How to Improve Trustpilot Reviews for a New Business: A 2026 Playbook
Getting more and more positive reviews on Trustpilot is one of the biggest challenges a new business faces. Established brands can easily get steady review flow, but new businesses start with limited customer trust, zero credibility, and low review volume.
Businesses cannot collect review aggrssviely nowdays due to the new rules of Trustpilot in 2026. That means new businesses need better and upgraded strategies to maintain review flow and consistency.
To improve Trustpilot reviews for a new business, ask your customers for reviews right after the satisfied service, maintain consistent review collection, send neutral invitations and follow-ups, respond to every review professionally, flag and remove fake reviews, and showcase those reviews across different channels.
Why New Businesses Struggle on Trustpilot
New businesses often have a hard time on Trustpilot because the very same factors that represent the platform’s stronger suit, such as large review volume, recency, and profile activity, often work against new business profiles, as they usually have fewer customers and fewer satisfied ones.
Furthermore, a negative review can affect their ratings much more than businesses that have numerous reviews under their belt.
This gap becomes more apparent when the business can’t/wont subscrbe to an expensive plan, reducing their review invite limits.
Moreover, Trustpilot uses an automated system to track/identify fake reviews, where if a new business profile suddenly gets an influx of positive reviews, the system can flag genuine customer reviews, making the entire situation even more complicated for the new business.
Steps to Improve Trustpilot Reviews for a New Business
1. Build a Steady Review Collection Habit (Not a Launch Spike)
One of the biggest mistakes new businesses can make while trying to generate traction on the platform is trying to collect too many TrustPilot reviews at once. While Trustpilot has not published an exact safe number of reviews per week, it does directly state that its automated system checks for unusual patterns that might indicate fake reviews or guideline violations.
This means that a sudden spike in review inflow can make the system flag even genuine reviews. In such a situation, your business strategy should be to invite a steady number of reviews over a period of time and not suddenly, which would look like artificial or unfair review collection.
Trustpilot states that review invitations must be fair, neutral, and unbiased, and businesses cannot actively pick the customers they invite to review. You must improve your Trustpilot reviews, along with those on other platforms, gradually to avoid the cold-start issue.
2. Ask the Right Customers at the Right Moment
Not every customer should get a review request. Asking blindly invites neutral or negative reviews from people who weren’t fully satisfied, which kills you at low volume. That being said, businesses should refrain from filtering out negative reviewers and maintain TrustPilot guidelines.
Review requests should come after a certain period of time, when the customer has had enough experience with the business to give useful feedback, and not immediately after payment.
A good trigger moment to ask for a review from the customer could be after the first successful delivery, after the first month of using a service, after a completed booking, or after a repeat purchase, etc.
These trigger moments work because the customer has fully experienced your products or services and has had a genuinely good experience with your business that can now become a review to boost your Trustpilot business profile.
New brands often find it difficult to create a momentum for review collection. They seek help from specialists like TheSmmExpert to create their review base.
3. Write Review Invitations That Actually Get Opened
Most of the review invitations get rejected, and the average conversion rate is 5-10%. You can achieve 20-40% if you follow the rules below.
| Element | What Works | What Doesn’t |
|---|---|---|
| Subject line | “How did we do, [First Name]?” | “Please leave us a review.” |
| Sender | A real person’s name from your team | “[email protected]“ |
| Length | 3–5 short sentences | A wall of brand copy |
| CTA | One button, one link | Multiple platforms, multiple asks |
| Tone | Genuine, conversational | Corporate and templated |
| Timing | Tuesday–Thursday, 10 am–2 pm | Late nights, weekends, Mondays |
4. Respond to Every Review — Especially the Bad Ones
For new businesses, review responses matter almost as much as the reviews themselves, as potential customers often judge businesses based on their responses and attitude towards their existing customers.
According to the 2024 survey, 88% of consumers claim that they would choose a business that replies to all reviews, compared to 47% who claimed. that they would choose a business that does not reply to reviews at all.
For a new business, the target should be to respond to all reviews within 48 hours, regardless of whether the review is positive or negative. A 2022 Report by ReviewTrackers shows that 53% of customers expect businesses to respond to negative reviews in no more than seven days, while one out of three expect a response within three days or less.
New businesses should use a simple response framework. For five-star reviews, the business should thank the customer and mention the specific.
For three to four-star reviews, the business should acknowledge the compliment of the reviewer while also addressing any Mistakes that might have happened, and ask for one to two reviews. For one to two-star reviews, the business should not be argumentative or defensive, but acknowledge the customer’s pain point, show empathy, and show empathy while replying.
5. Flag Suspicious Reviews — But Don’t Abuse It
New businesses are especially vulnerable to fake negative reviews because of their low review volume. A single one-star fake review can damage a business’s profile much more when it has 10 reviews than when it has 10,000.
If a review looks fake, competitor-driven, or not clearly based on a genuine customer experience, flag it through your Trustpilot business account. But do it so with a valid reason and proper evidence.
Trustpilot allows businesses to flag reviews that breach its guidelines, which include reviews with harmful content, personal information, or fake review concerns. At the same time, Trustpilot also states that not liking a star rating or disagreeing with a negative review is not a valid reason for flagging it. And Trustpilot does not remove a review just because the business thinks it is unfair or critical.
When flagging a particular review input, clear evidence, such as there being no matching customer record in your CRM or order system, no transactions under the reviewer’s name or email address, repeated wording across multiple reviews, the reviewer account being brand new, suspicious timing, screenshots, etc.
6. Use Your Reviews Off-Platform
Don’t rely on Trustpilot; use those reviews and make them an asset for your business. Follow the steps below.
- Use the Trustpilot widget on your websites (Different pages).
- Share the best reviews on social media and other platforms to influence customers’ perspectives.
- Attach the review snippet to your email.
- Link Trustpilot profile in offline media such as welcome cards, banners, and others.
A Realistic 90-Day Timeline for New Businesses
For a new business, this plan will work better.
| Timeframe | Review Volume Goal | Expected TrustScore | Focus Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| Days 1–30 | 10–25 reviews | 3.8–4.2 | Complete your profile, launch the invitation flow, and respond to everything |
| Days 31–60 | 25–60 reviews | 4.0–4.4 | Adjust invitation timing, build response habits, and embed widgets |
| Days 61–90 | 60–120 reviews | 4.2–4.6 | Get 25-review category ranking threshold, optimize underperforming touchpoints |
The Bottom Line
Improving the Truspilot reviews for a new business is challenging, but not impossible. We have been helping new businesses get organic reviews for different platforms, including Trustpilot. Focus on product and service quality, ask for reviews after a satisfied purchase, maintain good relationships, do regular follow-ups, and use multiple channels to get consistent review flow. Don’t lose hope early since every business struggles to get reviews at first. But once they start getting ones, it never stops.
