Review Gating

What is review gating?

Review gating (or review filtering) is a practice that involves pre-qualifying customers before asking them to leave a public review. Specifically, customers are first asked if they're satisfied: only satisfied customers are then invited to post a review on Google or other platforms.

This review selection technique aims to maximize positive reviews while avoiding negative ones. While the principle may seem logical from a marketing perspective, it poses serious ethical and legal issues.

Review gating creates a biased representation of the actual customer experience, which constitutes a form of consumer manipulation and a violation of the rules of most review platforms.

Why Google prohibits review gating

Since 2018, Google explicitly prohibits review gating in its guidelines. This prohibition applies to all businesses using Google Business Profile. The reasons for this policy are clear:

• Review authenticity: Consumers deserve a complete and honest view
• Trust in the ecosystem: Filtered reviews undermine the credibility of all reviews
• Fair competition: Honest businesses should not be disadvantaged

Penalties can be severe: review removal, Google Business listing suspension, or even SEO penalties. The risk is clearly not worth it.

The risks of review filtering

Beyond Google's penalties, review gating carries several major risks:

Reputational risk

If your customers discover you're filtering reviews, the loss of trust can be irreversible. Social media quickly amplifies this type of scandal.

Legal risk

In many jurisdictions, deceptive business practices are sanctioned by law. Review filtering may be classified as false advertising.

Loss of valuable insights

Negative reviews are a source of continuous improvement. Ignoring them means depriving yourself of essential feedback to improve your customer satisfaction.

Counterproductive effect

Paradoxically, exclusively positive reviews can appear suspicious to savvy consumers. A perfect 5/5 rating is often perceived as less credible than a 4.5/5.

Ethical alternatives to review gating

Rather than filtering reviews, adopt these best practices to naturally improve your rating:

Improve the customer experience

The best way to get positive reviews is to deserve positive reviews. Work on every step of the customer journey.

Request at the right time

Ask for a review when the experience is fresh and positive: after a successful delivery, a resolved problem, or a satisfying interaction.

Respond to negative reviews

A professional response to a negative review can transform criticism into an opportunity to demonstrate your quality commitment.

Increase review volume

The more reviews you have, the less each negative review impacts your overall rating. Systematize review collection from all your customers.

How Review Collect helps you

Review Collect allows you to collect authentic reviews without resorting to review gating:

• Ethical solicitation: All customers are invited to give their opinion, without filtering
• Optimized timing: Automatic sending at the ideal moment in the customer journey
• Dissatisfaction management: Workflow to address complaints before they become public
• Google compliance: Our platform respects all review platform guidelines

Collect authentic reviews with Review Collect.