Employees giving their employers positive "customer" reviews on Google

BrianD3

I've seen this happening a lot lately. I'll have dealings with a particular person in a company and then look at Google Business reviews and find someone with that exact name has left a positive review. Usually stars only, no comment.

Employees leaving reviews is prohibited on Google Business.

I've found that the worse the customer service, the more likely employees are to pretend they are a customer and leave a positive review. They're not even clever about it - they'll use their own name.

What is happening here, is it that employees are sharing in profits and doing anything they can to promote the business. Or are they being pressured to leave reviews by bosses? Or suffering from some sort of corporate Stockholm Syndrome delusion "We're doing AMAZING work here, guys!".

Buddy Bubs

We were all asked to to do it in a previous job I worked in.

Victor

"Or are they being pressured to leave reviews by bosses?" - likely a lot of this. There is lots of misguided social media behaviour by businesses, e.g. setting a target for the number of followers and then filling that target with staff members instead of existing or potential customers.

BrianD3

Did a bit more looking, I have a particular interest in homecare companies as I unfortunately have to use them for a relative and most are appalling. I've found multiple cases of positive reviews left by people with the same name as employees. Below is an example of a glowing review - coincidentally, someone with the same name has worked as a manager for this company since Jan 2017 based on their LinkedIn profile. Must be a doppleganger.

People accessing homecare services are some of the most vulnerable in society. In the case of sudden deterioration in their health, they can go from being independent to needing homecare in a short period. If picking a provider, Google reviews should be a reasonably trustworthy source of information - without having to spend time and energy trawling through linkedin as well to see if it is employees who are giving the positive reviews..