What is the difference between testimonials and reviews?

What is the difference between testimonials and reviews?

LoyaltyLoop Promoter plan helps you market your business by automatically encouraging customers to give you both Testimonials and Reviews.  But what's the difference between them?  

Testimonials (aka 1st party reviews)

A Testimonial, also referred to as a first-party review, is a comment about your business given to you by your customer.  Your customer may, or may not grant you permission to use their testimonial.  LoyaltyLoop surveys automatically solicit comments from customers, and directly asks if they give you permission to use their testimonials in your marketing.  When LoyaltyLoop identifies customers who have given you permission to use their testimonials, you should use them to promote your business.  LoyaltyLoop has 2 features that allow you to (1) easily publish testimonials onto your website, and (2) share them on your social channels with your followers on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.  But you're not limited to just those options.  You can make signs of your testimonials and hang them in your store or business, place them in quotes issued to prospects, use them in your newsletters, and various other ways. 

NOTE: You cannot post customer comments or testimonials to your Google Business Profile. Only the customer themselves can do so. 

Reviews (aka 3rd party reviews)

A review, also referred to as a third-party review, is a comment about your business given to a third party, like Google or Facebook.  All review platforms like Google, require reviews be posted by an end user.  They cannot be posted by you, your employees, friends, family, nor other third-parties like LoyaltyLoop.  It is against the terms of service of all third party online review platforms for you (or us) to post comments about your business directly on their sites, even if the comment is a testimonial as described above.  If you try doing that, these sites will catch you and cripple your online reviews.  Don't try it!  All online review platforms require the reviewer have an account on their platform in order to post a review.  And, anyone with an account can post a review about your business, even if they're not a customer.  LoyaltyLoop Promoter plan automatically surveys your actual customers, and automatically encourages them to post reviews on Google, and other sites of your choosing.  

NOTE: Only your end customers can post reviews about your business - you cannot as it violates the 3rd party review site's terms of service.