What are the real downsides of collecting reviews with incentives?

Get 500 yen off your next visit if you write a review.
Get a gift for posting a Google review.
For businesses looking to increase their number of reviews, offering incentives can seem like an efficient strategy at first glance.

This is because it is easier to get people to post than by simply asking, and there is a possibility of increasing the number of reviews in a short period.

However, we do not recommend this method.

Of course, one reason is that it violates Google's policies.

But that is not the only downside we really want you to consider.

Collecting reviews through incentives has the potential to damage the trust a company has built up over time, and even undermine the value of reviews as genuine customer feedback.

To ensure you don't lose years of built-up trust in exchange for short-term numbers, we will explain the risks you need to know now and the essential solutions.

First, it is clearly prohibited by Google's policies.

As a major premise, Google prohibits offering incentives in exchange for posting reviews.

In Google's "Prohibited and restricted content" policy, reviews posted triggered by incentives such as the following are prohibited as they constitute manipulation of ratings.

On the other hand, asking for reviews itself is not prohibited.
It is permitted to ask for honest reviews based on actual experiences without offering incentives or influencing the rating or content of the post.

In other words, the problem is not asking for reviews, but offering compensation or having the company control the ratings or content.

The risks of violating the policy include having reviews removed, restrictions on posting reviews on your Business Profile, having them hidden, or having warnings displayed to users.

As a result of trying to increase reviews with incentives, there is a possibility that it will lead to the opposite effect of fewer reviews, an inability to collect them, and even a decline in the store's credibility.

What is truly scary is not just the penalty from Google.

We have introduced Google's policies up to this point.
However, what we consider to be a greater risk for store businesses is reputation risk.

In Japan, as of October 2023, stealth marketing, which is difficult for general consumers to identify as advertising, has become subject to regulation under the Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations.

It is important to note here that not all reviews with incentives violate stealth marketing regulations.

To summarize the Consumer Affairs Agency's Q&A simply, it is as follows:

• Offering a discount for writing a review
  → In cases where the content of the post is not specified and the offer is made uniformly to general consumers, it is generally considered not to immediately constitute a "representation by a business operator."

• Making it a condition to give a "5-star" rating
  → It is considered that the business operator is determining the content of the post, and it is therefore considered to constitute a "representation by a business operator."

• Requesting content that recommends the product or service, such as "I recommend this"
  → Similarly, this is considered to constitute a "representation by a business operator."

And if it is a "representation by a business operator" but that fact is not clearly understandable to general consumers, it violates the stealth marketing notification.

The Consumer Affairs Agency explains reviews that are conditional on a "5-star" rating as follows:

Note that this does not mean there are no problems as long as you do not specify the content of the post.

In cases such as requesting posts individually and paying rewards, it may be judged as a "representation by a business operator" depending on the nature of the consideration, the circumstances of the request, and the relationship between the business operator and the poster.

In other words, the judgment under the Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations changes depending on not just the presence or absence of incentives, but how much the business operator is involved in determining the content of the post.

However, Google's rules are simpler.

Even in cases that do not immediately violate stealth marketing regulations under the Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations, incentivized reviews are prohibited by Google.

Even if you think "it's fine if it's a method that is not legally problematic," there is a risk if you violate Google's policies.

In other words, you cannot judge incentive measures based solely on whether they are legally safe.

And what we want to think about further is what lies beyond that.

Even before considering whether you will receive a penalty from Google,

isn't the very fact that users perceive your company as one that manipulates reviews a major risk?

In particular, for companies that have been operating in a region for a long time or store brands with a long history, the impact is not insignificant.

The valuable assets that such companies have built up are not just the number of stars on Google Maps.

I can trust this company.
They have spent many years building that kind of trust.

Putting that trust at risk just to increase the number of reviews by a few dozen.
I think it is worth considering whether this is a measure that should be taken to that extent.

Incentives change the reason for writing a review

Another thing to consider is the content of the reviews that are collected.

Originally, the background behind why customers go out of their way to write a review includes:

I want to express my gratitude to the staff who helped me.
The service was good, so I want to tell someone else about it.
I want to support this store.

These are the feelings they have.
However, when you provide incentives, the reason for posting changes.

Instead of writing because they want to express gratitude, they write because they will receive a reward.

As a result, even if the number of reviews increases, there may be an increase in reviews that make it difficult to convey the actual customer experience, such as:
"It was good"
"Thank you very much"
"I will use this store again"

Of course, short reviews are not bad.

However, for a store, the value of a review should not just be the number that has increased by one.

Reviews are also feedback from customers to staff

The role of reviews is not just to attract customers.
Reviews are also feedback from customers to staff.

So-and-so's explanation was very easy to understand.
I was anxious, but thanks to the person in charge, I felt relieved.
I was happy that they were kind to my child.

If the staff themselves see these voices of gratitude, they can realize how their work reached the customer. The joy of "having my name mentioned and being praised" becomes a sense of fulfillment that goes beyond simply achieving a number, and dramatically increases staff motivation.
Voices from customers lead to staff fulfillment and motivation.
That staff member then provides even better service to the next customer.
As a result, new voices of gratitude are born.

What reviews create is a cycle of CX (Customer Experience) and EX (Employee Experience).

That is why, in order to sustain review initiatives, I believe it is important not just to have a target number, such as collecting 10 more this month, but to create a system where customer voices are returned to the staff.

You can get reviews written even without incentives

From the store's perspective, you might think that if you don't provide some kind of benefit, customers won't go out of their way to write a review.

However, in the stores we actually support, even without providing incentives, highly enthusiastic reviews filled with gratitude for the staff are being created.

More than the store imagines,

I want to say thank you.
I want the person who helped me to be happy.
I want to support this store because it was a good one.

There are customers who think this way.
Perhaps they just didn't have an opportunity to convey those feelings.

There is no need to assume from the beginning that reviews will not be collected unless you provide incentives.
First, try asking for a review naturally from the staff at the moment a good customer experience is created.

Having customers leave their experiences in their own words.
Why not start from there?

Don't just increase the number of reviews; turn them into value.

The Staff Value service we provide is not just a tool for chasing the number of Google reviews. It is a system that visualizes customer feedback as the individual value of staff members, allowing it to be shared across headquarters and the entire store.
Click here for an introduction to Staff Value▼

*At Staff Value, we prioritize having customers post their honest experiences of their own volition, without specifying the rating or content of Google reviews.

Visualizing the voices received from customers as staff value.
Delivering those voices to the staff members themselves.
And connecting the appeal of the people working in the store to the appeal of the store itself and its ability to attract customers.
Reviews are not just for increasing the number of stars.
・Relationships with customers.
・The value that staff provide.
・The trust that a company has built up over a long period of time.
Reviews that embody these are very important assets.

That is why, rather than thinking about the fastest way to increase reviews, we think about how to create stores where genuine customer voices are continuously generated.

We would like to help companies that want to collect reviews in that way to build their store assets.
Click here for inquiries regarding Staff Value service details and implementation.

https://www.staff-value.com/

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