Why recommendations, not reviews

Reviews have two problems at once. People are worn out by being asked for them, and nobody is sure which ones to believe.

The problem with reviews

If you've hired anyone recently, you've been asked to leave a review. A text, an email, a reminder, sometimes an account to create and a paragraph to write. Most people don't bother, which is why so many good people have only a handful.

And when you do read reviews, it's hard to know what to make of them. Some are written for the business, some against it, and plenty are impossible to judge. The system asks a lot of customers and gives readers little in return.

A recommendation is smaller on purpose

On Trusted by Locals, a recommendation is one local person saying I'd recommend them, and confirming it with their email address. That's all. There are no stars, no paragraph, no account.

Because it takes fifteen seconds, people actually do it. And because each one is confirmed by email, and each person can only count once, the number is made of real, different people.

What you give up, and what you get

You give up the story. A recommendation won't tell you how a kitchen turned out or how tidy someone was. If you want that, ask the person, or ask a neighbour.

In return there's nothing to dispute, nothing to argue over and nothing anyone can write about a business except the business itself. There are no negative ratings to be used against someone, and no stars to inflate.

There's no "would not recommend" button, on purpose. If someone has no number, or a small one, that is the signal.

Seeing the shape, not just the total

Every page shows when its recommendations arrived. A number built steadily over two years looks very different from two hundred in a week, and you can see the difference for yourself. We'd rather show our working than ask you to take it on trust. Here's how we keep it honest.

For people, not places

There are plenty of ways to find out whether a pub is good. It's much harder to find out whether a local cake maker, plasterer, dog groomer or piano teacher is any good, other than asking in a Facebook group. That's who this is for: the person who did the work.

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