Reviews & Case Study Studio

What is Reviews & Case Study Studio for?

A testimonial or case study reassures prospects because it comes from a real client, with real results. Reviews & Case Study Studio helps you collect them (request templates, interview guide), store them with proof of each person’s permission, turn your best projects into structured case studies (context, problem, solution, dated and sourced before/after results) and publish them: cards, a testimonial wall to embed on your website, pages you can print to PDF and texts for social media.

The tool is built to prevent shortcuts: a testimonial without permission is never exported, an edited quote must be approved by its author, and a figure without a source or period is flagged.

With the other Yok-Kod tools

• Landing Page Copy Studio and Funnel Studio: put your approved testimonials on your sales page;
• Website Studio: embed the testimonial wall on your website;
• Social Media Manager Studio: schedule your texts and images;
• Freelance Proposal Generator: attach a case study to your proposals.

Who is it for?

The steps, one by one

Project, library and case studies

A project is your business (or one brand): it holds one testimonial library and up to 12 case studies. This avoids copying the same testimonial from project to project: a case study simply quotes a testimonial from the library, and the wall gathers every publishable testimonial. Create another project only for another brand. The discovery version keeps 1 project, Pro keeps 30, each with up to 60 testimonials.

Permission and statuses

• “Approved” and “Published” are only possible once you tick the client’s permission, with its date and method (signed written consent, email, form). Unticking permission sets the testimonial back to “Received”.
• If you shorten or edit a quote, tick “I shortened or edited the quote”: the original text is kept and the testimonial is no longer publishable until you tick “Edited version approved by the client”. Any further change cancels that approval.
• A case study needs the client’s approval (figures included) or an anonymised version. Without it, the page carries a “Draft” banner: you can send it for approval, not publish it.

Requesting a testimonial

The ✉️ Request tab prepares messages filled in with your name, the client’s and the project: after delivery, after a result, a short version (text, WhatsApp, LinkedIn), a 7-question interview guide, the testimonial approval email (with the original text if you shortened it) and the case study approval email (with the list of figures to confirm). Copy them or open them in your email app. French messages can use the formal “vous” or the informal “tu”.

Writing the case study

• Title of 25 to 100 characters, with the client (or sector) and the result.
• Summary of 25 to 90 words: who, which problem, what you did, which result.
• Concrete context and problem, then the solution in steps (one per line).
• Results: up to 8 indicators, plus a qualitative text. The first three appear in large type at the top of the page.
• Quote chosen from the library, about and call-to-action button (otherwise, those from Settings).

Verifiable figures

Each indicator has a before value, an after value, a unit, the period compared and its source (how it is measured). The change is calculated: as a percentage, or in points for a percentage (going from 8% to 22% is +14 points, not “+175%”). Flagged: figures without source, period or starting value, changes above 300% to explain, vague words (“skyrocketed”, “huge”), figures in the title or summary missing from the results. The page adds a note that results are specific to this client and do not guarantee the same results elsewhere.

What the law says (a reminder, not legal advice)

• Fake reviews are banned. In the European Union, since the “Omnibus” directive (2019/2161), making up, commissioning or distorting consumer reviews is a misleading commercial practice in all circumstances. In the UK, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 has banned fake reviews since April 2025.
• Say how reviews are checked. If you display customer reviews, EU rules require you to say whether and how you make sure they come from people who actually bought. That is the role of the “How these testimonials are collected” text shown under the wall.
• Rights over image and name. Publishing someone’s name, words or photo requires their permission (image rights and data protection law, GDPR / UK GDPR).
• No misleading results. A figure must be accurate, dated and verifiable, and must not suggest that every client will get the same result.
• No stars or review markup. Files contain no ratings and no schema.org “Review” markup: Google does not accept it for reviews a business selects about itself.

In Luxembourg and other EU countries, these rules come from the same Omnibus Directive, transposed into national law. In Switzerland, outside the EU, there is no equally detailed duty, but fake or misleading reviews fall under the Unfair Competition Act (UCA). In Customer reviews › Page, the Country of your business field (prefilled from your business profile) adapts the references shown.

The 5-axis score

Review checks are only added when your project contains reviews, so the score of a testimonial-only project does not change. The discovery version shows the score and 3 recommendations; Pro shows them all, with advice for every check.

Cards, wall and pages

These documents can be exported in the discovery version too, with a “Discovery version · Made with Yok-Kod · yok-kod.com” line at the end of the page (and at the bottom of each printed page) or in a band below the image; Pro removes it. Data and integrations (embed code, reviews as CSV and JSON, widget) and the project JSON are for Pro members.

• Card for a testimonial in 4 layouts (Classic, Result, Simple, Portrait), as HTML or as a 1080 × 1080 image for social media.
• Testimonial wall: a standalone HTML file (grid, masonry or list) with the collection method and the permission line. Put it online, then paste the embed code (Pro; an iframe whose height adjusts automatically) into your page.
• Case study page in HTML, designed for printing: 🖨️ Print / PDF opens it ready to save as an A4 PDF.
• Social media texts: one for the case study, one for the selected testimonial.
• Everything (ZIP): wall, embed code, cards, approved studies, studies to approve (to-approve/ folder), texts, instructions and JSON project (in the discovery version: the watermarked documents, without embed code, CSV, JSON or widget), plus the reviews/ folder if your project contains customer reviews (see Customer reviews).

Only publishable testimonials are exported; a non-publishable card is refused with the reason. Six styles, nine colours or your own: button text is set to white or black to stay readable, and a colour that is too light is darkened for small text.

The Customer reviews module

A testimonial is feedback you choose and publish with its author’s permission. A customer review is a public rating (Google, Trustpilot, Facebook, your form…) from 1 to 5: it is published as written, positive or negative. They are kept apart (the ⭐ Customer reviews button at the top of the editor) and share your project, style and colours.

What the module does

• Review library (up to 500 per project): author (display name or initials), required rating with no pre-filled value, text in its original language, date, source and link to the original review, verification (“verified: purchase or service confirmed” with the method, or “not verified”), your public reply and its date, themes, published / highlighted / hidden status with a reason, and a separate translation.
• No rewriting: the text is locked as soon as you move to another review. Only an import glitch (garbled characters, spacing) can be fixed with “✎ Fix an import glitch”, noting what you fixed; the original text is kept and any other change is flagged in the analysis.
• Previews: the reviews page, the widget, the QR card and the statistics (average and distribution, monthly trend, share of reviews with a reply and median reply time, themes and sentiment, sources).

Asking for honest reviews

The 📣 Request tab gathers your links (Google review link, Trustpilot, your form) and prepares an email, a text message and a WhatsApp message, plus a printable QR card (4 A6 cards per A4 sheet, QR code generated in the tool). Ask all your customers for a review, not just the happiest ones, never ask for “5 stars” or a positive review, and offer no reward tied to the review: it is prohibited and against Google and Trustpilot rules. The analysis flags such wording on the card, in your personal sentence or on the page.

Importing your reviews (Pro)

• CSV with a column-matching step (separator detected, downloadable CSV template), Google Business Profile (API JSON, ratings “FIVE”, “FOUR”…), Trustpilot (CSV or JSON export from Trustpilot Business) and the tool’s JSON (avis.json or project).
• A row without a valid rating is skipped and listed: no rating is guessed. Duplicates are left out, and missing dates or authors are reported.
• Google Takeout contains the reviews you wrote about other places, not those your business received: it is refused. The tool never copies a web page (HTML).
• Republishing Google, Trustpilot or Facebook reviews on your website must respect their terms of use: prefer their official widget, and keep the link to the original review.

The reviews page and its required information

The export produces avis.html (in the discovery version too, with the watermark) and, with Pro, avis.json (put them in the same folder; to update, replace the JSON only), a widget (avis-widget.js script or iframe) showing the latest reviews and the average of all published reviews, and a backup CSV. The page follows your style and colours, in light, dark or automatic mode, in French or English, with rating and source filters, search and sorting by date by default. The average and the number of reviews are calculated from all published reviews.

The “How these reviews work” section shows what the EU Omnibus directive requires (in France, article L111-7-2 of the Consumer Code; in Belgium, Book VI of the Code of Economic Law): where the reviews come from, whether and how they are verified, the date of each review, the ordering criteria, the fact that you can reply, the absence of incentives (or their description), the publication criteria and the number of unpublished reviews if you hide any, the publication period and a contact to report a review. Never hide a review because it is negative: the analysis flags it.

Why no stars in Google?

The tool adds no schema.org AggregateRating or Review markup. Google treats such markup as “self-serving” when a business applies it to reviews about itself, and forbids marking up reviews taken from other sites: it would be ignored, or even penalised. The stars on your Google profile come from the profile itself. The page keeps its title, description and sharing tags.

Replying to negative reviews

• Thank the customer, acknowledge the problem without excuses or blame, and offer to talk privately (the contact set in “Page”).
• Never write the customer’s personal data (email, phone, order details) and only promise what you have actually decided.
• Avoid copy-pasted replies: the analysis flags the same reply on several reviews.

AI (optional, Pro)

With your own key (Agnes, OpenAI, Claude, Mistral, Groq, Gemini, DeepSeek, OpenRouter or a compatible service):

• Interview → case study: paste the transcript of a real interview. The AI only uses that text; anything missing stays “[to complete]”, figures not in the interview are marked “[to check]” or removed, and only quotes found word for word are kept. The result creates a draft study and adds the quotes as “Received”, without permission.
• Short version of a real quote: three suggestions that keep only the client’s words. The one you choose becomes an edited quote, to be approved.
• Tailored interview guide: 7 open, neutral questions adapted to your trade.
• Customer reviews: public reply to a review (warm, professional or brief; for a negative review it acknowledges the problem without excuses and offers a private conversation, never promising a gesture you have not entered), translation shown as “automatically translated” next to the original, themes, and a summary (strengths, recurring complaints, actions) where each point links to the reviews behind it. Figures, phone numbers or compensation not found in the review are flagged.

The AI never rewrites a review and never writes testimonials or results. Calls go through our server with your key, which stays in your browser.

Discovery version and Pro

Reviews & Case Study Studio Pro costs €29 as a one-off payment, with no subscription; it is also included in Marketing Pack (€129) and in Full Access (€179).

Where is my data?

Your projects are saved in your browser, automatically, photos, logos and customer reviews included. The server receives the project only to compute the analysis and generate the files, and does not keep it. Remember to back up your projects as JSON (Pro), especially before clearing your browser.

Common problems

I cannot set a testimonial to “Approved”.

Tick the client’s permission first, with its date and method.

My testimonial does not appear on the wall.

Check the permission, the status, the approval of an edited quote and the “Show on the testimonial wall” box. The reason is shown above the testimonial form.

The photo does not appear.

Tick “Explicit permission for the photo”. Without it, initials replace the photo.

My case study shows the “Draft” banner.

Tick the client’s approval (or the anonymised version) and check that the linked quote is publishable.

The embedded wall is cut off or too tall.

Paste both parts of the embed code (iframe and script) and enter the exact address of the file in Settings → Testimonial wall.

My review does not appear on the reviews page.

It needs a rating, an author (name or initials) and a date, and must not be hidden. The reason is shown above the review form.

I can no longer edit a review’s text.

That is intended: a review is published exactly as its author wrote it. For an import glitch, use “✎ Fix an import glitch”; “↺ Original text” undoes any change.

My import skipped some rows.

Rows without a rating from 1 to 5 are left out and listed, because the tool never makes up a rating. Check the column chosen for the rating in the matching step.

How do I update my reviews page?

Export avis.json again and replace that file only on your website: the page and the widget read it again.

“Browser storage is full”.

Remove some photos or delete an old project, after backing it up as JSON (Pro).

Another question? Write to us, we reply quickly. See the Pro price →