I Have a Bad Google Review and I Have Never Met the Person or Done Business With Them
The writer's views are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely outcome of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.
Fake reviews are a growing problem for those of us that own small businesses. In the online globe, it'southward extremely easy to create a new account and leave either a positive or negative review for any business — regardless of whether you've ever tried to hire them.
Google has tons of policies for users that exit reviews. Only in my experience they're terrible at automatically catching violations of these policies. At my agency, my team spends fourth dimension each month advisedly monitoring reviews for our clients and their competitors. The expert news is that if you're diligent at tracking them and can make a expert enough example for why the reviews are against the guidelines, you tin can go them removed by contacting Google on Twitter, Facebook, or reporting via the forum.
Recently, my company got hit with three negative reviews, all left in the bridge of 5 minutes:
Two of the 3 reviews were ratings without reviews. These are the hardest to become rid of because Google will normally tell you that they don't violate the guidelines — since in that location'due south no text on them. I instantly knew they weren't customers because I'thousand really selective about who I piece of work with and keep my customer base small intentionally. I would know if someone that was paying me was unhappy.
The challenge with negative reviews on Google
The challenge is that Google doesn't know who your customers are, and they won't accept "this wasn't a customer" as an adequate reason to remove a review, since they allow people to use anonymous usernames. In most cases, information technology'southward extremely difficult to testify the identity of someone online.
The other challenge is that a person doesn't have to be a customer to exist eligible to leave a review. They have to have a "customer experience," which could be anything from trying to telephone call you and getting your voicemail to dropping by your office and but browsing around.
How to respond
When you work hard to build a expert, ethical business, information technology'due south always infuriating when a random person has the ability to destroy what took you years to build. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't the least bit upset when these reviews came in. Thankfully, I was able to follow the advice I've given many people in the final decade, which is to calm downward and think about what your futurity prospects will see when they come across review and the way you respond to it.
Solution: Share your dilemma
I decided to post on Twitter and Facebook about my lovely three negative reviews, and the response I got was overwhelming. People had really keen and agreeable things to say virtually my dilemma.
Dear: Whoever spammed my listing this morning with false reviews. You probably should accept gone with more believable usernames. #StopCrapOnTheMap pic.twitter.com/9Nat163d93
— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) January xvi, 2018
Whoever was behind these three reviews was seeking to impairment my business. The irony is that they actually helped me, because I concluded up getting 3 new positive reviews equally a result of sharing my experience with people that I knew would rally backside me.
For well-nigh businesses, your evangelists might not be on Twitter, just you could mail well-nigh it on your personal Facebook profile. Whatsoever friends that accept used your service or patronized your business would probable reply in the same style. It'southward important to note that I never asked anyone to review me when posting this — information technology was merely the natural response from people that were a fan of my company and what we stand for. If you're a nifty visitor, you lot'll have these types of customers and they should be the people y'all want to share this feel with!
But what most getting the negative reviews removed?
In this case, I was able to become the three reviews removed. However, there have also been several cases where I've seen Google decline to remove them for others. My plan B was to post a response to the reviews offer these "customers" a 100% refund. After all, 100% of nil is still cypher — I had cipher to lose. This would also ensure that future prospects run across that I'one thousand willing to accost people that accept a negative experience, since even the best businesses in the world aren't perfect. As much every bit I dearest my 5-star rating average, studies have shown that four.2–iv.v is actually the ideal boilerplate star rating for buy probability.
Have you had an experience with imitation negative reviews on Google? If so, I'd dearest to hear about information technology, so please exit a comment.
Source: https://moz.com/blog/fake-negative-reviews-on-google
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