Through the rise of social media and online networks, customers have gained more channels to learn about the products and services that are available to them. No longer do customers solely rely on corporate marketing messages or confine on sales representative suggestions. Tech savvy customers have moved on to trusting others customers experiences with the product or service – they care about reviews.

Marketers, however have to be very careful on how to utilize these review platforms. They are based on trust and sense of community, and once broken or tampered with, unsought consequences could be arise.

Bell should provide a great example regarding how to utilize these review platforms – to stay away from them. An alleged attempt to raise the corporate apps’ review by “encouraging” employees to leave positive reviews. Although this practices can sometimes allegedly succeed, Bell reviews showed a contrasting message as employees left stellar reviews, but customers only displayed dissatisfaction with the apps. These led to a $1.25 million CAD fine.

Besides learning how to use reviews, Bell also showed a great example as to how to deal with a PR crisis:
• Address or acknowledge the occurrence of the mistake
• Reinforce the corporate values and that the occurrence is not aligned with them
• Provide plans has to how and what steps will be taken to ensure, it does not repeat

Source: Bell Canada Gets Though On Fakery As Bell Canada Gets Fined For Posting Fake Play Store Reviews