Seminar on Trust Online – Input from Trustpilot
By Peter Holten Mühlmann, Founder and CEO of Trustpilot
Agenda
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Intro to Trustpilot
Use of reviews
Manipulation
Efforts to secure genuine reviews
Requests to the European Commission
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Trustpilot
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Worlds third largest company review site (after Yelp and Tripadvisor)
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200 employees in New York, London and Copenhagen
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7,000,000 reviews
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Currently 400,000 new reviews per month
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80,000 companies reviewed
Business Model
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Free open review site
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Free for merchants to respond to reviews and use basic services
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Paid automation, insights, integration
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Transparency
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No possibility to buy positive ratings and reviews!
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Activity is key!
What do you trust these days?
Mission:
Help consumers make better choices
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Help companies to get good customer
service and to be rewarded for having
good customer service.
Reviews are only valuable if trusted
 Mission statement without any value unless we can secure and
maintain the credibility of the reviews
 Trustpilot business model depend on trustworthy information =
credibility is extremely important
 It is in Trustpilot’s pure interest that users (both companies and
reviewers) can have faith in reviews; no faith no use
www.buyareview.com
Examples of manipulation
 Fake reviews
 Cherry picking (only inviting happy customers, incentives)
 Gaming guidelines
 Legal pressure
Highest Standard in Reviews
Guidelines
for use
Authenticity
Auto-Detect
Email
Invitation Audit
Report for
Investigation
Special Agent
‘Bob’
In summary
- Reviews are adding tremendous value to the marketplace
- Manipulation of reviews will happen and cannot be avoided entirely
- “97% who made a purchase based on an online review found the
review to be accurate”
(The Kelsey Group)
Request
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EU regulation and harmonization
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Stronger legal sanctions against cheaters
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General guidelines to prevent fake reviews
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Responsibility for content in accordance with the E-commerce directive
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The most important thing is to ensure that reviews are expressing a correct overall
image of a business
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Objective criteria for inviting reviewers
Questions?
Appendix
Who reviews and why?
Sharing positive experiences is reviewers main motivation*
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74% state that they write reviews because they want to share a good experience with
other travellers
78% state that they write reviews because they feel good about sharing useful
information with other travelers
* Tripadvisor
Further Reading
Title and Media
Link
”In a Race to Out-Rave, 5-Star Web Reviews Go for $5”
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/20/technology/finding-fakereviews-online.html
”The Best Reviews Money Can Buy”
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/business/book-reviewersfor-hire-meet-a-demand-for-online-raves.html?smid=pl-share
“Give Yourself 5 Stars? Online, It Might Cost You”
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/23/technology/give-yourself-4stars-online-it-might-cost-you.html?smid=pl-share
”How Aunt Ammy Gets Her Free Lunch: A Study of the TopThousand Customer Reviewers at Amazon.com”
Freelunch.me
http://www.freelunch.me/filecabinet
”Fake reviews plague consumer websites”
The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/jan/26/fake-reviewsplague-consumer-websites
”Online reviews – a guide for business & review platforms”
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
http://www.accc.gov.au/publications/online-reviews-aguide-for-business-review-platforms
Quality Assurance
Automatic analysis and detection of suspicious reviews
Analysis Component:
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IP addresses
IP geography v. user country v. domain
Patterns in email addresses
Browser information
Social network patterns
Fingerprinting
... new components and parameters are
continously tested and added.
Trustpilot’s support & compliance organisation
15 % of Trustpilot’s employees is dedicated to support and
compliance to secure the quality of the reveiws
Tasks
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Handling reported reviews from users and
customers
Documentation regarding actual transactions
(”proof of purchase”)
Assessing wording in review invitations from
customers to secure compliance with (i)
company guidelines and (ii) instructions from
public authorities.
Submitting a review…
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Submit email address
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Accept Terms
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Accept Guidelines for use
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Ability to document purchase
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… however; smooth submission is required to fulfil the purpose of providing a credible
review platform