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How the review filter works

The review filter is the rule that decides where a customer goes after they rate you. This page traces the whole path, step by step, so you know what your customers experience and what ends up in your dashboard. Five minutes of reading, no settings changed.

The flow with the filter on​

  1. The customer opens your short link, from a QR code, an email, an SMS or a message. Trustaroo records the visit at this moment, which is what the Scans chart counts.
  2. They see your review page, which shows your business name and asks how their experience was, with 1 to 5 stars and a Continue button.
  3. They pick a rating and continue. The rating is saved immediately, before anything else happens.
  4. At or above your threshold, they reach a short thank-you page with a button that opens your public review page in a new tab. That hand-off is what Trustaroo calls a referral, and it is what the Redirected column in the Reviews table marks.
  5. Below your threshold, they get a free-text box instead, asking what could be better. Your contact email and phone appear here if you have switched them on. Submitting takes them to a thank-you page.

At the default threshold of 4, that means 4 and 5 stars lead to your review page and 1, 2 and 3 stars lead to private feedback.

Every rating is recorded either way

Both branches end up in your dashboard. A 2 star rating with written feedback is a row in the Reviews table exactly like a 5 star referral. Nothing is discarded because it was negative.

The flow with the filter off​

Switch Enable review filter off and Trustaroo stops asking for a rating. Anyone who opens the link is sent straight to your review page URL. The visit is still recorded, but there is no rating, no written feedback and no private feedback form, so your dashboard becomes a traffic counter rather than a satisfaction measure.

One consequence catches people out: the Referrals chart and the Redirected column record the continue click on the thank-you page, and with the filter off that page never appears. So Scans keeps rising while Referrals stays at zero, even though every visitor did reach your review page. See Dashboard metrics explained.

Turning it off makes sense if you already collect satisfaction data elsewhere, or if you only want QR codes that shortcut people to your Google page.

What the filter does not do​

  • It does not hide, delete or delay public reviews. Trustaroo has no ability to suppress anything on Google, Trustpilot or Facebook. A customer who rates you 1 star can still open your Google listing and write whatever they like, and often does.
  • It does not stop anyone from reviewing you. The private feedback form is an extra channel, not a gate on the public one.
  • It does not filter what you see. The name is about routing customers, not about filtering your own data.

The policy point, stated plainly​

Google's review policies prohibit review gating: selectively soliciting reviews only from customers you expect to be positive, or discouraging negative ones. Other platforms take the same line. A threshold-based redirect can be used that way, and if you do use it that way you are running a real risk of enforcement against your listing.

The defensible way to use the filter is the one it is built for: ask everybody the same question through the same link, and give the people who are unhappy somewhere useful to put that before they leave. You are choosing where to point a customer next, not deciding who is allowed to review you. Practical guidance, including what to do if you want to stay well clear of the line, is in Review filter and platform policies.

A low threshold is not a loophole

Setting the threshold to 5 routes almost everyone to private feedback. That is the configuration platforms consider gating, and it also starves your public rating of the 4 star reviews that make a profile look credible.

Where to change it​

The default lives on the Location Defaults panel of your business profile, as Enable review filter and Referral threshold. Any location can override both in its own dialog, where the filter has three positions: Use default from Location Defaults, Enabled or Disabled. See Location defaults and Per-location overrides.

Does the review filter stop bad reviews from appearing on Google?
No. Trustaroo cannot influence what appears on Google or any other platform. Customers can write a public review at any time, whatever rating they gave you.
What happens to a low rating?
The customer is offered a private feedback form. The rating and anything they write is stored in your Trustaroo dashboard so you can act on it.
Is using a star threshold allowed?
Google prohibits selectively soliciting reviews only from customers you expect to be happy. Use the threshold to route unhappy customers to private feedback rather than to reduce the number of public reviews you invite.
What happens if I turn the review filter off?
Everyone who opens your link goes straight to your public review page and no rating or feedback is collected.
Can one branch use the filter while another does not?
Yes. Each location can enable or disable the filter independently, or follow the business-wide default.