Trustpilot is one of the leading business review networks that allows consumers to share their experiences and opinions about companies and products. It was founded in Denmark in 2007 and since then Trustpilot is hosting millions of reviews about businesses worldwide.
Trustpilot is a key platform for consumer feedback and managing online business reputations. It allows customers to share their experiences and gives businesses the tools to respond to both positive and negative reviews. This helps shape perceptions and contribute to the success of companies. Trustpilot ranks highly on search engines like Google and Bing when people search for products, services, and business names, making it a powerful tool for online reputation and SEO for B2B, B2C, and local companies. In addition, AI platforms like ChatGPT, Google Generative AI, Bing Copilot use Trustpilot content as reference. Therefore, it’s crucial to manage reviews on Trustpilot, respond to feedback, and flag any negative reviews that violate the rules and community guidelines. In this post, we’ll describe how businesses can address and remove negative Trustpilot reviews.
Why Every Business Should Pay Attention to Trustpilot and Manage or Remove Negative Reviews
Trustpilot ranks and collects reviews on any business with a website, whether it’s a local business with a physical location or an online business. Reviews on Trustpilot can rate and describe any interactions with a business, software and technology, the quality of products or services purchased, and the services provided.
As a result, Trustpilot functions as a business directory, local directory, shopping platform, travel review site, niche reviews, and B2B review network. This wide reach makes it important for businesses of all types to pay attention to Trustpilot network, claim their profiles, and actively manage their reviews.
Who Can Post Reviews on Trustpilot Network?
Since Trustpilot open to any business that has a website, anyone can post on the network. The most common reviews come from the following audience:
- Consumers, people who has had a direct experience with a business can post a review on Trustpilot. This includes purchasing a product, service, or any other interaction with a company management or employees. In order to put a review, users must create an account and verify identity.
- Companies or businesses, anyone who interacted on a business level, B2B, such as client, vendor, parter etc.
- Former and current employees might provide some company insight information like feedback about management or work culture. Trustpilot was not build as a job review network like Glassdoor or Indeed, but occasionally you can see those types of reviews there as well.
- And, unfortunately, “bad actors”, people who spam or post fake reviews. Trustpilot have made significant improvements over the years to improve quality of reviews. Still, business owners must stay vigilant and report, flag those reviews to moderatos.
In the past, critics highlighted that scammers and some businesses exploited Trustpilot’s lack of control over new reviews, leading to a surge of fake reviews. In recent years, Trustpilot has updated its policies and took control on what type of content gets approved. Nevertheless, it is still advisable to audit reviews for your business, especially those posted before 2021.
Scammers still advertise their services to post negative fake reviews on Trustpilot:
Even today scammers advertise their services and would write negative reviews for as little as $5 to damage your business. This types of ads appear frequently in online communities like Medium, Reddit, Quora and other online forums.
Trustpilot Commitment to Fight Fake Reviews
Trustpilot has implemented several improvements to combat fake reviews and fraudulent content. According to their website, they have a dedicated team responsible for removing over 2.7 million fake reviews in 2021 alone. This team also moderates reviews flagged as questionable by business owners and community.
Trustpilot Reviews Can Appear on Various Platforms and Networks
Trustpilot reviews and ratings appear beyond the Trustpilot platform itself. Trustpilot collaborates with other networks, websites, and applications where reviews can be displayed. Additionally, review aggregators and AI virtual assistants analyze and recommend Trustpilot reviews. Here are some locations where you can find Trustpilot reviews and referrals:
- Search engines like Google and Bing feature Trustpilot reviews and scores as snippets in their search results.
- Review aggregator sites that collect reviews from various sources
- E-commerce Platforms, Trustpilot reviews can be embedded into e-commerce sites like Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce.
- AI virtual assistants (see below)
- Reviews are being shared in communities like Reddit and Quora
- Also, many social media users share Trustpilot reviews on X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram and others.
By removing negative reviews from Trustpilot, you also remove them from other platforms where Trustpilot reviews are shared!
Trustpilot Reviews Analyzed and Shared by AI Platforms
Microsoft Bing AI Copilot not only analyze and share the summary of Trustpilot reviews, it gives direct link to the page where those reviews can be found. As AI assistants like Bing Copilot gain popularity, it becomes increasingly important for businesses to actively manage their presence on review platforms such as Trustpilot.
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Strategies How to Manage and Remove Negative Trustpilot Reviews
If you receive a negative or unfair review on Trustpilot, start by determining if it came from a real customer. Reviews from individuals who never done business with you are fake and should be immediately reported to the network.
For reviews from real customers, analyze them to decide what to do next. As a business representative, you can try to resolve the issue offline and hope the customer will take it down or write better version. Or you can respond politely online, demonstrating your commitment to improvement. If you believe a review violates Trustpilot’s Community Guidelines, report it to moderators and try to have it removed.
Managing your reviews is critical to maintaining a strong reputation and star ratings on Trustpilot, even when you receive negative feedback. Ignoring review management from the beginning can lead to more significant issues in the future, making it harder to catch up. It’s best to address reviews right away.
Next, we’ll discuss how to flag and report reviews you believe are fake or violate Trustpilot’s rules.
Which Trustpilot Reviews Can Be Reported and Removed?
Trustpilot established Guidelines for Reviewers to maintain the integrity and usefulness of reviews. Reviews must be real, reflecting the reviewer’s own experiences, and relevant to the business or product being reviewed. They must be respectful, avoiding offensive language or personal attacks, and ensure privacy by not including personal information about others without consent. Additionally, reviews must comply with applicable laws and regulations.
Summary of Trustpilot’s Guidelines for Reviews:
- Reviews must reflect real genuine experiences within the past 12 months.
- Keep receipts or documentation in case verification is needed.
- Write about your own experiences.
- Be respectful and avoid harmful, hateful, discriminatory, defamatory, or obscene content.
- Double-check that your review is posted on the correct business profile page.
In addition, Trustpilot has implemented measures to detect and remove fake or fraudulent reviews. These efforts ensure that the reviews remain trustworthy and beneficial for consumers.
How to Flag, Report, and Remove Trustpilot Reviews
There are several ways to flag and delete negative Trustpilot reviews you believe violate the rules of the network.
Flag Trustpilot Reviews as a User or Consumer:
To start he process, you must be signed in to your Trustpilot account. Then follow the next steps:
- Find the review in question
- Click “Flag” link next to it
- Log in to your consumer account
- Choose the reason why you are flagging the review
- Provide more details if asked during the next steps
However, it’s not ideal to report reviews as a consumer and the chance for success to take down the review is low. The network encourage businesses to use business Trustpilot account to flag and report unfair reviews.
Flag Trustpilot Reviews as a Business:
You need to have Trustpilot Business Account and report from there following the next steps:
- Create your Trustpilot Business Account and claim your business
- Log in to your Business Account
- Go to “Reviews” section for your business
- Locate the review in question and click “Flag” icon next to it
- Chose the reason why you flagging the review
- Wait for decision, if Trustpilot decides to keep the review, you should escalate it by clicking “Investigate” button
Important to note! Do not submit to many reports all at once or way too often. Trustpilot might penalize your account and put it on hold if you overload moderators with the requests.
Penalties for excessive flagging of reviews are unique to Trustpilot and not common for other networks. For example, on Google you can log in to your account and flag and report dozens of reviews at once. But, on Trustpilot excessive flagging can result in penalties.
Appealing Flagged Reviews on Trustpilot
If any pervious attempt didn’t work out, use contact form as a last resort to appeal Trustpilot’s decision.
- Go to contact form
- Select that you are a business
- Select a topic such as “problematic review”, “fake review”, or other
- Describe the issue and why the review should be removed
- Provide the URL of the review
- Attached the screenshots and evidence to increase the chances of successful removal
Wait for the network to respond. Appealing can be the only way to get a real person talking to you.
How to Claim Your Business on Trustpilot?
If you need to create Business Profile on Trustpilot, you will need to claim your business. If you used an email matching your business website domain to claim your account, your setup is complete. But, if the email you used does not match your business website’s domain, you’ll need to verify your domain. This additional step is necessary to finalize your Trustpilot Business account setup. You can verify your domain using Google Console, Meta Tags, DNS, file upload, and other methods detailed here: https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/360019072354-Verify-your-domain
It is also recommended to verify your company details:
You can verify your company by synching your Google My Business (Google Maps) account, proof of identity, domain name ownership, or bank account. In general, verified businesses can have better support and response from Trustpilot.
Response Time for Trustpilot Moderators After a Review is Flagged or Appealed
The response time from Trustpilot moderators after a review is flagged or appealed for removal can vary depending on specific circumstances. Typically, Trustpilot respond within a few business days. The exact time may depend on the volume of flagged reviews they are handling at the moment, the type of review you flagged and the evidence provided.
Based on our experience, on some occasions we received replies almost immediately within hours, and in other instances, it took 1 or 2 weeks. Occasionally, there was no reply at all, and the review mysteriously disappeared. One observation, Trustpilot sales team can be very proactive, often calling immediately after you flag the review. It seems their internal system views flagging from businesses as “lead” and potential interest.
Success Rate of Removing Flagged Trustpilot Reviews
There isn’t a straightforward “success rate” when it comes to flagging and reporting Trustpilot reviews. The outcome depends on different factors such as the content of the review, how well it’s written, and how it violates Community Guidelines.
In recent years, Trustpilot has changed and adjusted its approach to handling of the reviews and how it moderates it. It came after past criticisms of slow response times. Therefore, relying on our personal experience and observations may not apply until enough statistical data is collected.
For instance, Trustpilot claims that now you don’t need to flag all the reviews you believe are fake. You can only flag one review and the network promise to reviews the patterns of illegal activity and remove all suspicious reviews. We still need time to confirm if it’s the case and what’s the success rate for Trustpilot find all the suspicious reviews and remove them.
Tips to Improve Your Chances of Flagging and Removing Negative Trustpilot Reviews
To improve your chances of removing negative content from Trustpilot and convincing moderators to take your side when flagging a review, follow these simple steps:
- Flag reviews from your claimed business account. It is more effective to flag reviews as a business rather than as a consumer.
- Don’t report too many reviews all at once or too often. Trustpilot actually penalize businesses for overloading moderators with requests.
- Provide detailed information. Include as much relevant information and evidence as possible to demonstrate how the review violates Trustpilot’s content guidelines for reviewers.
- Understand Trustpilot’s guidelines. Familiarize yourself with Trustpilot rules for reviews to navigate the reporting process more effectively, make stronger case, and increase your chances of success.
- Choose the right timing. Avoid emotional responses right after the review appeared, take your time, and focus on presenting clear evidence of how the review violates Trustpilot’s guidelines.
By following these tips, you can increase your chances of removing reviews that are unfair and violate Trustpilot’s guidelines.
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Will My Trustpilot Star Rating Change After a Negative Review Is Removed?
Trustpilot star rating, often referred to as TrustScore, is calculated from active reviews visible to visitors. Thats why when a review is removed, the TrustScore updates accordingly, reflecting the change shortly thereafter. Same way, receiving a new positive review will cause the rating to increase.
Can Better Trustpilot Reviews and Rankings Boost Traffic and Sales?
When you browse Trustpilot, you might see that companies with more reviews and higher rankings are more likely to appear in the section called “People who looked at this company also looked at”. Therefore, it is possible to see some improvement in web traffic from Trustpilot.
But, I wouldn’t count on Trustpilot for generating web traffic to your site. Trustpilot is typically used as a reference point when people are researching your company to decide whether to make a purchase or not. As a decision making tool, Trustpilot influences customers who already been on your site or visited your store, and who may return to complete their transactions, whether finalizing an eCommerce purchase, submitting a B2B form, or visiting a physical location.
Also, positive Trustpilot reviews have a significant impact on search engine optimization (SEO) and rankings for businesses. Search engines like Google prioritize Trustpilot reviews, often displaying reviews and company’s star ratings high in search results. This visibility increases the likelihood of clicks, improving your click-through rate (CTR) and driving more web traffic, foot traffic, and sales to your business.
Trustpilot Ranks High on Search Engines Like Google:
Trustpilot Denied My Request to Remove a False Review. What Should I Do Next?
If Trustpilot rejects your request to remove a false review and it still stays, here are a few steps you can take to try remove negative Trustpilot reviews:
- Use the “Contact Us” form and write an appeal. As mentioned earlier, try a different approach by writing to Trustpilot using the “Contact Us” form. But, this may not significantly increase your chances of removal.
- Reply to the Review. If the review stays, respond on behalf of your company. Your response might encourage the reviewer to reconsider and possibly rewrite or completely remove the negative content. At last, it shows to the public that you are proactive and addressing concerns.
To summarize, if Trustpilot denies your request to remove a review in question and you still believe it violates guidelines, consider appealing after a few weeks with additional evidence to strengthen your case. If the review remains, respond to it professionally on behalf of your company to demonstrate your proactive approach and address the concerns publicly.
Why Some Reviews That Clearly Violate Trustpilot’s Content Guidelines Are Still Approved?
With thousands new reviews on Trustpilot on a daily basis, it is simply impossible to monitor all of them, and automatic approvals might miss some of them.
As mentioned before, critics once highlighted scammers and businesses exploiting Trustpilot’s lax review controls, flooding it with fake reviews. Trustpilot has since tightened its policies and approval process. Businesses should still review older reviews, especially pre 2021, to verify there are no fake ones.
According to research, more than 23% of online reviews on platforms like Trustpilot are fake, and an additional 24% are poorly written.
This highlights the importance for business owners to actively monitor their online profiles and reviews.
Building Positive Trustpilot Reviews to Offset Any Future Negative Reviews
To build a strong defense and protect your company against future negative reviews, it’s important to consistently gather new Trustpilot reviews from happy customers. By actively encouraging positive feedback and 5 star reviews, you can steadily accumulate higher ratings and a more favorable average star rating.
Trustpilot provides tools and widgets that allow businesses to show their profiles, reviews, TrustScore, and collect feedback directly from their websites, email campaigns, and social profiles. Utilizing these tools enables businesses to prompt satisfied customers to leave positive reviews. Additionally, from your business profile, you can invite loyal customers via email to share their reviews. With free access, you can invite up to 50 contacts.
This direct approach not only improves your online reputation but also helps to offset any occasional negative feedback, making it less impactful over time. Additionally, regularly receiving positive Trustpilot reviews builds trust and loyalty among your current customers, which ultimately contributes to the long-term success of your business.
Turning Negative Trustpilot Reviews into Business Opportunities
It is not recommended to flag and report every negative review on Trustpilot just because you disagree with it. Many reviews and genuine and offer constructive criticism that can be valuable. Responding to these reviews demonstrates a commitment to improving service. Addressing concerns publicly shows transparency and customers value it.
In addition to demonstrating commitment to improvement, responding to negative Trustpilot reviews can “humanize” your brand and build trust and loyalty with potential customers. Moreover, actively managing reviews on Trustpilot helps you gain insights into customer’s perceptions, allowing you to improve your products and services and grow your business.
Leveraging Trustpilot Analytics Tools
Trustpilot network offers analytics tools that provide businesses with insights into their business page and review performance. By analyzing trends, identifying common patterns in feedback, and tracking changes in customer sentiment, businesses can make decisions based on data to enhance their reputation and reviews. Leveraging these analytics can improve the overall visibility.
Also, it gives you data on conversions when you send invitation emails to your customers and place widgets on your site that show reviews and collect feedback. Whith that knowledge, you can optimize your performance and review facilitation.
Can I Completely Delete My Company From Trustpilot?
According to Trustpilot, they keep business profile pages and reviews online unless they violate rules. Deleting your Trustpilot Business account reverts your profile page to “Unclaimed”.
You can’t completely delete your company from Trustpilot. Trustpilot keeps business profiles to ensure transparency for consumer feedback. However, you can claim and manage your profile by updating information, responding to reviews, and addressing any concerns raised by customers. If you have specific issues with your Trustpilot profile, contacting Trustpilot support can provide assistance on how to manage or modify your company’s presence on their platform.
Key Mistakes to Avoid in Managing Your Trustpilot Reputation:
Managing your reputation and business reviews on Trustpilot requires careful handling to maintain trust and credibility. Here are some common mistakes to avoid when managing and trying to remove negative Trustpilot reviews:
- Restricting customer feedback, asking them not to post, can lead to negative perceptions.
- Responding defensively to bad reviews can escalate conflicts rather than resolve them.
- Don’t be too defensive. Instead of acknowledging feedback, defensive replies can alienate customers.
- Threatening legal action against customers or even the platform can be counterproductive.
- Posting fake positive reviews to yourself can damage trust and can have serious consequences.
- Submitting too many removal requests at once may lead to penalties like profile suspension.
It’s important to approach Trustpilot management with transparency and integrity to build a positive online reputation.
Why Companies Struggle to Respond, Flag, and Remove Negative Trustpilot Reviews?
Many businesses do not actively monitor their Trustpilot reviews, with many reasons including:
- Difficulty in managing Trustpilot profiles. Lack of structured approaches, policies, and resources for monitoring online reviews.
- Internal disputes among departments such as PR, Customer Service, and Marketing over Trustpilot management responsibilities.
- Volume of reviews, the large volume of reviews on platforms like Trustpilot can overwhelm businesses, simply making it difficult to keep up.
- Focus on Core Activities, when business owners and employees prioritize core activities over monitoring Trustpilot and other reviews.
- Turnover and loss of motivation, can interrupt consistent management of Trustpilot reviews.
- Underestimation of Trustpilot’s importance, when some businesses fail to recognize the significance of Trustpilot reviews.
These factors show the major challenges businesses face in managing their online presence and underscore the potential benefits of hiring a reputation management company.
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Why Hiring a Professional Service for Removing Negative Reviews Can Be Advantageous
Hiring a professional service for negative review removal and reputation management offers many benefits. It saves a lot of time by promptly addressing review issues across multiple platforms like Trustpilot. These services are prepared with expertise in the review removal process and understand platform rules and various interpretations, improving the chances of successful appeals.
Managing online reviews and appealing their removal can pose challenges for business owners because of different platform rules and interpretations. This process often requires multiple attempts and appeals to achieve success. For busy business owners focused on daily operations, dedicating time to handle online negativity can be overwhelming.
Outsourcing this to a professional reputation management service allows business owners to concentrate on core business activities without wasting time and effort to managing online reputation and responding to negative content online.
Partnering with a reputation management service helps business owners to improve online presence management, keep positive brand image, and concentrate on driving sales, growth, and overall success.
How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Review Removal Service Company?
You usually pay only after the review is successfully removed from platforms like Trustpilot and others. Some companies might charge a fee regardless of whether they succeed. At RetainTrust, we operate on no removal, no fee basis.
Why Hiring RetainTrust Gives You an Advantage in Managing Your Reputation on Trustpilot and Other Networks
RetainTrust offers knowledge and expertise in managing online reviews, including on platforms like Trustpilot. We assist companies in claiming their business profiles, utilizing technologies and widgets, and analyzing performance metrics. Our services include responding to negative or fake reviews and flagging them for removal as needed. This proactive management alleviates the need for daily monitoring of your performance and online reputation, we do it for you. Additionally, we provide detailed weekly, monthly, or quarterly reports on your reviews and overall online reputation status. Contact us today to learn more about how we can support your business.
