How Goodshout follows the rules

Goodshout is built to comply with Google policy and NZ legislation. This page explains how, in plain English. It describes how the product is designed. It isn’t legal advice.

What review gating is

Gating means screening customers before letting them review. A business asks “how was it?” first, sends the happy ones to Google, and sends the unhappy ones to a private form that never mentions Google. The public rating fills up with good reviews, and the bad ones never appear. Google’s review policies prohibit selectively soliciting positive reviews. In New Zealand it can also mislead future customers, which the Fair Trading Act 1986 forbids. Australia’s Consumer Law works the same way. Read the full guide.

How Goodshout avoids it

• Every customer sees the same two choices. Leave a review, or tell the business privately. They’re the same size, side by side, and no question about how the customer felt comes first.
• Both routes stay open. The private page links to the public review, and the review page links to the private option. An unhappy customer can still post publicly, and a happy one can still write privately.
• Nothing changes based on what a customer says. Goodshout never reads a message and decides where it goes. Limits on the free plan are by volume, never by what someone wrote.
• We never write or edit reviews. Customers write in their own words, on Google.
• No rewards for reviews. Goodshout has no feature to pay or reward anyone for leaving one. Why that matters.

The two-choice screen is a fixed part of the product. Owners can’t turn it off, reorder it or make one choice more prominent, and automated tests check it.

How messages stay lawful

Under NZ’s Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act, a commercial message needs the sender’s identity and a working way to opt out.

• Every request carries the business name and its NZBN (or ABN). The system refuses to send one that’s missing them.
• Every email has a one-click unsubscribe, and an opt-out is honoured straight away and blocks future messages.
• Owners confirm they have a genuine relationship with each customer they ask. They can’t use Goodshout for unsolicited marketing.

How customer data is handled

Goodshout collects only what it needs to send a request and record the response. Owners can edit or delete a customer, export their data, or delete their account. The site uses no tracking cookies. See the privacy policy for detail.

What stays with the business

Goodshout can’t control who an owner chooses to ask. Google’s rules also cover businesses that only ask customers they expect to be happy. Our terms require owners to ask customers fairly and never to suppress, gate or filter reviews, and we close accounts that do.

The advice is simple: ask everyone, ask soon after the visit or job, and reply to what comes back.

Questions

If you have a compliance question about Goodshout, email team@goodshoutapp.com.