The electric Agva asked for revisions and the cover with the iPhone – E24

Agva Kraft has more than 5,100 reviews on Trustpilot.com, a leading Danish portal for consumer reviews of companies around the world.

That is much more than other major energy providers. Fjordkraft has 20 ratings, NorgesEnergi has 21, while Hafslund has 35.

Agva’s average (4.3 out of 5) is also significantly better than the competition. The power company has highlighted this score on its own website.

At the same time, Agva’s ratings are not that good on Bytt.no or on the Google reviews page.

The figures have prompted E24 to ask Trustpilot questions about the origin of the reviews.

Write to win

After a review, Trustpilot found that the large number of reviews is related to the fact that Agva has actively asked customers for reviews and used pull mechanisms to do just that.

– For example, it has been tried to allow you to participate in a contest if you give a rating, explains Sofie Bay, communications director for Trustpilot in the Nordic region and the Benelux.

A scroll through the many reviews shows how this has had an effect.

“It would have been incredibly cool to be able to give my son an iPad (something I can’t afford) if I win,” wrote one user last year, giving five out of five stars.

“I haven’t been a customer long enough to comment, but an iPad will probably be the last star in the review ;-),” wrote another in late June this year, giving it four out of five stars.

No longer allows contests

Trustpilot’s Sofie Bay believes that using incentives for users to write reviews can be a good thing.

– Businesses that are in favor of getting feedback are often evaluated by a larger and more representative group of consumers. Therefore, we also clearly show by companies whether or not you are actively requesting reviews.

However, Trustpilot has stopped allowing this. This summer, CEO Peter Mühlmann made seven adjustments, one of which was to disallow such incentive schemes.

The company explained the move by saying that even though most companies use incentives the right way, there is growing concern that any type of incentive could generate generally more positive feedback.

Sofie Bay notes that Agva has only used incentives before the change took effect and that it does not suspect false reviews or cheating.

Won with five stars

Thomas Skjerpingstad, 29, emerged victorious from one of Agva’s competitions. Among several hundred participants, it was he who in May 2018 won an iPhone X.

Skjerpingstad gave the electricity supplier the highest score on Trustpilot. He says the review he wrote may have been influenced in a positive direction by the fact that it was his “lottery” in the draw.

– You will not take risks if there are more chances of winning by giving good publicity.

At the same time, everything he wrote was true, says Skjerpingstad. The 29-year-old is still an Agva customer and is very happy with him.

– Has not affected the score

Agva Marketing Manager Bjørn Arctander says that what separates companies with few and many reviews is the number of invitations sent.

– We have focused on having a wide and representative selection and therefore we have continually dispatched to new and existing clients, he says.

Arctander confirms that, from time to time, they run contests, including with the iPad as a prize.

– It has been carefully specified in the invitations that have been issued that the chances of winning are the same, whether you write a good or bad review. Consequently, this has not affected the score, but has contributed to a higher proportion of customers taking the trouble to write reviews.

Bjørn Arctander says that it has been half a year since the previous competition and that they will not have more of these in the future, as a result of the new Trustpilot guidelines.

The previous review that explicitly mentioned the iPad came in late June. This month, 61 reviews were received, with a large number specifying that they just became a customer. The mean was 4.3.

From July until today, 39 opinions have been received with an average score of 2.3.

May lead to more positive reviews

The deputy director of the Norwegian Consumers Agency, Bente Øverli, has not analyzed Agva specifically, but claims that there is reason to believe that the reviews written to be able to participate in a contest are generally more positive than the reviews of users who have taken The initiative.

– Yes, there are reasons to believe. User reviews should be a channel for real consumer ratings. And if you are lured in with an advantage against them writing user reviews, this can lead to what is being discussed being evaluated more positively than it would have been the case without payment or reward, he says.

Øverli says that if reviews are written against reward, such as free products, the Consumer Agency will consider a review as advertising and a violation of the Marketing Law.

But reviews that are motivated by incentives as weak as the chance to enter a giveaway, on the other hand, are considered ordinary user reviews, Øverli explains.

– What does the Norwegian Consumer Agency think about getting customers, perhaps new ones, to write reviews to enter a contest?

– User reviews must provide a sufficiently indicative image of user opinions on the product or merchant in question. If the merchant has influenced the content of user reviews or influenced the way they are presented, those who are targeting the market by reading user reviews may get the wrong impression.

– We understand that it is important for companies to obtain consumer comments, and user opinions are usually a good channel for this. But we must remember that user reviews must in the first instance give consumers a legitimate expectation that user reviews come from consumers who want to share their experiences, negative or positive, with other consumers on their own initiative.