Public Review and Comments Policy

As an extension to its core Demandforce product offering, Demandforce may offer a complimentary listing service (the “Review Service”) or other third-party syndication opportunities. As part of the Review Service, Demandforce gives its subscribers access to tools that provide their customers with the ability to write reviews and comments regarding the subscriber’s business. Once they pass through our certification process, those reviews become a part of the business information that we may publish to third party web services, including search engines, websites and indexes, for inclusion in publicly available web pages. These reviews may also appear on the Demandforce website, web pages Demandforce creates and maintains on its subscribers’ behalf, and subscribers’ own independently created websites.

It is up to the third party sites to accept the submissions of business information that Demandforce makes. Demandforce has no control of third party web sites or resources that are provided by companies or persons other than that of Demandforce. In addition, these third parties may publish the business information we provide alongside information provided by other sources, or may make changes, enhancements, additions or deletions to the business information we provide, with or without notice to Demandforce or to our subscribers. These third party services, if any, are provided solely by those third party sites, and subject to the terms and conditions of those third party sites. These terms are in addition to any other terms and conditions specified in our contracts with Demandforce subscribers, written or implied.

As described in our standard terms and conditions, if you are a Demandforce subscriber you agree to participate in the Review Service, and allow Demandforce to make this data available and provide registration services to third party sites. In addition, if you are a Demandforce subscriber you agree to comply with the terms and procedures regarding review creation, certification and removal described more fully below. Demandforce makes no warranty as to the effect that your participation in the Review Service will have upon search engine results, index placement, search ranking, or any other outcome with respect to third party sites and services.

Review certification

When one of our subscribers’ customers writes a review in the Demandforce product, that review becomes available for external publication and will appear within the subscriber’s product dashboard to be reviewed by the subscriber. In order to ensure accuracy, fairness, integrity of review content and the security of customer data, subscribers may take any of the following actions with respect to these reviews:

  • Do nothing, in which case the review will be published externally
  • Add a comment to the review, in which case the comment will be appended to the review information we publish externally
  • Only if the review clearly violates our policy, the subscriber may request that Demandforce remove the review. The request must comply with the removal procedure described more fully below.

A review that has not been removed pursuant to the removal request procedure will become a Demandforce Certified Review, and labeled as such in the business information we submit to third parties.

Guidelines for reviews

The following guidelines are provided to consumers leaving reviews about Demandforce subscribers:

  • Make the review objective, useful and informative. Be specific to give the reader a feel for your experience.
  • Write about the kind of information you would want when you are asking a friend or coworker for a recommendation. Did the experience meet your expectations? Would you go back? Would you recommend this business?
  • Keep it short and to the point. Write short sentences that stick to the highlights of your experience. The recommended length for a review is 100 to 250 words.
  • Your reviews will not contain personal health or other confidential information.

Businesses can leave comments about individual reviews in the Demandforce business portal. Comments are a good way for business owners to add a helpful comment to a user’s review. Responding to reviewers’ concerns shows that a subscriber values their feedback allows a subscriber to demonstrate its focus on customer service.

Guidelines for business comments

Demandforce subscribers should note that reviews may not be removed merely because the subscriber does not like the content of the review, or because the review is unfavorable. Even the best service businesses have unhappy customers from time to time. Demandforce encourages its subscribers to use the business comment feature to demonstrate to existing and prospective customers that the subscriber cares about its customers, and is responsive to their comments. Even negative reviews, when well handled, can lead to the improvement of a subscriber’s reputation. Below are some guidelines for responding to user reviews:

  • Keep it simple and polite.
  • Tell readers what you’ve done to address the issue or concern raised by the reviewer.
  • Counter the opinion of the reviewer with your professional opinion when there is a disagreement on a service or procedure.
  • Provide correct information when a review contains something inaccurate or out-of-date.
  • Show that you listen to your customers and are proactive in following up with them to address any feedback they have.
  • Don’t write a comment when you are upset. Wait until you’re had some time to think about a review, can address it in a constructive way.
  • Do not use the business comments as a forum for advertising.

This Public Reviews and Comment Policy is incorporated by reference into the Demandforce standard terms and condition, as amended from time to time.

Use of reviews

In the event of any termination of a subscriber’s subscription for any reason, as provided in our standard terms and conditions, when the Review Service terminates Demandforce may continue to provide the business information to third party services, unless that subscriber requests immediate termination of the Review Service in writing. Upon such request, Demandforce will no longer provide the business information to third parties. Demandforce is not obligated to request removal of Business Information from third-party websites. Demandforce may remove all past references to the business information in the data it publishes to third parties, which may result in the removal of the business information from third party sites and indexes.

After termination of the subscriber’s subscription for any reason, any third party use and display of reviews created as part of the Demandforce Review Service must include the following attribution: “These reviews were generated by Demandforce”. Demandforce explicitly prohibits and does not provide consent to any third-party to use the reviews created as part of the Demandforce Review Service in any manner without the required attribution notice.

Guidelines for business comments

Demandforce seeks to publish reviews that accurately and fairly represent the opinions of the users of our subscribers’ services. In general, every review written by a client of one of our subscribers will be published with the business information, unless that review is demonstrated to violate one or more of the criteria set forth below.

If a subscriber believes a review satisfies the removal criteria described below (the removal criteria), that subscriber may request that the review be excluded from the business information Demandforce submits to third parties by completing the “request to remove review” form under the “review” tab within the Demandforce user interface.

Upon submission, Demandforce will review such request in light of the removal criteria and the information submitted in the request. As part of that review, Demandforce may request additional information from the subscriber in order to make an accurate determination of the appropriateness of the request. If Demandforce determines that the removal request complies with this policy, we will remove the review from the business information we submit to third parties. If we determine that the request is improper, the review will be included in that business information.

  • Are abusive or illegal. An abusive review or comment is one that makes personal attacks, threatens, or harasses others, or uses profanity.
  • Violate privacy. Reviews that mention specific, non-public, full names of individuals or posts personal information in the review or comments in a manner that is inappropriate and/or unrelated to the performance of the service rendered are subject to removal. Any licensed service provider is considered a public name.
  • Are not from a current customer. A current customer is one who has received services within the preceding 12 months.
  • Contain material falsehoods or inaccuracies. Reviews or comments cannot contain inaccuracies or false statements that are material to the service performed, or significant unrelated content, such as spam or promotional materials. Matters of opinion are not considered material falsehoods.

Demandforce believes that removal request criteria are infrequently violated, and as a result that the removal request procedure should be invoked only rarely or in exceptional circumstances. Comments made in response to client reviews are subject to the same removal criteria as reviews themselves, and are subject to oversight and removal by Demandforce.

Abuse

The removal request procedure is subject to Demandforce’s oversight and review. If Demandforce determines that a subscriber or a subscriber’s staff is not complying with the removal request procedure, or that the removal request procedure is being abused, circumvented or otherwise violated, Demandforce reserves the right to unilaterally take action to stop such abuse by terminating its contract with such subscriber, ceasing to provide the business data to third parties, or otherwise taking steps to ensure the continued integrity of the Review Service.

© 2018 Demandforce Inc. All rights reserved. May 24, 2016