No gating. No filtering. No exceptions.
This is the page most review software companies do not have. It is also the reason operators choose us over a cheaper overseas app.
Every customer receives the same request and the same public review link, regardless of how the job went. We do not ask how satisfied someone is before deciding where to send them. We never have and we will not build it, for any client, at any price.
What review gating is
Review gating — sometimes called sentiment filtering or selective branching — is the practice of screening customers before asking for a public review. It usually looks like this:
- The customer is asked a private question first: “How did we go?” or “Rate us 1–5”.
- Customers who answer positively are sent to Google.
- Customers who answer negatively are diverted to a private feedback form instead.
The result is a Google profile that shows only the happy half of a business’s customers. It is designed to look like an honest review profile while being a filtered one.
Why we do not do it
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has published guidance on managing online reviews. Its consistent position is that reviews presented to consumers must not be misleading, and that businesses should not selectively suppress or solicit reviews in a way that distorts the overall picture. Conduct that misleads consumers can breach the Australian Consumer Law.
Gating also breaches Google’s own review policies, which prohibit discouraging or preventing negative reviews and soliciting reviews selectively. Profiles found doing it can have reviews removed or the profile itself penalised — meaning the business pays for software that puts the asset it is trying to build at risk.
Most software marketed to Australian trades on this basis is built overseas, for jurisdictions with different consumer law, by companies that have never had to think about the ACCC.
What we do instead
- One message, one link, every customer. The request wording is neutral. It does not ask for a positive review, hint at a preferred rating, or vary based on anything we know about the job.
- No pre-screening question. There is no satisfaction survey standing between your customer and your Google profile.
- A genuine private channel alongside — never instead. Every request also gives the customer a direct way to raise a problem with you privately. That channel is offered in addition to the public link and is available to every customer, including happy ones. It never replaces or diverts the public link.
- No incentives. We will not run a campaign offering a discount, entry into a draw, or anything else in exchange for a review.
- No reviews written by us. We write your messages and your public responses. We never write a review, and we never ask staff, family or contractors to.
- No competitor attacks. We do not submit removal requests against a competitor’s reviews on your behalf.
On removing negative reviews
We offer a Review Audit and, where a genuine policy breach exists, a Removal Campaign. Neither is a guarantee. Google removes reviews that breach its published policies — fake reviews, competitor sabotage, off-topic content, or personal information. A genuine review from a real customer will not be removed, and any provider telling you otherwise is misleading you.
If you want gating, we are the wrong provider
Operators occasionally ask us to add a “filter out the unhappy ones” step. The answer is no, and it will stay no. We would rather lose the sale than build you something that exposes you to the ACCC and to Google, and then bill you weekly for it.
Questions or concerns
If you believe anything we do falls short of this statement, tell us: info@reviewautomation.com.au. We will look into it and respond in writing.
Three commitments, in writing.
ACCC guidance on online reviews
No incentives. No filtering. No writing reviews on anyone’s behalf. Requests are neutrally worded and identical for every customer.
Privacy Act 1988 & the APPs
Your customer data is encrypted in transit and at rest, used only to send the requests you authorised, and never sold or shared. Deleted on request.
No gating. No sentiment filtering.
No selective branching. Every customer gets the same message and the same public link, whether the job went beautifully or badly — plus a direct private line to you, so a problem reaches your inbox and not just the internet.
Ask us the hard compliance question.
We’ll pull up your Google profile and the three businesses beating you in the map pack, and show you the actual gap.
If we can’t close it, we’ll tell you on the call.