Review Gating: Google's New Policy in Line With Podium's Efforts to Preserve the Trust Economy

Google’s New Review Gating Policy & the Trust Economy

In 2018, Google made an important step in protecting the trust we have in online reviews. Moving forward, to remain in compliance with Google’s policy, companies were instructed not to “discourage or prohibit negative reviews or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers.” This practice is commonly known as review gating.

A few years later, in 2022, Google quietly changed their review policies again by removing the above text from the original page and including it in the “fake engagement” section of its prohibited content guidelines. 

Now, the guidelines include the following under fake engagement/deceptive content: “Discouraging or prohibiting negative reviews, or selectively soliciting positive reviews from customers.”

This is, in essence, review gating.

What is Review Gating?

Review gating refers to the process where companies send a message to customers asking if their experience was positive or negative. Customers who indicate they have had a positive experience are directed to leave an online review. Customers who had a negative experience are typically sent a form to leave comments that will never be made public. The end result is a collection of online reviews that are artificially positive and not representative of the actual customer experience.

What is the Trust Economy?

Online reviews are only as valuable as they are trusted. While other companies scramble to adjust their products to comply with Google’s new policy, Podium customers can trust that their reviews have always been earned and are reflective of their customers’ experience, without relying on practices like gating or filtering.

We applaud Google for making trust in reviews a priority and protecting the review ecosystem. When it works correctly, reviews benefit everyone from the business to the consumer. Businesses gain invaluable feedback through the experiences that customers share in their reviews and enjoy the credit for their hard work. Consumers have a powerful tool they can trust to make better buying decisions. Everyone wins.

Trust is one of the most important elements of business transactions. We remain committed to protecting that trust and we are proud to be working with companies like Google who share that vision.

Review Gating Examples

So, what does review gating look like in the real world? Review gating might look like:

• Sending customers an email to ask if they had a positive or negative experience before requesting a review.
• Texting customers and asking them to rate their experience with you, then only requesting reviews from people who rated you highly.
• Incentivising customers to leave positive reviews. (Think: We’ll take $5 off your next service if you leave us a 5-star review.)

Is Review Gating Legal?

Review gating is unethical, and it’s a practice that businesses should make a conscious effort to avoid. Instead, companies should favour transparency by:

• Taking advantage of text: Send a link to your Google Business Profile and invite a customer to review your business.
• Personalising the request: Address your customers by name and be sure to keep the request friendly and casual.
• Giving context: Explain why reviews are important for your business. If your customers understand why they’re doing it, they will be more likely to leave a review.

As a company, Podium has been at the forefront against review gating. We’ve written a guide on how we maintain consumer trust by eliminating gating. We’ve designed all our products to remove bias and give both business owners and consumers the most accurate representation of the customer experience possible. We have also evolved our platform beyond simply collecting reviews to powering convenient and informed interactions throughout the entire customer experience.