Google’s New Review Guidelines
Customer reviews play an integral role in where people spend their money. Online Google reviews appear next to a business listing in Google Maps. To ensure confidence, trust the ratings and reviews for a business, Google has updated on April 12, 2018, guidelines for Google My Business.
The new policy states, “Don’t discourage or prohibit negative reviews or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers.” All requests for online reviews from customers must be unbiased. Google guidelines appear to enforce against review software platforms. Google implemented this to prevent review gating. In another words, it is not recommended for businesses to drive customers into two separate funnels. One funnel is a private one for the unhappy customers to leave private feedback that are never sent the option to leave a review publicly. The other one is public for happy customers that had positive experience to leave reviews on Google.
In conclusion, businesses do not fear asking every customer for reviews. If your business is not comfortable asking for reviews, this can indicate problems in your business. Furthermore, make sure your reputation management platform is compliant with the new guidelines of Google.
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