The Federal Trade Commission is bringing forth new legislation that seeks to tackle the growing problem of fake reviews by beefing up their ability to take action against entities that use dishonest practices to artificially boost their brand’s online image and credibility. Statistics reveal that 88.3% of consumers can spot fake reviews. Besides, the prevalence of fake reviews’ online may have a damaging effect on consumer trust in reviews and customer-business relationships.
The FTC ruling has the potential to push the market to take much-needed actions to clean up the online review space and to provide businesses with a benchmark to build upon that helps achieve a genuine, trusted online reputation. As the FTC bans fake reviews, what measures do businesses need to take to ensure compliance?
Let’s break it down into 5 steps:
1. Understand the FTC’s New Fake Review Standards
What exactly is the new FTC fake review rule designed to clamp down on? Put simply, it’s aimed at any and all deceptive practices that are related to public consumer feedback. Under the incoming FTC reviews guidelines, businesses must not:
- Buy, sell, write, or knowingly publish fake online reviews or testimonials
- Delete, censor, or suppress negative customer reviews through acts of intimidation such as baseless legal threats
- Give the impression that reviews originate from independent sources when they are, in fact, linked to the company, be it financially, a relative of an employee, etc.
- Provide customers with incentives, financial or otherwise, in exchange for guaranteed positive reviews.
2. Carry Out a Thorough Review Audit
Set the foundation by conducting or commissioning a comprehensive audit of how your business interacts with and handles customer reviews. This should cover:
Review solicitation: Are your reviews acquired fairly? Are they received without coercion and free of selection biases?
Honest representation: Are all reviews, good and bad, published? Justifiable grounds for removal do exist, such as, for example, inappropriate content or personal information, but outside of this, reviews should not be curated to present your business in a misleading way.
Reputable online review platforms like PissedConsumer.com or Google regularly stress the importance of displaying both positive and negative reviews. The review browsing public are far more likely to put their faith in a brand if it accepts and acknowledges its critics.
3. Disclose Any Conflict of Interest
Compliance with the FTC review regulations requires that any material relationship between a business and the author of an online review must be clearly represented.
There are two main points to consider here. First, ensure your staff discloses their status of affiliation if they do pen a review of your company or products. Second, if reviews are incentivized in any way, be it a discount or a product supplied free of charge in exchange for a review, make this fact clear to the reader of the review.
4. Carefully Assess Any Incentive Programs
Offering incentives in return for reviews is common and in itself does not conflict with the dictates of the FTC rule on fake reviews. Yet, the ruling does emphasize that no incentives should be offered conditionally as a means of influencing the sentiment of the review.
Avoid contradicting this rule by:
- Removing any requirements or conditions from solicited reviews. You may encourage people to leave a review in return for a store discount, for example, but there must be no strings attached
- Regularly reviewing your incentive programs to ensure they do not suggest that there is a benefit to writing favorable reviews
5. Check Review Platforms
Popular online review platforms are the main hub of customer reviews and feedback for every business. Association with any third parties that fail to comply with the FTC legislation could lead to complications.
To avoid any issues:
Carefully vet any sites that you partner with to ensure that they have taken the necessary actions to comply with the FTC guidelines. Keep your brand name as far as possible from platforms that receive vast numbers of paid-for or otherwise fake reviews. Only work with trusted platforms that make a point of upholding transparency, authenticity, and consumer rights.
The Importance of Compliance
Companies that don’t respect the FTC’s new fake review standards put themselves on the firing line for not just financial penalties but also a kick to their reputation that will put a deep crack in any trust they have built up among their consumer base. This could be easily avoided if you assure your business compliance with FTC. Thus, these necessary steps aren’t just a preventative measure. They’ll sow seeds that grow a reputation for clarity, honesty, and a genuine will to listen to and collaborate with your customers.
