Is Review Suppression Hurting Your Business? What You Need to Know.

We all want quick solutions to our problems, but when it comes to your business’s online reputation, taking shortcuts can do more harm than good.

Online reviews are essential for building trust between you and your customer base. Suppressing reviews undermines that trust.

With customers relying heavily on feedback from their peers, honest reputation management practices are essential for credibility, growth, and the overall success of your business.

Consumer Trust

Trust in institutions is declining, while peer-to-peer information sharing is rapidly growing, driven by the rise of online platforms.

The 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer shows that distrust is now the norm in society. In fact, nearly 6 in 10 people say they default to distrust until they have evidence that something is trustworthy.

What does this mean for your online businesses? Your reviews and ratings aren’t just a reflection of your products or services, they are a direct reflection of your ability to gain trust and attract new customers.

93% of customers read online reviews before making a purchase. Without an active and genuine approach to review management, your business could easily be overlooked in favor of a competitor that has earned more trust through positive, transparent feedback.

This is where some businesses might be tempted to take shortcuts, such as review suppression, in an attempt to hide negative feedback.

While this might seem like an attractive pitfall to avoid dealing with criticism, it should be avoided at all costs. In the end, transparency and authenticity are key to building long-term trust with your customers.

What is Review Suppression?

Review suppression: the act of manipulating, hiding, or removing online reviews to create a positive perception of a business’s reputation.

Common tactics of review suppression include:

• Only displaying positive reviews
• Pressuring customers to revise negative feedback
• Blocking critical comments on online interfaces
• Threatening or bribing clients
• Only requesting or publishing reviews from happy customers (review gating)

Unlike legitimate review moderation, which follows legal guidelines to filter fraudulent or inappropriate reviews from authentic ones, review suppression attempts to shape public perception through manipulation and omission. 

Suppression tactics are often used by businesses that depend heavily on reputation and customer experience to grow. However, in 2024, customer feedback plays a key role in shaping the reputation of any company.

FTC Guidelines and Legal Implications

Review manipulation hurts your client relationships and can also have legal implications. 

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforces strict guidelines about review management ethics. In August 2024, the FTC released a final rule banning the use of fake reviews. This guideline “bars a business from misrepresenting that the reviews on a review portion of its website represent all or most of the reviews submitted when reviews have been suppressed based upon their ratings or negative sentiment."

More broadly, the FTC review guideline rules include:

• No soliciting false reviews
• No buying reviews
• No manipulating ratings or reviews 

Violating these rules can result in hefty fines and legal consequences.

The Roomster Settlement

In 2023, the FTC, along with six state attorneys, sued Roomster, an online rental platform, for paying for fake reviews. This manipulation resulted in a $36.2 million settlement. 

This case underscores the risks of review manipulation. In addition to violating FTC rules and facing fines, businesses that engage in such tactics lose customer trust, which can lead to long-term harm. States like New York, Washington, and Texas have additional laws targeting deceptive practices, further emphasizing the need for compliance.

For businesses, adhering to FTC guidelines and state laws is essential to maintaining a trustworthy reputation and avoiding severe legal and financial consequences.

See more examples of customer review fraud or learn more about the Roomster Settlement here. 

The Impact of Review Suppression on Business

Review suppression undermines customer trust. 

Customers expect transparency from your business. If you are actively trying to hide negative feedback, your customers will be able to tell. This will breed suspicion, damage loyalty, and harm your online visibility. 

Further, search algorithms, especially Google, prioritize authentic content. Review manipulation can negatively impact your SEO, reduce organic traffic, and lower sales, even if it may seem like it can benefit your business in the moment. 

Ethical Review Management

Now that we’ve covered what not to do, here are the best practices to ensure your business is practicing customer review compliance.

• Clarify your review policies: 
  Make sure your review policies clearly explain the guidelines for leaving feedback. When inviting customers to share their thoughts, outline the expectations and encourage respectful contributions.
  
  
• Establish consistent employee protocols
  Ensure that your employees understand FTC guidelines. Create across-the-board policies for handling both positive and negative reviews, and give your team the tools to be able to identify and report ones that break the rules.
  
  
• Clean up your existing reviews
  Conduct a review audit to identify problematic content. Report any reviews that violate review guidelines. If that doesn’t result in them being removed, your next step is to respond and address any misinformation or issues.
  
  
• Invest in reputation management technology 
  Managing reviews internally is time-consuming and resource-draining. Consider partnering with a third-party reputation management service to get a neutral assessment of your brand, with tools to automate and optimize your reputation management efforts.

Additional tips for ethical review management:

• Ensure that all advertisements are accurate and factually backed up. Disclose sponsored content and affiliate relationships that could influence public opinion. Invest in strategies to increase your organic traffic.
• Respond to all reviews—positive and negative. Avoid incentives and bribes to shape review content. 
• Handle negative reviews promptly and with care. Reviews that are fake, off-topic, threatening, or otherwise violate FTC guidelines should be identified and reported. 
• Ensure your review responses are personalized, timely, considerate, and professional. Check out the full guide of review response tips, along with 56 actual examples here. 

While review suppression might offer short-term gains, the long-term risks—such as legal penalties, reputational damage, and financial losses—far exceed any benefits.

To maintain trust and drive sustainable growth, industries must focus on ethical review management practices that address their specific challenges. By following FTC guidelines and using strategies that encourage authentic feedback, you can ensure excellent customer service and foster strong, lasting relationships with your customers.