As more and more people are going to search engines to look for companies, they might find other information high enough on the search result page to draw their attention. This can either be good or bad depending on what kind of information it is. If it turns out to be hurting a business, they can take matters in their own hands and find a way to get rid of the material hurting them. An example can be making up their own reviews to increase the overall ratings they get. Studies show that a one star increase in reviews can increase sales by 5%-9%.
One of the companies who have been caught faking their reviews is Bell Canada. The rating on their app was fairly poor therefore Bell encouraged employees to write stellar reviews of the My Bell Mobile and Virgin My Account apps on both the App Store and on Google Play.
One might be wondering how they got caught writing these fake reviews. Scott Stratten first noticed something was off. Initially, the apps received really low ratings but some time later he noticed the ratings increased to 5-stars. This aroused Scott’s suspicions and he decided to do some digging. Since you have to leave a name with your review, he noticed that the people who gave the apps these glowing reviews are employees at Bell since he searched their names on LinkedIn. This led to Canada’s competition bureau giving Bell Canada a hefty fine of $1.25 million CAD for their actions. It does not end there; as part of an agreement the company has to also tighten its compliance program and sponsor a workshop to boost Canadians trust in the digital economy.