Step 5 of 8
Review surfaces against each other, not against hope
How to check it
Reviews are weak individually and useful in cross-section. The check is agreement across independent surfaces: does the business name on the quote match the name on its Google Business Profile listing, its BBB profile, and its own website? Do the review locations cluster where the company claims to work? Does a years-in-business claim on the quote fit the age of the oldest reviews and the BBB record? Any single surface can be curated; the seams between surfaces are harder to curate.
Described as a consistency practice across public listing surfaces; no single registry URL applies, and no review platform is treated as authoritative.
What a pass proves
Consistency: that one durable identity stands behind the quote, telling the same story about itself in venues it does not fully control.
What it does NOT prove
Review scores prove sentiment, not craftsmanship — a five-star average is not an inspection, and reviews cannot be independently tied to real projects. This is a filter for incoherence, not evidence of quality.