A more informed choice

The main aim of Referenceline and our Reputations service is to support consumers, rather than to promote businesses. 

We're proud of our 25 year history of working with Trading Standards, supporting various good trader schemes in different parts of the country. 

We never disclose personal information, but we invite customers to give us an insight into their profile which allows us to monitor the satisfaction of potentially vulnerable groups: (ratings out of 10).

We tend to think of the old as being vulnerable but the young and inexperienced can be equally vulnerable, or anyone  dealing with a new business and people they don't know. 

Many marketing websites charge large fees to their listed members in exchange for the extra business they can raise.

But there's a need for a service which helps consumers to find those businesses that will take on the smaller jobs too and this is something we care about.  

We therefore ask about the cost of each review, and here's a snapshot for one particular client in 2023: 

It's often the case that putting off the smaller jobs or repairs - such as replacing a loose tile or a leaky pipe - can lead to much bigger problems and higher costs in the long run.

As the chart above shows, we're proud to support businesses charging smaller amounts, such as ...

• Domestic Appliance Repairs, where a knowledgeable expert can inject new life into a machine that has failed, rather than replacing the machine altogether.
• Home Care, where companionship for the elderly or less able is vital. 

In both cases, sadly, the hourly rates may be low compared to the value that these businesses offer.

Referenceline has a long history of working with local trading standards schemes and other reputable organisations, so it's no surprise that most reviews are rated 8 or more, as shown by the blue line below. 

But unhappy customers tend to write the longest reviews, as shown by the red columns ...

There's a risk that these heartfelt reviews include elements which are written in anger and would be better - and sometimes clearer - if they are edited when tempers have cooled.  This is one of the reasons that we hold reviews for 48 hours to allow both the consumer and business to digest the contents. 

There's also a risk that problems are due to misunderstandings which are most easily corrected before the review is published.  This is one of the reasons that we provide a messagng service to allow businesses and consumers to chat securely "out of the spotlight".

It's easy for businesses to ask customers to leave a review, using their unique QR code on their phone or invoices.

Consumers and businesses both need to know that the feedback is from genuine customers and we make sure that businesses can check that EVERY review is from a genuine customer BEFORE it is published.

Most review sites publish first and then wait for the business to say if there's a problem.  Here's what Google says (the red border is our emphasis):

We welcome reviews from any genuine customer, but our public links require them to enter a simple PIN provided by the business, such as this.  

Easy to choose | Easy to change | Easy to remember

There may be times when a customer needs to leave a review but hasn't been given a PIN, perhaps because the business realises that the customer isn't very happy.  In this case, customers may upload an invoice instead:

If the customer doesn't have an invoice, perhaps when work hasn't been completed, they may upload other correspondence to show that a contract exists.  In other words, the business has made a formal commitment to supply goods or a service, and the consumer has accepted this committent. 

Consumers are often recommended to get three quotes before making a choice and we must expect that consumers will be disappointed or sometimes even really upset about a response:  "The price is ridicolous", "They were too busy", "They were unhelpful", "They didn't understand", "They don't do what I need". 

Clearly, there could be twice as many enquiries as customers.  It's not helpful to publish them all and it's impossible to verify whether comments made by someone claiming to have approached the business are genuine. 

We therefore only publish reviews from customers, sharing their actual experience, where the business can vouch for the fact that they are genuine.

We know how annoying it can be to set up and remember passwords, so we'll suggest a random combination of a memorable word and numbers for each business to use:  

To generate a different PIN, businesses simply log in and spin the dials until the combination seems right. 

Create and save more PINs for different employees or for any other reason.  We'll email them all to you on request.

The 5 point scale, widely used in star ratings, is extremely vague.

Does this mean  "Not a lot better than average"?

Or "So good that it's almost perfect"

This choice architecture doesn't give enough options, so many customers that are generally happy will probably end up giving a rating of 5/5 in order to avoid this confusion and possibly causing offense to the business.

It seems inevitable that this will result in ratings that are higher than they would be if more choices were available.

Our scale from 0 to 10 gives customers the flexibility to give clear, considered feedback:  

Ratings are shown with 8 at the top, so it's easy to see small hard-earned changes in ratings above that level:

 A genuine track record of 9/10 is more impressive than a potentially biased score of 5/5.  Nobody's perfect!

Many businesses use the Net Promoter score (NPS), which asks customers whether they would recommend a business on a scale of 0 to 10.  These ratings are classified as:

An extra benefit of our approach is therefore that businesses interested in NPS can use the results of our rating system

A single star rating is no guide to what you should expect and can never show the particular strengths of the business to help compare one with another.

We therefore offer up to 5 individual ratings for Satisfaction, depending on the industry, such as:

Estate Agents

Garage Servicing

Home Improvements

Pet Boarding

Removals

As a result, consumers can select businesses that are rated most highly for any one of these elements for the industry concerned. 

Customers often give full marks across the board as a way of saying thank you to the business.  But even then, their review often mentions one particular aspect of the job that made all the difference.

We want to make sure that the ratings reflect this too, so when customers give 10 out of 10 for more than one rating, we offer them the opportunity to select the one that they liked "best of all".

Some commercial review services offer a special feed for businesses to add to their website which hides complaints and displays only the best reviews.

Here's an example from the home page of the same business with the complaint mentioned earlier.  

No complaints are shown because the small, grey print says "showing our 4 & 5 star reviews" but should really say Hiding all complaints!

... such as this, on the review site but hidden from the business website:

Businesses have a legal responsibility to treat you fairly, but it's often hard to know what questions to ask or what standards to expect.  They are the experts and you should be able to rely on them to help you make decisions.

We have set out the commitments that businesses should make for a range of industries and activities, including codes of practice, to help you understand what you have a right to expect, such as:

Home Improvements

Estate Agents

You can see how many customers have said "Yes" in answer to each question, but please don't expect 100% in every case.  Nobody's perfect and some customers may not be completely sure about the answer. 

It's more important that you understand these questions and discuss them with the business so that you both agree what good service means for you.  A responsible business will be happy to explain the details to you and it's always better to clarify these points upfront to avoid misunderstandings later on.

We summarise the overall results for the business in the same way as for Satisfaction, on a scale of 0 to10:

The questions we ask for both Satisfaction and Standards are based on input from Trading Standards, and previously the Office of Fair Trading for the Consumer Codes Approval Scheme, especially for legal requirements. 

Referenceline is an approved member of the Buy with Confidence Scheme
Click here to verify

Feedback includes input from Industry, including various trade bodies especially with regard to Best Practice and Consumer Codes.   Industries include:

• Care Homes
• Compressed Air
• Consumer Advice
• Document Destruction
• Dog Breeding
• Estate Agents
• Garage Servicing
• Home Care
• Home Improvements
• Letting Agents
• Pet Boarding
• Removal
• Storage
• Used Car Sales
• Vet Physio

Each review consists of three separate elements.

• The service provided
• The customer's review
• Up to 10 photos (approved by the customer)

We hold reviews for 48 hours and show them to the business before publication, so any errors or misunderstandings can be corrected.

The business
Can extend this automatically once by another 48 hours, perhaps to follow up with the customer on their premises.  They can do this only once.

The customer
Can defer publication of the review to any future date, so that the business has a chance to respond or take any further action required.  They can change the publication date as often as necessary.

Photos are a very helpful and powerful way to give information about the work, but it's vital that these genuinely relate to the customer or business and are not simply stock photos of similar work, or even photos of work done by other businesses, copied from the internet.

We therefore encourage customers to include up to 10 photos with their review, adding a clear caption to explain the photo,  perhaps of different stages of the work from start to finish.

Businesses may also upload photos to the same review, but these must be approved by the customer to make sure that they are genuine and respect the customer's privacy.  For example, they should not identify:

• the customer
• the location
• the people (especially minors)
• or any security issues.

Businesses may publish their reply to the review.  As with the original review, this is held for 48 hours to allow the customer to see what has been said.

In the normal course of events we encourage customers to check, for example, that their name hasn't been included unless they agree. 

It's also important to ensure that the busines reply isn't misleading:

In this case, on a well-known website, the business knows exactly who the customer is  ... it's us!! 

We were corresponding with the company and left a review as well.  Their response here is designed to make it look as though they were concerned but unable to do anything without our help.   All highly misleading. 

Our secure messaging service encourages businesses and customers to chat privately and share documents (eg quotes and business terms).

Either the customer or business can ask for independent expert advice, using the information, documentation and photos submitted via the private messaging.  The review will be held while this process takes place.

Either the customer or business can refer the review for independent dispute resolution.  The review will be held while this process takes place.

When choosing a business it's vital to know if they have experience of the type and size of work you need.

Here's an example of the range of values for one of our Home Improvement scheme partners:

As this chart clearly shows, many jobs fall into the range of £500 to £5,000. and relatively few below £100 or above £25,000.

Using roofers as an example:

• Some businesses prefer to carry out large works such as a complete re-roof
• Others operate on a smaller scale, replacing loose tiles or repairing the flashing around a chimney.

It's important for consumer to be able to see the difference, so they can approach the right business for the job.

We invite customers to tell us their age range, so we can offer their reviews to other customers of a similar age.  In the case of home improvement work, many of the reviews have been provided by home owners over 50:

There will be a number of factors affecting this picture. 

• It seems likely that there are more home owners in the 50s and above than in their 20s.
• It may be that older people are more willing to take the time to leave a review than younger people. 

Are you interested in a male or female perspective? Looking at Home Improvements reviews, women ...

• Submit more than half of the reviews
• Give slightly higher ratings

Customer Loyalty

We ask consumers to tell us how long they have known the business.  In this case, for Removals:

Just under half are new customers, but a third of reviews are from customers that have known the business for 5, 10 or more years.   Customer loyalty "is a thing".

We ask customers to indicate their level of experience, varying from Beginner to Experienced, as shown by the chart below:

Although "average" is the largest individual response, more reviewers consider themselves "below average or beginners" compared to "above average or experienced".  It's this lack of confidence that leads consumers to look for recommendations or traders trusted by others.

Managing a successful business is all about recruiting, supporting and motivating competent staff and teams.  We ask consumers to tell us who served them:

The chart above shows the names most commonly mentioned each year for one of our clients.