Trustpilot for a small business: is it worth it?

The short answer, by kind of business

Whether Trustpilot is worth your time depends on how customers find you and what they check before they buy:

• An online store: usually yes. A shop that sells online is judged on its website, which is what Trustpilot reviews, and Google lists Trustpilot among the review partners whose reviews can feed the store ratings shown next to a shop's Google ads and listings.
• A business that sells across the country by phone or online, such as an insurance agency, a mortgage broker or a coach selling courses online: often yes, because customers compare you with firms they will never visit.
• A local trade, clinic, salon or restaurant: Google reviews come first, because they are what people see on the map. Claim the Trustpilot profile, reply to what arrives and leave it there.

The rest of this guide explains why, and what to do in each case.

You may already have a profile

Trustpilot profiles are created by customers as well as businesses. Anyone can add a business's web address and create its profile, and Trustpilot says any consumer with a genuine experience can post a review for free, with or without an invitation. So your business may be on Trustpilot already, with reviews you have never seen.

Search for your web address on Trustpilot. A profile marked Unclaimed usually means the business has never claimed it and may not know it exists. Claiming is free, and it lets you reply to reviews, invite customers and get an email whenever someone writes a review.

Trustpilot also says nobody can pay it to delete or move down criticism, and that businesses cannot pay to change their score or remove reviews. Claiming gives you a voice on the page. It gives you no control over what customers write.

Once it is claimed, reply to the reviews from the last year, newest first, including the old complaints. A late reply that says what has changed since still helps the next reader. Then decide whether you will invite customers at all. For many local businesses the answer is no, and that is fine.

What the free plan does, and what costs extra

The free plan covers what a small business needs to look after its profile: claiming it, replying to reviews, flagging reviews that break the rules, and sending a limited number of review invitations each month, with one QR code and one user. The current limits are on Trustpilot's plans page.

Paid plans add more invitations and users, widgets that show your TrustScore and reviews on your own website, more connections to shop and email tools, and analytics. Ask one question before you upgrade: what would you do with it next month? If the answer is "show the stars on the website", a link from your website to the profile lets visitors read the reviews for nothing.

Trustpilot next to Google reviews

For a local business, Google reviews do a job Trustpilot reviews cannot. They sit on your Business Profile, in the map results people use to choose, and Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help a business's local ranking. Trustpilot reviews live on Trustpilot's site.

Trustpilot helps in two places. People who search your business name with the word reviews may land on your Trustpilot page, so a neglected one can be the first thing they read. And for an online shop, Trustpilot is one of the review partners Google can draw on for store ratings, which appear once a shop has enough reviews from the previous two years.

So the order is simple. A local business asks for Google reviews and keeps Trustpilot tidy; how to get more Google reviews covers the asking. An online shop may make Trustpilot its main review platform, with every customer getting the same invitation after delivery.

An online shop's setup, step by step

An online-only shop has a problem a local business does not: it cannot have a Google Business Profile, because Google's guidelines require a place customers visit or an area the business travels to. Its review options are Trustpilot and similar platforms, and Google Customer Reviews, a free programme run from Google Merchant Center that asks buyers for a review after their order arrives.

Take a small shop selling loose-leaf tea on Shopify. A setup that follows Trustpilot's rules and takes an afternoon:

• Claim the profile for the shop's web address, and turn on email notifications.
• Connect the shop to Trustpilot through one of its shop integrations, so every order gets one invitation a fixed number of days after delivery: long enough to brew a few cups, soon enough that the order is still remembered.
• Leave every order in. No filter by basket size, by customer or by any complaint on file.
• Link the profile from the footer and the delivery confirmation email, so buyers can read the reviews before they order again.
• Block an hour a week to reply, starting with any complaint about delivery or a damaged parcel.

After a few months, the reviews tell the shop which teas arrive crushed and which courier is late, which is worth as much as the stars. What the shop's own site needs around them, from delivery pages to the checkout, is part of our websites work.

How invitations work, and Trustpilot's rules

A claimed business can invite customers to review it by email, by link or with a QR code, and from many shop and email tools. Trustpilot's Guidelines for Businesses set out how, and they are strict:

• Invite everyone in the same way, at the same point after their purchase or service, whether you think the experience was good or bad.
• Do not pick and choose which customers to invite.
• Do not pre-screen people, for example by sending happy customers to Trustpilot and unhappy ones to a contact form.
• Send one invitation per experience, and give customers time to use the product or service first.
• Offer nothing for a review, including discounts, prize draws and refunds.
• Do not collect reviews on your own computer, tablet or phone.
• Do not invite people with a close relationship to the business, such as family, staff or shareholders.

Reviews that come from a business's automatic invitations are labelled Verified on Trustpilot, and those from manual invitations are labelled Invited. Reviews that customers write on their own carry no label.

The simplest setup that follows the rules is one automatic invitation to every customer at the same point, such as a few days after delivery. Our automation work can send requests like this from the tools you already use, where their APIs allow.

What Trustpilot removes, and what it keeps

A business can flag a review it believes breaks Trustpilot's guidelines. The grounds include:

• Harmful or illegal content, such as threats, hate speech or defamation.
• Someone else's personal information.
• Advertising or promotion, including spam and scams.
• A review that is not based on a genuine experience.
• A review about a different business.

Trustpilot says that disliking a star rating or disagreeing with a negative review is not a valid reason to flag, and that it does not remove reviews just because a business thinks they are unfair or critical. Reviews belong to the people who wrote them, who can edit or delete them at any time. If Trustpilot believes a flagged review is likely to be genuine, it stays up.

Two cases owners mix up. A review meant for another firm with a similar name is about a different business, so flag it. A review that blames you for the courier who crushed the parcel is about your service as the customer saw it, so reply to it instead: say what you have done about the courier and how the customer gets a replacement.

Trustpilot also acts against businesses that misuse it. Its guidelines list suspending features, placing a Consumer Warning on the profile, hiding the TrustScore and, where a business may cause harm, removing it. Fake reviews are removed.

Replying on Trustpilot

Replies on Trustpilot are public and get read the way Google replies do: by the next customer, deciding whether to buy. The same habits apply. Thank people briefly and specifically, answer complaints with what you have changed and a named person to contact, and never add details the reviewer did not share. How to reply to Google reviews has wording by situation.

For an online shop, most complaints are about delivery, returns and refunds. Answer them with the facts a reader needs: how to start a return, how long your refunds take to arrive, who to email. A clear answer under a delivery complaint tells a reader more about you than a row of five-star reviews.

Showing Trustpilot reviews on your website

Trustpilot lets businesses share and show their reviews, TrustScore and star rating, but what you can show depends on your plan, and Trustpilot's brand guidelines apply. The plans page lists which website widgets each plan includes.

On any plan, a plain link to your profile from the page where customers decide, such as the checkout or the quote form, is honest and quick. If you quote reviews on your pages, the general rules for testimonials apply: testimonials on your website covers permission, trimming and saying where they came from.

Which review sites to look after

Most small businesses can name their main review site in one line. A rough guide:

• Google: every local business. Ask every customer the same way.
• Trustpilot: shops and services sold online or across the country. Invite every customer the same way, and offer nothing.
• Yelp: US local businesses in trades and towns where people use it. Never ask for reviews; Yelp for a small business explains why.
• Nextdoor: neighbourhood trades and shops in the countries it covers. Share your Fave link with customers; see Nextdoor for a local business.

Pick one site to ask for in each message, and claim your profile on the others so you can answer what turns up.

When to leave it alone

Trustpilot is one more place to watch, and a profile full of unanswered complaints does more harm than an empty one. Leave it at a claimed profile with notifications on if:

• Your customers find you on Google Maps and rarely buy online.
• Nobody has time to answer reviews in two places every week.
• Your Google reviews are thin. Fix that first.

An empty profile does no harm while there is nothing to answer. Ours is an example: the GGSites page on Trustpilot is claimed and had no reviews when this guide was written, which is normal for a small studio whose projects start with a consultation.

Never fill an empty profile with reviews from friends, staff or bought accounts. Trustpilot's guidelines forbid it, and a Consumer Warning on the profile is something every visitor sees.

If you do use it, a routine

• Turn on email notifications for new reviews.
• Reply to new reviews once a week, and to complaints within a day or two.
• Flag only reviews that break a specific rule, and give the reason.
• Send every customer the same invitation at the same point, and check every few months that nobody is being left out.
• Once a month, read the month's reviews in one sitting and note any complaint that keeps coming back.