How Locallista Vets Every Professional: Inside Our Phone-Verified Review Process
Most review sites let people type whatever they want into a text box, slap some stars on it, and call it a day. We don't. Every review on Locallista comes from a phone call with a real customer of the business. Here is how the process actually works, and why it matters if you are an expat trying to pick a plumber, a lawyer, or an accountant in a country you are still figuring out.
The two kinds of reviews we collect
We collect two types of reviews, and they do different jobs.
1. Initial reviews
Before a business ever shows up on Locallista, we call their past clients. These people are not Locallista users. They are customers the business worked with long before we showed up, sometimes years ago. We ask them specific questions about the job, and we score the business based on what they tell us.
A business only gets listed if those initial calls put it at 8.5 out of 10 or higher. Anything below that and we pass.
2. Locallista reviews
Once a business is on the platform, we keep calling. Every time someone books a service through Locallista, we follow up by phone after the job is done and collect a fresh review. The point is simple: a business should not be able to coast on the reputation it walked in with.
If the score drops below 8.5 over time, the business is removed. No warnings, no "we'll fix it next quarter."
How a review call actually goes
Every call looks about the same.
- It is always a phone call. Our quality reps make every call through CloudTalk, and every call is recorded with the reviewer's knowledge.
- We try to call people in their own language. Our team speaks English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Hebrew. It is easier to be honest in a language you are comfortable in.
- We call between 9 AM and 8 PM on weekdays. Saturdays up to 6 PM are fine. Never Sundays.
- Our reps work from a conversation guide, not a script. Quick chat if the person is busy, longer if they want to talk.
- Three tries, then a manager steps in. If we cannot reach someone after three attempts (spaced 5 and 10 days apart), the review goes to a manager instead of quietly disappearing.
How we score things
We rate every review on five things: quality, communication, price, punctuality, and courtesy. Then we ask the reviewer for an overall score, based on how they would weigh all of that.
The scale is blunt on purpose.
| Score | What it means |
|---|---|
| 10 | Went above and beyond. Genuinely exceptional. |
| 9 | Did what they said they would do, and did it well. Strong recommendation. |
| 8 | Fine, but there is room to improve. |
| 7 or below | Would not recommend. Flagged internally. |
We do not allow decimals, and the overall score is not an average of the five categories. The reviewer gives it themselves, after thinking about the whole experience.
When someone gives a 10, we always ask what made it a 10. That one question is why our reviews have real substance instead of a number sitting on its own.
When something goes wrong
If a review comes back with something serious, like a no-show, rude behaviour, or an overall score of 6 or under, it goes straight to a manager. We do not just publish a low number and move on. We follow up, we dig into what happened, and if a business keeps falling short, it is off the platform.
Softer feedback ("I wish they had given me a clearer quote upfront") does not hurt the business's score. We pass it along so they can fix it, and that is the end of it.
Why we do it this way
Most review platforms optimise for volume. We optimise for trust. Those are different problems.
If you are an expat, you are in a weird spot. You need a plumber or a lawyer or an accountant in a country where half the review threads are in a language you do not read fluently, you do not know anyone who has been around long enough to have a real recommendation, and asking around does not work yet because you have not built that network. You need someone to have done the homework for you.
A phone call gives us context a text review cannot. We hear whether the person would actually hire the business again, what the surprises were, and whether the rating is calibrated to reality. No bots. No incentives attached to leaving a good review. No pay-to-play tiers hiding in the background.
So, short version
Every professional on Locallista got there by passing phone calls with real clients. They are scored against a strict rubric, and they have to keep earning the spot with every booking. Drop below 8.5 and you are out. That is the deal.