How We Handle Reviews

1. What we do

• Ask everyone the same way. A card at the counter, a wallet card for the ones who say “later,” and a short text you send after a visit. Every customer gets the same ask, whatever you think they will say.
• Make it one tap. The cards and the text go straight to your Google review page. No form of ours sits in between, and no step sorts customers by how they feel.
• Reply to every review, good or bad, politely and in your words, with the Manager access you give us on your Google Business Profile.
• Keep your listing true. Hours, services, categories and photos that match the real shop, as Google’s guidelines require.
• Post what is real. Google posts and social posts made from your own photos of your own work, approved by you before they go out.
• Show you where you stand with a free one-page report from public Google data, and a report each month.

2. What we never do

• Buy, sell or trade reviews.
• Write reviews, or have you, your staff, your family or anyone else write them for your shop.
• Post fake reviews, including reviews written by AI or by people who never visited.
• Offer anything in exchange for a review: no discounts, freebies, raffles, entries, points or tips. This applies even if the review could say anything, because Google forbids it.
• “Gate” or filter reviews: ask only the customers we expect to be happy, or send unhappy customers somewhere else first.
• Offer anything to get a negative review changed or taken down.
• Threaten, pressure or shame a reviewer, or make false reports to get a review removed.
• Hide or bury real reviews, or claim the reviews you show are all of them when they are not.
• Buy followers, likes, views, comments or any other fake sign of popularity, on any platform.
• Use engagement bait (“like this to see the price”) or automation that posts or follows at high volume.
• Promise a number of reviews, a star rating, a rank, a spot in Google Search or Maps, reach, follows, calls or revenue.

3. What is fine

• Asking every customer for an honest review, once, politely, without an incentive.
• Replying in public to a negative review, calmly, with the facts, and inviting the customer to get in touch.
• Reporting a review that truly breaks Google’s rules (spam, a review of the wrong business, a competitor or ex-employee posing as a customer, hate speech) through Google’s own tool. Google decides what stays up. We never report a review just because it is negative.
• Posting real photos of real work, with the permission of anyone shown.
• Telling customers on a card or in a text that “good or bad, we read every one.”

4. The rules behind this, in plain English

The FTC’s rule on consumer reviews (16 CFR Part 465)

Since October 21, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission’s Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials has made the following illegal for businesses: fake or false reviews, including AI-written ones and reviews by people with no real experience of the business (section 465.2); paying or giving anything for a review on the condition that it says something positive or negative (465.4); reviews by owners, staff and their relatives without a clear disclosure of the relationship (465.5); review websites a business controls that pretend to be independent (465.6); suppressing reviews with threats, intimidation or false accusations, or claiming the reviews shown are all or most of them when they are not (465.7); and buying or selling fake followers, views or other indicators of social media influence (465.8). Courts can impose civil penalties for knowing violations.

The FTC’s rule does allow an incentive that is not tied to what the review says. We do not use those, because Google does not allow them.

Google’s policies for reviews and for Maps content

Google’s rules for content on Maps are stricter than the FTC’s in one important way: a business may not offer any incentive for a review (payment, discounts, free goods or services), even one that is not tied to a good review, and may not offer anything for the revision or removal of a negative review. Google also bans fake engagement, reviews based on a conflict of interest (owners, employees, and anyone with a business relationship), impersonation, and “discouraging or prohibiting negative reviews, or selectively soliciting positive reviews.” Google can remove reviews that break these rules and can restrict or suspend a business’s profile.

Google’s guidelines for the listing itself

A Business Profile must represent the real business: the real-world name (no added keywords or taglines), a precise address or service area, accurate hours, and the fewest categories that describe what the business is. Google may suspend profiles that break these guidelines. When we tidy your listing we follow them, and we will not add keywords to your name even if a competitor has.

Google’s policy for third parties who manage listings

Google has a policy for companies like us that manage Business Profiles for clients. This is how we meet it:

• Fees, in writing, before we manage. Our fees are on our pricing page and on the order form you accept before you pay. They appear on your receipts.
• Google Business Profile is free. Google provides Business Profile at no extra cost. You pay us for our work on your listing, never for the listing itself. This line is on the pricing page, the order form and your receipts.
• You own your profile. You keep ownership (or co-ownership) of your Business Profile at all times. We are a Manager, never the Primary owner, and you can sign in to your own Google account and see your performance data whenever you like.
• Leaving is easy. Within seven business days of your notice, we remove the Google account we use from your Business Profile. You can also remove it yourself at any time, without asking us.
• No ranking guarantees. We never guarantee top placement, a spot in the local pack, or that your profile will always appear in Search or Maps.
• We are not Google. We never say or imply we are Google, are certified by Google, or speak for Google. Our account names do not use Google’s name.
• Nothing hidden. We tell you what we changed and why, in the monthly page, and you can see every edit in your own account.

Meta’s rules, for the social media plan

On Facebook and Instagram we follow Meta’s Terms of Service, its Commercial Terms and its Community Standards, and we need you to follow them on your own accounts. In practice:

• No fake engagement. Meta bans buying, selling or exchanging likes, shares, views, follows, clicks or comments, and bans engagement bait. We will never buy followers or engagement for your page, and we will end the service if you do.
• No fake accounts and no impersonation. We post as your page, through the partner access you gave us, never through accounts pretending to be customers.
• No automation at volume. We schedule your approved posts. We do not run bots that follow, like or comment.
• Your content, your rights. Meta requires that you own or have the rights to what is posted. That is why we only use photos you send and only with the permission of anyone shown (see the Terms, section 12).
• No shared logins. Meta’s terms forbid sharing your login. We work through Business Suite partner access, and you can remove it any time.
• Reviews and recommendations on Facebook follow the same rules as Google reviews: real customers, no incentives, no gating.

Texting

Review-request texts go from your phone to your customers. That makes you the sender under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the FCC’s rules. Text only customers who gave you their number and would expect to hear from you, and stop the moment anyone asks, in any reasonable way. Our template carries no offer and no incentive. We never text your customers.

You can read the rules yourself: the FTC’s questions and answers on the rule, Google’s policy for Maps content, Google’s guidelines for representing your business, Google’s third-party policies, and Meta’s spam policy.

5. If a client asks us to cross the line

We say no and explain why. If it keeps happening, we end the service, as our Terms of Service allow, without a refund of fees already paid. If we learn that reviews, followers or engagement on an account we manage were bought or faked by anyone, we stop the affected work until it is sorted out, and we may end the service.

6. No guarantee of results

Customers decide whether to leave a review and what to say. Google decides which reviews it shows and how it ranks businesses. Meta decides who sees a post. So we do not guarantee any number of reviews, any star rating, any ranking or visibility in Google Search or Maps, any reach or follows, or any increase in customers or revenue. What we do promise is to do the work described in our Terms, honestly and on time.

7. We are not Google or Meta

Cerise is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by or certified by Google or Meta. Being a Manager on your Google Business Profile or a partner on your Facebook Page is a role you give us; it is not a partnership with Google or Meta. Google, Google Maps and Google Business Profile are trademarks of Google LLC. Facebook, Instagram and Meta are trademarks of Meta Platforms, Inc.

8. Questions or concerns

If you think something we did does not match this page, tell us at hello@ceriseagency.com. We will look into it and reply within two business days.