Draft: not yet reviewed by our lawyer. Items in [square brackets] are still to be filled in.

Business terms

Last updated [date]

About these terms

These terms apply when you use trowd. for business: claiming a business, reading and replying to reviews, running a rewards scheme, logging visits, buying trowd. points and featuring reviews. They’re between the business you manage (“you”) and [Company name] (“we”). You also have a personal trowd. account, so our terms of use and privacy policy apply to you too.

The short version

• Nothing you pay us changes where you appear, which reviews people see, or what they say.
• You’ll see honest reviews, good and bad. Reply to them here; never pressure or single out a customer because of their review.
• Only log genuine visits, and honour the rewards your customers earn.
• Featured reviews come from customers who agreed, and are always shown with your overall trowd. score.

1. Claiming and managing a business

• You must be the owner, or authorised by the owner, to claim and manage the business. We check claims before giving access and may ask for proof.
• Everyone who manages the business must follow these terms. You’re responsible for what happens under your business’s access, including your till key.
• Keep your till key secret. If you think it’s been seen by someone else, make a new one in the portal straight away.

2. Your reviews

You can read every review of your business, including private feedback a customer shared only with you, with the name they chose to show (or “A trowd. customer”). Reviews are written for customers’ friends and family, which is why they’re honest. To keep it that way:

• Reply only through trowd. Replies are shown under the review to everyone who can see it. Keep them polite and don’t include anyone’s personal details.
• Don’t contact customers about their reviews outside trowd., and never pressure, threaten, publicly identify, charge, refuse service to or otherwise treat anyone differently because of a review.
• Don’t influence reviews. Don’t offer anything (discounts, freebies, money) in exchange for a review or a better one, or to change or remove one. Don’t ask for only good reviews. trowd. rewards are the only incentive, and they never depend on what a customer says.
• No fake reviews. Don’t review your own business or a competitor, or ask staff, family or anyone else to.
• Use reviews only to understand and improve your business and to reply. Don’t copy them into other systems to build profiles of customers, and don’t share them outside your business, except featured reviews (section 5).

3. Appeals

• You can appeal a review you believe breaks our rules: it isn’t a genuine experience, it comes from a conflict of interest, it came with a threat or demand, it shares personal information, it’s hateful, or it’s about a different business.
• Disagreeing with an honest opinion isn’t grounds for an appeal. Reply to it instead.
• We ask the reviewer whether it’s their genuine experience and our team decides. The review stays visible while we look. Our decision is final, and a review we keep can’t be appealed again unless it changes.
• Paying us never changes the outcome of an appeal. Repeated appeals that don’t meet these grounds may lead to your access being limited.

4. Your rewards scheme

• You choose what customers get: your own reward after a number of visits, or trowd. points per visit. Customers join after reviewing you; after that, each visit you log counts.
• Only log genuine visits: a real purchase by the customer whose code, phone number or email you use. Don’t log visits to win reviews or to reward people who didn’t buy.
• Honour your rewards. When a customer shows a valid reward code at your till, give them the reward described in your scheme.
• If you change or switch off your scheme, customers keep the points they’ve earned with you, and rewards that are already ready to redeem must be honoured for [90 days].
• Logging a visit never tells you whether someone uses trowd., and must not be used to try to find out.

5. Featured reviews

• You can feature (pay to quote) reviews from customers who have agreed to it in their settings. Private feedback can’t be featured.
• The fee is [£5] per featured review. The customer receives bonus trowd. points when their review is featured.
• Show featured reviews only as we provide them: the exact words, the credit the customer chose, the label saying it’s featured with the customer’s permission and that they received points, and your overall trowd. score from all your reviews. The easiest way is our widget. Don’t edit, shorten or re-order them to change their meaning.
• If a featured review stops being featured (the customer changes it or withdraws permission, or you stop featuring it), remove it from anything you control within [7 days]. Our widget updates by itself.
• You’re responsible for following consumer law on how you use reviews in your marketing, including the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 and the CMA’s guidance on reviews.

6. Buying trowd. points

• You buy trowd. points in advance to give customers per visit. The price is [1p] per point [plus VAT]. Payments are handled by Stripe.
• Points you’ve given to customers are theirs and can’t be taken back. Unused points stay on your account until used. [Refunds of unused points when you leave: to be decided.]
• When your balance runs out, visits stop earning trowd. points until you buy more.

7. Customer data

[To be drafted by our lawyer: the data-sharing terms for the reviews, names and visit information you receive, including each party’s responsibilities under UK GDPR.] In short: use it only as these terms allow, keep it secure, and delete it when you no longer need it.

8. Fairness

trowd. never sells better placement, never hides or removes a review for payment, and never shares who someone’s friends are. Businesses are treated the same whether or not they pay us.

9. Suspending or ending access

You can stop using trowd. for business at any time: switch off your scheme and remove your managers. We may limit, suspend or remove access if these terms are broken, for example fake visits, pressuring reviewers or misleading use of reviews. Rewards customers have already earned are still honoured as set out above.

10. Our responsibility

[To be drafted by our lawyer: service availability, limits of liability and indemnities.]

11. Law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. Contact us at hello@trowd.uk.