Reviews show potential customers what existing customers think and help them conclude that what your website says can be trusted.

Choose how you collect and share reviews carefully, it's something you want to have some control over, simply so you encourage the best place for people to leave reviews - and then at least you're aware of them.

Generally speaking, it's rare for people to pro-actively give a positive review - they need to be given the opportunity and in some cases encouraged to leave one.  Whilst, it's a fact of life that no matter how hard you try, somebody is going to leave a negative review and for the most part, people are far more willing to leave negative reviews that positive reviews - so reviews can work against you.

If you receive a negative review online you'll have to weigh up carefully what to do next.  Some businesses choose to ignore them (some you don't have any chance to do anything anyway), some choose to respond negatively and some choose to respond positively.  There's no one formula that works for all, but it's a good idea to have a plan in place for dealing with this kind of thing before it happens!

There are several popular platforms for reviews:

Its obvious which review platforms you have the most control over and everyone has an opinion on which platform works best for them - but in truth, they're all flawed, because of human nature to prefer to make the effort to leave negative reviews rather than positive ones!

If you throw into the mix people being frustrated by other factors like delivery, misunderstanding or marketplace sellers and then add a dash of fake reviews from suppliers and competitors, it sometimes becomes very hard to take reviews at face value.

Take a look at Trustpilot's reviews of Facebook or Amazon or an Amazon review of your favourite film or CD.

Reviews do have a place online, but it's important to understand their weaknesses, particularly if you're the one being reviewed!