting and publishing feedback from all customers.

The value of negative feedback

Negative reviews can be especially valuable as they give you an opportunity to showcase accountability and excellent customer service and to correct what went wrong. Addressing feedback publicly reinforces the fact that you value your customers’ opinions and consider how they feel when making decisions about improvement. And the faster you can respond to negative feedback, the better. According to Search Engine Journal, “Consumers expect a response to negative reviews within seven days.” In short, your response to reviews can drastically change how consumers view your business, making it a critical aspect of reputation management and customer satisfaction.

Related: How to respond to negative reviews: 5 best practices

Empowering your business with customer feedback

GuildQuality’s platform revolves around growing your business with authentic customer feedback. By surveying every customer, you will learn what’s truly working and what is not. You’ll also have in-depth, actionable performance data to help you strengthen your customer experience and business as a whole.

Our network of home builders, remodelers, and contractors pride themselves on being trustworthy and transparent, and they hold themselves accountable. Our customer feedback collection process has ensured our members maintain authenticity and are protected from review crackdowns like this recent proposal.

Want to learn how you can leverage the value of gathering authentic feedback by surveying all of your customers with GuildQuality? Visit our website to schedule a demo!