How to create an online review policy
If you’re using the GatherUp review widget to display reviews on your website it’s a good idea to also publish a Terms of Service.
How to create a Terms of Services for online reviews
If you’re using the GatherUp review widget to display reviews on your website it’s a good idea to also publish a Terms of Service. Show the Terms of Service on the same page your reviews are displayed. This policy will outline how you’re collecting reviews and how you are moderating these reviews.
It’s best practice to outline what types of review content are acceptable and what may cause the review to be removed from your website.
Your Online Review Policy could say something like this:
“[Company] is dedicated to transparently publishing customer feedback and reviews. This policy applies to reviews submitted by customers and/or through 3rd party review sites monitored on the platform. We reserve the right to remove posts, comments or reviews that violate these content policies.”
Categories you may want to consider adding to your Review Guidelines and Terms of Service as a reason for removing a review:
Reviews that mention or contain personal and confidential information
Vulgarity/Sexually Explicit content
Threats/Dangerous content
Hate Speech/Discriminatory content
Unverified customers
Off-topic or unrelated reviews (wrong location, someone else’s experience, etc)
Spam
Advertising or solicitation
Illegal or unlawful content
For example, here is Google Maps’ Prohibited and Restricted Content policy.
If you do find a review violates your terms of service, you can manually remove it from displaying in your widget. Find the review in Customer Activity, click Manage and toggle the “Show in widget” to OFF.
Marketing
We recommend including a line in your policy notifying users that reviews or feedback left for your business can be used for marketing or advertising purposes.“By submitting feedback or a review, you are allowing [Company] to use that content for marketing or advertising purposes.”
Important: We are not a legal firm and therefore you should check with your legal counsel before finalizing this policy.