Moderation Guidelines
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    Moderation Guidelines

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    Article summary

    Products


    Reviews
    Supported plans

    Premium, Enterprise

    eCommerce Platform

    Shopify, Shopify Plus, Adobe Commerce (Magento), BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Volusion, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Custom

    This document reflects the moderation logic used by Yotpo's Professional Services team. 

    Reviews are published, rejected, or escalated according to the criteria outlined in this article.

    Reasons for rejecting reviews

    Unclear or incomprehensible text

    Text or content is not clear and cannot be understood.

    All Reviews need to make sense. If a Review has not been clearly written and cannot be understood it should not be published. Reviews containing many spelling and/or grammar errors should be published as long as the general meaning is still clear.

    CriterionAction
    Gibberish/nonsenseReject
    Spelling and/or grammar to a degree that the review is not understandableReject
    Cynical reviewReject
    Minor spelling/grammar mistakesPublish

    Irrelevant content

    CriterionAction
    Review contains only product name (no additional information)Reject
    Review contains information about shipment/packing/serviceReject
    Customer has not opened or used the product yetReject

    Legal

    No review should include any legal transgression, including harassment, or threats against an individual or group. 

    CriterionAction
    Any threat/harassment/legal transgression/racist remarkReject

    Profanities and explicit language

    If a Review includes profanity and/or inappropriate word(s) or sentence(s) which are included in the keywords list, the review should be rejected.

    CriterionAction
    Any profanity not picked up by the filterReject

    Details of a competitor or competitor's product

    No need to promote competitors on your website (including auction or customer’s personal websites).

    CriterionAction
    A customer has included a competitor's details or product, and this review gives the competitor advantage over our client.
    See the exception below:
    Reject
    The competitor's name is part of the product (such as a gift card) Publish

    Protecting a customer’s personal details and information

    A customer may have added personal information not realizing the details will be published. This could include credit card payment details, ID or Passport number, full name, email or physical address, and phone number. These reviews should be rejected.

    Review and rating consistency

    If there is a major difference between star rating and review content, the review should be rejected.

    For example, if a negative review is submitted with a 5-Star rating, it should be rejected.

    Review and product page consistency

    If the review content does not match the product page where it was submitted, it should be rejected.

    Mention of pricing

    As pricing can change on your website, certain customers have requested that reviews that include the price the customer paid should be rejected.

    CriterionAction
    Mention of the actual priceReject
    Good price/too expensive
    sale/rebate (50%/$5 off) 
    Publish*
    Good deal/bargainPublish

    Only if there is more relevant content in the review in addition to "Good price/too expensive" or "sale/rebate (50%/$5 off)"

    Mention of different products

    These are reviews where a customer mentions another product supplied by a different competitor brand or vendor.

    CriterionAction
    Mention of different product that is similar but of a different brand or vendorReject
    Mention of additional product that is unrelated to the product reviewedPublish

    *As long as other content is relevant

    Test reviews

    Any internal review submitted for the purpose of testing or QA will be rejected

    Negative reviews

    The recommended policy is not to Reject, but to publish negative reviews as long as all the details in the review are accurate and reflect true events. The benefits of such an action outweighs the drawbacks.

    Publishing negative reviews shows it is a transparent and honest business and will add credibility to your website. 

    Review escalation

    Customers will sometimes use the review platform as an opportunity to lodge a complaint or issue with the company. For example, “I never received the shipment” or “I received the wrong product”.

    In these cases, reviews can be escalated directly to the company’s customer support team for further action. This option can be set up in your moderation account so either the review will be sent to a defined email address or CRM integration. This can be discussed further with your assigned Client Success Manager. 

    Criterion
    Action
    Customer complaining about damage to product... 
    Escalate
    ...Unless it is clear damage was very minor, or the customer is still satisfied overall, or the customer states they've already returned the product 
    Reject
    Customer claiming they never received the product they ordered (not due to cancellation) 
    Escalate
    Customer claiming they did not order the product
    Reject
    Customer expressing concern their credit card/personal information has been compromised 
    Escalate
    Customer expresses frustration, with a clear question/call to action
    Escalate
    Customer expressing frustration, with no explicit question/call to action...
    Reject
    ...Unless 

    Customer expresses extreme frustration, claiming to "never shop at 'site name' again"
    Escalate
    Customer complaining their order had been canceled or received notification the item is out of stock
    Reject

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