Customer Reviews & Testimonials Policy

Purpose, Scope & Principles

How Health Equilibrium approaches customer feedback

This Customer Reviews & Testimonials Policy explains how Health Equilibrium SA (Pty) Ltd (“Health Equilibrium”, “we”, “us” or “our”) collects, receives, moderates, publishes and uses customer reviews, ratings, testimonials, photographs and other customer-generated feedback.

It applies to feedback submitted through the website, online review platforms, social media, email, WhatsApp, in-store channels, surveys, competitions or any other channel where Health Equilibrium may receive or use customer feedback.

The Policy is intended to support genuine customer expression while protecting customers from misleading representations and protecting customer personal information.

1.1 What this Policy does

• Sets standards for requesting and collecting reviews.
• Explain how reviews may be moderated or removed.
• Sets rules for using testimonials, photographs and customer stories in marketing.
• Protects the integrity of customer feedback and the privacy of customers.
• Help staff distinguish genuine feedback from unsupported products or health claims.

1.2 Legal and policy framework

This Policy is intended to operate alongside applicable South African law, including the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 (“CPA”), the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (“POPIA”), Health Equilibrium’s Website Terms & Conditions, Health & Wellness Disclaimer, Privacy & POPIA Policy, and other applicable company policies.

Nothing in this Policy limits or excludes a consumer right, remedy or protection that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded.

Genuine Customer Reviews

Reviews must represent real experiences

2.1 What qualifies as a genuine review?

A genuine review is feedback submitted by a person who has purchased, used, experienced or otherwise directly interacted with the relevant product or service, and who is expressing their own experience or opinion.

• Reviews must not be fabricated by Health Equilibrium or by someone acting on their behalf.
• Health Equilibrium must not knowingly publish a review presented as an independent customer review when it was created by staff, management, suppliers or another interested party.
• A reviewer should not be encouraged to claim an experience they did not have.
• Customers may give positive, neutral or negative feedback.
• A review does not need to be favorable for Health Equilibrium to consider or publish it, provided it meets the applicable review rules.

2.2 No manipulation of review scores

• Health Equilibrium will not knowingly create or arrange fake reviews to improve ratings.
• Staff must not ask friends, family or other people to post reviews that falsely appear to come from ordinary customers.
• Staff must not selectively rewrite customer reviews to create a materially different impression.
• Where a platform permits review responses, responses must be factual, professional and respectful.
• Health Equilibrium will not threaten, pressure or improperly incentivize a customer to remove a negative review.

2.3 Review requests

Health Equilibrium may invite customers to leave a review after a purchase or customer interaction. Review requests should be neutral and should not instruct the customer to give a particular rating or positive outcome.

Where an incentive or reward is offered for submitting feedback, the incentive must not be conditional on giving a positive review, and any required disclosure must be made clearly.

Incentives, Moderation & Removal

When feedback may be reviewed, rejected or removed

3.1 Incentives

Health Equilibrium may, where appropriate, run a genuine feedback campaign or offer a reward for submitting feedback. Any such arrangement must be transparent and must not be structured to purchase favorable reviews.

• The customer should be free to give an honest rating or opinion.
• The reward should not depend on the review being positive.
• The existence and nature of an incentive should be disclosed where required by the relevant platform or applicable law.
• Staff must not promise a refund, discount, replacement or other remedy in exchange for a positive review.

3.2 Moderation

Health Equilibrium may moderate, reject or remove submitted content where it is reasonable to do so under the applicable review rules. Moderation is intended to protect customers, staff and the integrity of the review environment—not to suppress legitimate criticism.

• Fraudulent, fabricated or demonstrably inauthentic content.
• Abusive, threatening, harassing, defamatory or discriminatory content.
• Content that unlawfully discloses another person’s private information.
• Spam, advertising, repeated submissions or irrelevant material.
• Content that infringes on another person’s intellectual property or other legal rights.
• Unsupported medical, therapeutic or disease-treatment claims.
• Content that contains unlawful, dangerous or otherwise prohibited material.

3.3 Editing customer reviews

Health Equilibrium should not materially alter the substance or meaning of a customer’s review. Minor formatting or spelling corrections may be made only where appropriate and where doing so does not change the customer’s intended meaning. If material editing is necessary for a marketing purpose, fresh customer approval should be obtained.

Testimonials, Photographs & Customer Stories

Separate permission for broader marketing use

4.1 Review versus testimonial

A customer review submitted for a review platform is not automatically permission for Health Equilibrium to reuse the customer’s name, photograph, video, quotation or story in unrelated marketing material. Where Health Equilibrium wishes to use customer-generated content for broader promotional purposes, appropriate permission or consent will be obtained where required.

4.2 Consent and permission

• Health Equilibrium should identify the intended use of the testimonial or customer-generated content as clearly as possible.
• Where a customer is identifiable, the permission or consent process should cover the relevant identifying information and the intended marketing use.
• Photographs and videos should not be used for marketing without appropriate permission or consent where required.
• The customer should not be led to believe that the testimonial will be used privately if it is intended for public advertising.
• Any special limitations agreed with the customer should be recorded and respected.

4.3 Use of names and identifying information

Where a testimonial is used publicly, Health Equilibrium should use only the level of identification that is appropriate and authorized—for example, a first name and initial rather than a full name where full identification is unnecessary.

Customer contact details, order information, account information or other private information must not be published merely because the customer provided a testimonial.

4.4 Withdrawal requests

Where a customer asks Health Equilibrium to stop using an identifiable testimonial, photograph or customer story, the request should be referred to management for review. Health Equilibrium will consider the request and, where appropriate, take reasonable steps to stop future marketing use, subject to any applicable legal, contractual or platform requirements.

Health, Wellness & Product Claims

Customer experience must not become unsupported health claims

Because Health Equilibrium operates in the natural health and wellness sector, customer feedback may sometimes contain statements about health outcomes. Such statements require particular care.

5.1 Prohibited or inappropriate use

• Do not present a customer testimonial as proof that a product diagnoses, treats, cures or prevents a disease.
• Do not amplify, headline or selectively quote a customer statement in a way that creates an unsupported therapeutic claim.
• Do not convert an individual customer’s experience into a general guarantee of results.
• Do not imply that a product will produce the same result for every customer.
• Do not use before-and-after material in a misleading manner or without appropriate context and permission.
• Do not encourage customers to make medical claims that Health Equilibrium itself could not lawfully make.

5.2 Review moderation for wellness claims

Where a review contains a potentially inappropriate medical or therapeutic claim, Health Equilibrium may remove the claim, decline publication, request clarification, or moderate the content in accordance with the applicable platform rules. Any moderation should preserve the customer’s genuine experience where reasonably possible without creating a misleading marketing claim.

5.3 Staff conduct

• Staff must not coach customers to describe a product as treating or curing a medical condition.
• Staff must not promise a specific health result in exchange for feedback.
• Staff should escalate unusual or potentially risky health claims to management before using them in marketing.
• Customer reviews must not override the Health & Wellness Disclaimer or approved product information.

Privacy, Records & Staff Responsibilities

Keeping the review process controlled and accountable

6.1 Personal information

• Only information reasonably required for the review or testimonial process should be collected.
• Customer email addresses, telephone numbers, order details and other private information must not be published as part of a review.
• Personal information used for marketing must be handled in accordance with Health Equilibrium’s Privacy & POPIA Policy.
• Marketing communications must be handled separately from the customer’s choice to submit a review and must comply with applicable direct-marketing requirements.

6.2 Review records

Where Health Equilibrium obtains specific permission to use a testimonial, photograph, video or customer story, the business should retain a record of the permission or consent, the intended use, the date obtained and any relevant limitations.

Records should be stored securely and accessed only by staff or service providers who need them for legitimate business purposes.

6.3 Staff responsibilities

• Do not fabricate, buy or manipulate reviews.
• Do not pressure a customer to provide a positive review.
• Do not promise a benefit in exchange for favorable feedback.
• Do not publish customer information without appropriate authorization.
• Escalate complaints, threats, privacy concerns, serious allegations or potentially unlawful content to management.
• Follow approved product and health-information wording when responding to reviews.

6.4 Management responsibilities

• Maintain the approved review and testimonial process.
• Approve unusual or high-risk testimonial campaigns.
• Maintain records of permissions and material customer-generated content used in marketing.
• Review complaints or disputes relating to published testimonials.
• Periodically review this Policy and update it when business practices, platforms or legal requirements change.

Customer Rights, Complaints & Policy Details

A clear route when something goes wrong

7.1 Customer concerns about reviews or testimonials

A customer may contact Health Equilibrium if they believe their review, photograph, testimonial or other customer-generated content has been used incorrectly, if they believe content attributed to them is inaccurate, or if they have concerns about privacy or consent.

Health Equilibrium will review the concern and, where appropriate, correct, remove or stop using content in accordance with this Policy, applicable law and the rules of the platform on which the content appears.

7.2 No waiver of consumer rights

This Policy does not limit a customer’s rights under applicable consumer-protection or privacy legislation. Customers remain entitled to use any lawful complaint, dispute-resolution, regulatory or legal process available to them.

7.3 Related Health Equilibrium policies

• Website Terms & Conditions
• Privacy & POPIA Policy
• Health & Wellness Disclaimer
• Customer Complaints Policy
• Returns, Refunds & Exchanges Policy
• Delivery & Collection Policy