Online reviews should be welcome and real
In its Local Consumer Review Survey 2022, Brightlocal found that 77% of consumers “always” or “regularly” read online reviews when browsing for local businesses, up from 60% in the prior annual survey. Only 2% “never” read them.
Reputable businesses have responded by encouraging consumers to leave unfiltered reviews on their own websites and third-party platforms, including the BBB. But some companies misrepresent the opinions of customers in one way or another.
In October, the FTC sent a Notice of Penalty Offenses to more than 700 companies alerting them to what it considers to be deceptive practices in gathering and publishing reviews, endorsements and testimonials. It didn't accuse any company of wrongdoing, but it wouldn't go to the effort if it didn't think there were problems.
Deceptive practices the FTC cited include:
Claiming that a third party has endorsed a product or its performance when that's not the case, including posting fake reviews.
Failing to disclose a connection between an endorser and seller of a product that might materially affect the credibility of the endorsement or review. That could include reviews from employees and family members or someone who has been compensated in some fashion.
Misrepresenting that the typical user of a product would have the same experience as an endorser.
In its survey, Brightlocal asked participants how suspicious they are of fake reviews on major review websites. The percentage of people who answered “very” or “fairly” suspicious was 70% for Facebook, 59% for Amazon, 52% for Yelp, and 45% for Google.
Brightlocal said the BBB is, by far, the most trusted review site. Only 29% of users are “very” or “fairly” suspicious of reviews on bbb.org, which I attribute to the process we go through to vet reviews before posting them. Other sites have more reviews than we do, but our reports contain a lot of other valuable information to help a consumer decide whether to do business with a company, including its complaint history and whether it's a BBB Accredited Business.
The FTC'S Notices of Penalty Offenses were concerned with the honesty of reviews and endorsements, but its Consumer Review Fairness Act also prohibits most non-disparagement clauses in contracts in which companies threaten customers with fines or legal action if they post a negative review. Such clauses violate the BBB'S Standards of Trust.
Suppressing negative reviews while publishing positive ones also violates FTC regulations. In January, online fashion retailer Fashion Nova settled charges that it claimed product reviews on its website represented the views of all purchasers who filed a review, but in fact it suppressed ratings lower than four out of five stars. An FTC official said such practices “pollute online commerce.” The company will pay a fine of $4.2 million.
Signs that a review may be fake include a burst of reviews over a short period of time, generic reviewer profiles and review titles, and glowing praise like “great company” with no details. Many misspellings and poor grammar may indicate the company has hired an overseas “content farm” to write positive reviews.
The FTC'S best piece of advice for deciding whether to deal with a company or buy a product is to read reviews from a variety of sources.
Randy Hutchinson is the president of the Better Business Bureau of the Midsouth. Reach the BBB at 800-222-8754.