Question 1

Reply to Google Reviews

Accepted Answer

Once you have completed your Google Business Profile Authorisation you can reply to, edit, or delete replies to your Google reviews in Customer Activity. You can also respond to reviews via the Reviews Report and Success Report.

To reply to a Google review from within Customer Feedback Centre, follow these steps:

Log in to your Customer Feedback Centre account.

If you have multiple locations, select the location you would like to reply to Google Reviews for from the Business Dashboard.

In Customer Activity, click Manage for a review and select Reply.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/vBxu45hDCk/resources/IMAKTSQadH/Reply%20back%20to%20Google%20review.png (Reply back to Google review.png)

Enter your reply under Review Response and click Submit.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/vBxu45hDCk/resources/rPGn4RopF4/Reply%20back%20to%20Google%20review%20-2.png (Reply back to Google review -2.png)

Replies to Google reviews will automatically display in the Review Widget.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/vBxu45hDCk/resources/sxGStNToqy/Reply%20back%20to%20Google%20review%20-4.png (Reply back to Google review -4.png)

Example of a Google review with a reply as displayed in the Review Widget

To view, edit, or delete a reply, click the Replied tag or click Manage > Edit.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/vBxu45hDCk/resources/94lc2IZL3l/Reply%20back%20to%20Google%20review%20-5.png (Reply back to Google review -5.png)

SEE ALSO:

New Feature: Reply to Google Reviews From Customer Feedback Centre

Yes! Why and How-To Reply to Reviews

Question 2

Google Business Profile Authorisation

Accepted Answer

Authorise your Google Business Profile account from within Customer Feedback Centre to be able to reply directly to Google reviews from Customer Activity, Success Report, and Reviews Report.

Alert:

Create Google Business Profile Authorisation for Customer Feedback Centre

To authorise your Google Business Profile account in Customer Feedback Centre, follow these steps:

Log in to your Customer Feedback Centre account.
If you have multiple locations, select your chosen location from the Business Dashboard.
Go to Account Owner > Authorisation Settings.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/vBxu45hDCk/resources/kqiYpUa8Tu/Facebook%20authorisation.png (Facebook authorisation.png)

Click +Add Authorisation.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/vBxu45hDCk/resources/2VK7lx09y3/Google%20authorisation.png (Google authorisation.png)

Select your Google account.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/vBxu45hDCk/resources/KjMwcZJGrN/Google%20authorisation2.png (Google authorisation2.png)

Click Allow to give permission to Customer Feedback Centre to access the account. You can revoke permission at any time.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/vBxu45hDCk/resources/IvDnFSloWm/Google%20authorisation3.png (Google authorisation3.png)

Click Close to exit the Success screen. You will see a label, Authorised, followed by the number of accounts and any issues. Select View Details for more information.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/vBxu45hDCk/resources/zJ3wzNPFYe/Google%20authorisation4.png (Google authorisation4.png)

If someone else has the authorisations, then they can do this on your behalf by becoming a user inside your dashboard.

Just send us the following information so we can add them for you:

First Name
Last Name
Email address

Question 3

Review “Gating” and Google’s Terms Of Service For Review Requests

Accepted Answer

On April 12th, 2018 Google updated their terms of service (TOS) to include the following language.

“Don’t discourage or prohibit negative reviews or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers.”

This update to their TOS is rooted to the practicing of “review gating”, where your review process keeps unhappy customers from writing online reviews on Google while allowing happy customers access. Review generation services have used many ways to gate consumers including thumbs up or down, 5 star ratings and Net Promoter Score.

Google is simply after all customers having the same experience when being asking for an online review. (Note that Trip Advisor also has this same item in their TOS)

Is Customer Feedback Centre in compliance with this “gating” guideline from Google?

Yes. All three of our modes (Ultimate Mode, Review Mode and Direct Mode) are in compliance. While our Ultimate and Review Modes capture Net Promoter Score in the first step with the consumer, they are not “gated” from the review links. Consumers are presented with the online review links no matter how they rate the Net Promoter Score question, but we do use NPS to personalise the process to the consumers happy or unhappy indication.

Our team directly met with the Google My Business team and received approval for our Request Modes according to Google’s guidelines.

Below is the new "Negative Landing Page" that meets Google's TOS and still offers the opportunity for unhappy customers to talk directly to you. The Positive Landing Page is unaffected by this TOS update. Our sample image is annotated with descriptions of each updated item below for the Negative flow.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/vBxu45hDCk/resources/txBMytTWXL/Google%20terms%20of%20service.png (Google terms of service.png)

Specific details for the negative landing page and flow

Google's update calls for all customers to have the same experience, that means the same steps or features in the unhappy customer process as noted above. Our default setting is customers rating you a 0-6 would get the Negative flow, but you can change this setting as you wish.

Your Negative Landing Page will have personalised content. Our stock content has an apology and request to obtain more direct feedback. This personalisation of content is OK with Google, and is not "gating".
A "Direct Feedback" button for unhappy customers will appear above the Online Review Sites. When a customer clicks this button they will be taken to an additional open text field to capture private feedback from them to you. Once they submit that form, the process is over for them.
Online Review sites appear on the Negative Landing Page, just the same as the Positive Landing Page. This is the Google TOS requirement.

Additional request mode options

In addition to the items we have called out above, please note the following feature additions to your modes and steps in each mode.

The ability to turn copy/paste functionality ON or OFF. If you turn it ON, it will appear in both Positive and Negative landing pages, the same for OFF (both pages). This is to ensure the "same experience" required by Google's TOS update.