Here’s how our Jabio platform helps businesses continue to leverage authentic reviews in compliance with the latest FTC guidelines.
At Sitejabber, we’re committed to sharing transparent and authentic consumer experiences, while ensuring businesses can use real customer reviews to forge better connections with their audience and improve online reputations. Our platform updates reflect this core value — which helps buyers make better-informed purchases with confidence.
Another vital reason for such updates is to address important regulatory requirements related to online feedback. Along these lines, let’s first take a look at guidance by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) surrounding the use of reviews.
FTC Guidance Overview
The FTC’s guidelines on ratings and reviews presents an opportunity for businesses to demonstrate their adherence to transparency and ethical practices — ultimately strengthening reputations and customer relationships. Of course, that’s what we’re all about at Sitejabber, too.
Essentially, here’s what companies should do when collecting and publishing reviews:
- Don’t ask for reviews only from people you think will leave positive feedback.
- Treat positive and negative reviews equally — don’t subject negative reviews to greater scrutiny.
- Don’t display reviews in a misleading way.
- Publish all genuine reviews — don’t exclude negative ones.
You can review their guidelines in full here.
The FTC is also planning to hold a hearing on February 13th, 2024, regarding its proposed rule about reviews, which relates to customers’ expectations around feedback on products and services. This makes a renewed commitment to review transparency especially pertinent.
Proactive Sitejabber Product Enhancements
So, for the benefit of buyers and businesses alike, here are the changes being rolled out in thirty days to better align with the FTC’s industry guidance — and enhance how customers discover and choose businesses and their products/services.
Recalculating Ratings
A business’s overall star rating and review count will be based solely on reviews left by customers who have received their purchases. This update keeps businesses compliant, and ensures reviews reflect the full experience of a business’s products and services.
For businesses that may be concerned about the effect on their rating – don’t be. Most buyers trust ratings more when they are able to see a healthy mix of positive and negative reviews, knowing such reviews represent the honest viewpoints of real customers.
It’s also worth noting that businesses using Sitejabber for their Google Seller Ratings will not see any impact on their Seller Ratings score — Google has already instituted a similar change to be in alignment with the same principles of transparency.
Instant Feedback
Reviews sourced via “Instant Feedback” — our post-checkout review collection feature — will remain. These point-of-sale reviews are still crucial as key indicators of the customer’s shopping experience.
Instant Feedback will have its own rating and count highlighted prominently in the Overview Section of a business’s sitejabber.com profile page. This will include a description of how Instant Feedback is collected, plus a link to view all of this feedback type in a dedicated, clearly-labeled tab.
Instant Product Feedback
These point-of-sale product reviews will no longer be available, since product reviews written prior to delivery do not capture a reviewer’s full experience and so are less meaningful for potential consumers. Instant Product Feedback reviews will be removed from the platform and no longer eligible to be displayed.
Review Holding Period
In the spirit of transparency, the review holding period, if enabled, will now apply to all reviews, both positive and negative. Companies that choose to enable this feature can hold all incoming reviews for ten days. This time can be used to either contact legitimate reviewers to resolve their concerns, or report suspicious/falsified reviews.
After ten days, all reviews will be published. However, reviewers can still edit or delete their reviews after publication, and businesses can still post public or private replies to maintain open lines of communication and demonstrate a commitment to customer support.
This holding period can also apply to post-fulfillment product reviews. During this time, businesses will have the chance to moderate and remove reviews that don’t meet FTC guidelines, which basically include those that:
- Are unrelated to the business, its products/services, or its customer service
- Are inappropriate with respect to race, gender, sexuality, or ethnicity
- Contain unlawful, harassing, abusive, obscene, vulgar, or explicit content
- Contain confidential or private information
How Businesses Can Gear Up
We will be starting to implement these updates beginning on February 22nd, 2024. Change can sometimes be challenging, so that’s why we’re giving businesses one month to prepare for these modifications.
Here’s what we recommend for all businesses:
- Go through and moderate all unpublished, pending product reviews — any of these exceeding ten days will be automatically published on the day of the update.
- Make full use of valid review collection methods to source more reviews that reflect experiences with products and services. This will help provide a more comprehensive and accurate picture of customer sentiment moving forward.
- Reply to customer reviews as part of a healthy review strategy. Ongoing communication and transparency reduces the number of negative outcomes (and disgruntled reviews) overall.
Navigating regulatory updates can feel overwhelming at times. At Sitejabber, we’re committed to making this journey smooth, empowering both informed buyers and responsible businesses.
For consumers, these changes pave the way for a more reliable review ecosystem, including greater clarity on review types, balanced representations, and open communication channels. It’s a recipe for improved purchasing decisions, reduced buyer’s remorse, and increased satisfaction overall.
And for businesses, Sitejabber remains steadfast in our goal to elevate brands and foster great online reputations. After all, transparency isn’t just an FTC compliance box to check off — it’s a foundation for flourishing in an era of informed buyers.
📣 P.S. For more information on reviews and the FTC, check out our series of YouTube Shorts.
