To not want to be forced to leave 5* review?

[Marooney]

I've had an expensive cosmetic treatment (microblading). After the first session they whatsapped me to ask me to leave a review, and I said I would after the touch-up session when the treatment would be complete.

Just had that last session, and on my way out the lady asked if I'd leave a review, and could she show me how to do it via Google maps rather than Google. No problem. But then she thrusts my phone back into my hand with 5 stars selected and motions me to sit and write it there and then. I said no thanks I'll do it in my own time and she said I might forget! Anyway she was friendly enough when I left but I'm really annoyed now. I probably won't leave any review rather than mentioning it as I'd like to return for future treatments. AIBU?

They do the job.
I pay them and that is that.
If badgered for review I never go back.
End of.

If there's one thing in this world where just about everybody knows exactly what they're going to get, and that it's going to be the same product in the same environment, wherever in the world they are, it's got to be a McDonald's meal?!

Maybe their requests are aimed at the kind of people who have to photograph every single meal they ever eat and post it on social media - even if it's the exact same meal that 30 million other people will be eating that day!

I had similar with an Air B&B. Left a five star review overall with five for most of the subcategories, except 2 where I gave four. Got a message from owner saying he was upset by it. So bizarre.

If you liked what she did, you are keen to be a returning customer, sounds like a 5* outcome to me!

You are overthinking this. She is just asking for a good review to promote her service, it is not a big ask.

I've been to hotels abroad where this has happened a few times. Once within their restaurant after ordering a meal but before it arrived. I said that I would wait until after dinner, they pushed with free guides and deals for next day trips etc and we said we'd wait. Dinner took so long and it was pretty obvious what the hold up was. We left and went to another restaurant.
Be annoyed but better still, be prepared for the future.

Change your display name on Google Maps, then leave a 1 star review. You can change your name in the Android app under Contribute (at the bottom) > View your profile > Edit profile > Edit name & photo.

Write something in the third person so you're less identifiable, e.g. 'I saw a staff member harassing another customer for a 5 star review. The staff member was even holding the poor customer's phone. Don't believe any of the positive reviews here.'

There isn't such thing as a non-reviewing type.

Your clients feel pressure.

I have a lot of "therapies" for health reasons. I'm finding that more and more chase afterwards for reviews. It turns me right off and I usually then don't leave one as I hate feeling pressured due to my poor mental health which they are usually aware of since I have to disclose for the treatment in the first place. If I've found the treatment helpful, I will leave a well written positive review of my own accord.

I wouldn’t be comfortable with that. I get her reminding you to review - it helps build business and I think it’s fair to do a review when we have been provided a service, I wouldn’t mind a message to say “ hey just a reminder would you mind leaving a review if you were happy with your service , if you aren’t please let me know so I can try to resolve any issues” but to basically try and force you to do a 5 star review is really unprofessional

I'd leave 1 or 3 star and tell the truth what she did. Very cf to think you leave 5 star

I had a similar experience with an Indian takeaway who wanted a 5 star review when I collected it. I said that I hadn’t actually eaten it yet!

Did she do a good job ?
lots of small “Independents” rely on these reviews.
Surely it’s not such a big deal to help the girl out and help her promote her business if she did a good job.
Many people forget to write reviews.
Be kind and give her a 5 * review if you’re happy with the work.
Spread the ❤️ Life’s too short.

Don’t do this. It’s hugely damaging to the business. If you can’t leave a five star review, don’t review her. Running a small business in the current climate is stressful and difficult. Reviews have become important to listings in SERP. Google and Trustpilot reviews are particularly important for this. Lots of platforms actually penalise small business if the review is less than 5 stars. (On Etsy you can lose star seller status if you are not 95% 5 star) We need to keep small businesses going. She may be employing staff and she is certainly paying taxes. It was crass of her to fill in the stars but frankly, less than five stars is not worth anything to her. The same people taking umbrage are the first to complain when their high streets are decimated. Support small businesses and cut the woman some slack.

This is so wrong. It's coercion. I would give a review saying what you feel about the cosmetic treatment and then give a three star review, saying they attempted to bully you into giving a five star review.

I did a course and was pressured into leaving a five star review before the end. I deleted it again as soon as I finished the course. They definitely didn’t deserve five stars!

I had the same today in a nail shop- but my phone was taken out of my hands by the owner and she closed my fbook app which I had been using and opened up safari to get the Google review page up …I was so shocked I didn’t react quick enough to stop her.
luckily I had no data/wifi and it wouldn’t work, so I managed to get out of there without leaving a review, which obvs I will never do now. Shame as I’ve been going there for over a year.
Time for a new nail salon I think.

The problem is that, yes, poor reviews negatively affect businesses, but if they are fair bad reviews, then that is nobody's fault but the business.

If people only ever leave a 5-star review if delighted or no review if less than delighted, then the whole review system is pointless. You can see that somebody has 50 5-star reviews, but it makes a huge difference if those are from 53 customers, 100 customers or 10,000 customers.

Would you say that a takeaway that continually serves food that leaves customers with food poisoning should never receive anything less than 5-star reviews, on the grounds that it will harm their business - when it is their own appalling hygiene and incompetence that has already harmed their own business and it deserves to be closed down, for the public good.

Absolutely bloody cheeky!

No. I’m not suggesting bad businesses should receive 5 star reviews. I’m saying that if the service and overall experience is good, then don’t use the review system to “punish” the person serving you for some perceived slight. If you’ve genuinely had a terrible experience, then of course, a bad review is justified but I didn’t get the impression the actual experience the OP had was dreadful. She was put out by the clumsy attempt to get her to write a 5 star review. The point I was making was that negative reviews impact small businesses disproportionately and in ways lots of people don’t realise. If we want a thriving high street and a buoyant small business sector, make a complaint in person or by email and allow the business to correct it, unless the actual goods or service is genuinely poor.

I've noticed in a few apps that when you go to leave a review 5 are already selected. I just change if I need to. So possibly she didn't click 5 The app did it already. Either way wouldn't bother me. I'd probably say the same thing. That I will do it later when I can sit down and write a proper review.

If you would have given her 5 stars, give them 4 and put the reason it's not 5 because she's was pushy

"Reasonable result but experience overshadowed by pushy, review-centric owner, be warned." Three stars.

Being pressured like this is unacceptable.

Why is everyone so over reacting to everything

Many people forget to write reviews.

I mean they do, or they don't want to but many people don't forget when it's a bad review they're leaving.
I mean if she genuinely was pushy for a 5* review then no, that's not on, but a lot of people only leave a review when it's a bad one, not when they've had a good service and been satisfied and that's why businesses ask those that are to review - it balances things out.

I've read many a review that says "Been here loads and it's always lovely but today was shocking!" Yet no review for even one of the 'lovely' times. Yet reviews do have influence over people, so when people only review the bad and not the good, it's not a balance of how the business actually operates.

Well, if you're happy, give her the review - although I do agree that it must have seen very intimidating. I wouldn't have been very comfortable on that situation.