Helm › Helm University › Track 9 › Lesson 9.4
Lesson 9.4Reviews, and what you can actually appeal
Two things you can do about a review, one public and one private, and a threshold that protects new shops.
Prefer to listen? This is the same lesson, word for word. The text below is the transcript.
This lesson prepares you to: Reply to a review, appeal one properly, and know what the appeal can and cannot achieve.
Below three reviews, no score is shown
A shop or product with fewer than 3 published reviews shows as New store or New product rather than a number.
The reason is worth stating: a store with one five star review would otherwise rank above a store with two hundred reviews at 4.7, which is the opposite of the truth. It protects you when you are new and it protects buyers from a number that means nothing.
So your first two reviews do not produce a rating. Your third does, and it will move sharply because three is a small number.
The two things you can do
Reply publicly. Your reply appears with the review. This is the one everybody underestimates. A calm, specific reply to a bad review is read by every future buyer, and it says more about your shop than the review does.
Appeal privately. An appeal goes to Helm staff and asks for the review to be taken down. It is not a debate with the buyer and the buyer does not see it.
How an appeal is decided
A staff member reviews it and returns one of two outcomes, and a written note is required either way. Nobody can decide an appeal without saying why.
| Outcome | What happens |
|---|---|
| Granted | The review comes down and stops counting toward your score |
| Upheld | The review stays exactly as it is |
An appeal can only be decided once. There is no second appeal on the same review and no escalation path above it.
Open appeals are worked oldest first, on the reasoning that an appeal waiting three days is worse than one waiting three hours.
What an appeal is for
An appeal is the right tool when a review breaks the rules: abuse, something about a different order, content that has nothing to do with the purchase.
It is the wrong tool when a review is simply bad. Helm does not sit in judgement over whether a buyer was fair, and a genuine one star review from a genuine buyer will be upheld. Reply to that one instead.
A known defect worth knowing about
Helm has two review paths for historical reasons, and only one of them feeds the rating shoppers see on your tiles. A review left through the older product route is stored but does not move your average or your count. If a review appears and your rating does not change, that is why. It is a bug on Helm's side rather than anything you have done.