Trustpilot guideline: review invitations
Trustpilot encourages businesses to invite customers and sets rules on how. The rules are short, and most breaches are accidents. A friendly line in an email. An invitation sent only after a good support call. We remove the rule-breaking 1-star reviews. Fair invitations bring in the rest of your score.
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Short answer
Trustpilot wants businesses to invite customers to review them. It requires the invitations to be fair, neutral and unbiased. Every customer should be invited in the same way, in neutral words, with nothing offered in return. Steering happy customers to Trustpilot and unhappy ones to support is not allowed. Reviews gathered through biased invitations can be treated as fake. Repeated misuse can lead to a Consumer Warning. A review that came from your invitation cannot later be flagged as not genuine.
Key facts
Trustpilot's Guidelines for Businesses say invitations must be fair, neutral and unbiased, with no incentives offered.
Trustpilot asks businesses to invite all customers equally, or through a neutral system, in neutral words.
Source: Why are some reviews marked "Verified"?, Trustpilot Help Center
Reviews from Trustpilot's automated email invitation tools are marked Verified.
Source: Why are some reviews marked "Verified"?, Trustpilot Help Center
Trustpilot's examples of fake reviews include reviews gathered through biased or manipulated invitation methods.
Source: Action We Take, Trustpilot
A business cannot flag a review as not based on a genuine experience if it invited that customer.
Source: For which reasons can businesses flag service reviews?, Trustpilot Help Center
The rule, in Trustpilot's words
The key takeaways of the Guidelines for Businesses say:
Businesses are encouraged to invite customers to leave reviews, but invitations must be fair, neutral, and unbiased with no incentives offered.
Trustpilot's page on the Verified label adds more. It asks businesses to invite all customers "equally and identically (or using a neutral system), and with neutral language".
What is and is not allowed
| Practice | Allowed? |
|---|---|
| An automatic invitation to every customer after delivery | Yes |
| The same neutral wording for everyone | Yes |
| "If you were happy, review us. If not, contact support" | No |
| Inviting only customers who rated a support chat highly | No |
| Inviting only at month six, when the satisfied customers remain | No |
| A discount or prize draw for leaving a review | No |
Trustpilot's page on invitation best practices has its own examples of wording that is not allowed.
What happens when the rule is broken
The Action We Take policy lists "reviews gathered through biased or manipulated invitation methods" among its examples of fake reviews. Those reviews can be taken offline. For repeated misuse the ladder runs from an educational email to a public Consumer Warning.
Profiles that do not invite at all are not penalized. Trustpilot may show readers a notice. It says the company has not invited customers recently, so the reviews may not be representative.
How this connects to flagging
If you invited the customer, you cannot flag their review as not based on a genuine experience. The other four reasons remain open.
For health brands
Invitation tools send customer data to Trustpilot. Trustpilot publishes a HIPAA Business Associate Addendum. It is for covered entities that share protected health information through its invitation services. Ask your privacy counsel whether your setup needs it.
Where to go next
Our guide to invitation rules covers wording, timing and methods in detail. The main Trustpilot review removal page explains why invitations often move a score more than removal does.
For help with your own profile, start with our Trustpilot review removal service. Our review removal pricing is per confirmed removal, with nothing up front.
Frequently asked questions
No. Trustpilot asks for all customers to be invited equally, or through a neutral system. Inviting only likely-happy customers is biased invitation, which Trustpilot lists among its examples of fake review practices.
No. The language has to be neutral. Trustpilot's best-practice page gives wording of that kind as an example of what is not allowed. Source: invitation best practices.
No. The calculation does not distinguish invited from unprompted reviews. Invitations change who is heard, and recent reviews weigh more. Source: TrustScore explained.
Primary sources used on this page
- Guidelines for Businesses. TrustpilotLast verified
- Why are some reviews marked "Verified"?. Trustpilot Help CenterLast verified
- Best practices for creating review invitations. Trustpilot Help CenterLast verified
- Action We Take. TrustpilotLast verified
- For which reasons can businesses flag service reviews?. Trustpilot Help CenterLast verified
- HIPAA Business Associate Addendum. TrustpilotLast verified
- TrustScore and star rating explained. Trustpilot Help CenterLast verified