ISO 20488 standard

A recognized standard for online reviews

ISO 20488: 2018 define requirements and recommendations regarding the principles and methods to be applied by review managers when collecting, moderating and publishing online consumer reviews.

ISO 20488:2018 is applicable to any organisation that publishes online consumer reviews, including product and service providers that collect reviews from their own customers, a third party working on behalf of the provider, or an independent third party. It is recognized that the various processes related to collection, moderation, and publication may at various times be performed by different organisations.

Source : https://www.iso.org/fr/standard/68193.html

Principles to remember

Respondents' commitments :

  • Have had a personal experience related to the evaluation
  • Post a useful review reflecting their experience
  • Agree to be contacted by the review manager (WeDoxa) for verification purposes

The institutions' commitments

  • Allow all users to post a review: solicited reviews and spontaneous reviews
  • Be able to identify the author of the review (but the identity must be hidden when published) thereby the moderator can contact them if necessary
  • Be able to provide evidence that the respondent had a personal experience related to the review
  • Collect reviews without financial compensation
  • Reject reviews from unauthenticated users
  • Report inappropriate reviews

The commitments of the opinion manager (WeDoxa)

  • Publish reviews with the consent of the author
  • Publish reviews anonymously
  • Publish reviews with the date of the consumer experience
  • Publish all reviews: positive and negative
  • Publish reviews in chronological order, from the most recent to the oldest, for a minimum of one year
  • Verify and publish reviews within 10 days
  • Filter reviews that do not comply with the ISO standard by specifying the reason
  • Guarantee users the right to withdraw their review
  • Guarantee residences the right to respond to reviews
  • Allow users to report an inappropriate review
  • Suspend reviews in case of change of owner or renovation of the establishment
  • Filter and block users considered as spammers
  • Publish reviews on directories consulted by people looking for an establishment.
  • Display explicitly and visibly the rules for managing customer reviews