I have just used a Web tool to analyse the latest 1000 5* and 1000 1* Sykes reviews on Trustpilot. I'm not boasting perfect arithmetic here but the general picture appears to be this.
1) The latest 1000 5* reviews have all been generated in the last three days.
2) Only 360 1* reviews have been published over the same period.
In the last 24 hours 5* outnumber 1* by 480 to 160. So the run rate of three excellent to one poor rating is being maintained.
I have a feeling that this is a ratio that needs to be maintained to keep the overall rating at 4*.
Now if Sykes had an established reputation for great customer service I might buy the fact they can "reach out" for good reviews from their "verified" customer base. [Verified means Sykes can contact the customer for a review and preferably a great one. I'm not sure if they can discard reviews they don't like]
But the amount of negative media attention this outfit has received over a long period of time is at odds with a large and loyal following and one may reasonably expect more negative than positive reviews from customers who will not get their holiday or money back.
Sykes customers have more reasons to be pissed off than euphorically happy and the Trustpilot numbers, I think, need to be viewed with extreme scepticism.
As Trustpilot rely on Sykes (amongst others) for their revenue, this fact could cast reasonable doubt that genuine rating data is not immune from "cleansing". An interesting piece on them is here
https://www.seotraininglondon.org/can-y ... rustpilot/
FudgePilot
This is so like the situation a few years ago, when Owners Direct fell into the hands of Expedia and they changed the workings of the OD site in various ways to cause many of their owner-customers to write angry 1* reviews on TrustPilot (I was one). OD's TP rating dropped like a stone initially, but then they managed to reverse the situation by canvassing holidaymakers (NOT owners) at the booking stage asking them to write TP reviews about their booking experience. The space then filled, perhaps was swamped, with many short 5* 'verified' reviews.
It looked very suspicious and I posted (under my alias) a TP review about this huge reversal. OD complained to TP about my review and TP duly obliged and took it down as irrelevant. I complained to TP about this and my review was reinstated and TP blamed their computer (don't they all!).
This just increased my suspicion that TP were not entirely impartial and when I noted that OD was a PAYING customer of TP, receiving statistics and the like from them, I wrote again to TP to suggest the same. Their response, as I might have expected, was one of righteous indignation.
With regard to the present situation regarding Sykes and their TrustPilot reviews, I see on the Sykes TP page the admission: "(Sykes Holiday Cottages) has a paid Trustpilot Business subscription". If this isn't fertile ground for a conflict of interests, then I don't know what is.
It looked very suspicious and I posted (under my alias) a TP review about this huge reversal. OD complained to TP about my review and TP duly obliged and took it down as irrelevant. I complained to TP about this and my review was reinstated and TP blamed their computer (don't they all!).
This just increased my suspicion that TP were not entirely impartial and when I noted that OD was a PAYING customer of TP, receiving statistics and the like from them, I wrote again to TP to suggest the same. Their response, as I might have expected, was one of righteous indignation.
With regard to the present situation regarding Sykes and their TrustPilot reviews, I see on the Sykes TP page the admission: "(Sykes Holiday Cottages) has a paid Trustpilot Business subscription". If this isn't fertile ground for a conflict of interests, then I don't know what is.