What is review gating, and why it can hurt your business
Why sending only happy customers to Google is against the rules, and what to do instead.
3 minute read
Review gating means filtering customers before they reach your review page: asking them how they feel first, then only showing the Google link to people who answered positively. Some review tools are built to do exactly that.
Why it's a problem
Google's review policies say businesses shouldn't selectively ask for positive reviews or discourage negative ones. Reviews collected this way can be removed, and the business's profile can be affected. It also gives future customers a false picture, which they tend to notice.
What to do instead
- Show every customer the option to review you on Google, whatever their rating.
- Offer private feedback as an extra choice, not as a replacement.
- Use private feedback to fix problems, and reply to public reviews honestly.
How Praisio handles it
On every Praisio feedback page, "Share on Google" appears for every rating from 1 to 5. Customers can also choose to send feedback privately. The customer decides, never the software.