You may have an online presence if you have a small business.
At any point, you’re going to be in the ring of online troll fire. And if you’re devoted to authenticity, integrity, and honesty, and if you’re committed to promoting what you strive for in your online business and lifestyle, just one experience with trolls can be disastrous.
Respond to online trolls?
Conventional wisdom is that companies should reply to everyone on media platforms. If anyone takes the time to reach out to an organization, they deserve to be acknowledged. Although online trolls try to provoke a reaction, so should you get involved or not?
First, don’t immediately conclude that every derogatory comment is a troll. Be patient, an individual might have a valid concern that needs to be answered, even though it has been phrased in an unnecessarily offensive way. But if you know they’re really trolling, it’s time to take action.
Reply back with facts
If your trolls propagate misleading information or misrepresent, then it’s necessary to provide the details and facts.
The easiest way to do so is to provide a FAQ section or info on your site to which you can refer. This indicates that you have already discussed the topics in concern and that you are not responding to a specific position.
Yield positivity and create a culture of encouragement
The best way to tackle harsh feedback and ratings is to create a constructive and welcoming culture. When talking to trolls, concentrate less on influencing the opinion of the troll and much more on what kind of message it sends to those who read it.
The web should be a place for sharing and connecting
Internet and social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram offer fantastic opportunities to exchange information and connect with the world around you. It offers an efficient way for companies and brands to connect with customers and users.
Most companies will have to negotiate with internet bullies at some point. Designing a clear strategy on how to deal with online trolling for your organization can combat trolls and ensure that your staff knows how to adapt is a crucial first move.
Trust Pilot is an online forum that encourages users to share their insight with specialists. The platform has more than 50 million ratings for more than 240,000 businesses. Trust Pilot offers its users a platform on which they can share and monitor their business reviews. If you want to improve your clientele, you can initiate by optimizing your platform profile on trust pilot. One feature you need to make sure is that you must get rid of the negative feedback if you have any. Negative publicity can destroy your image and harm your consumers’ trust in your service, brand or products. There are instances where users post unfavorable reviews to damage the image of a business. In such situations, Trust Pilot has procedures in place to ensure that these incorrect or false reviews are withdrawn from its platform.
You may use Trust Pilot free tool and see if the review is suitable for removal. Or you may check the review and search for relevant reasons that could justify the deletion of the bad review:
Disclosure of Personal Information: You can delete a negative review if the consumer includes your personal information in it. Personal details may include your identity, address, phone number, credit card details, or other data that might make it easier to imitate, contact or trace you.
Technically Harmful Information: You can get rid of negative reviews that are meant for abuse. Technically harmful material includes Trojans, virus attacks, worms and malware.
Incorrect Facts: You can delete inaccurate or deceptive reviews. If anyone post things that are false or are intended to give the wrong idea about any of your service or product, you can get rid of them.
Removing Negative Reviews off Trust Pilot
Theses days, getting way ahead of the business line needs successful marketing tactics. One of the common ways that many brands are developing their marketing campaigns is through the use of Internet tools. Aside from social media, a company can use customer review sites to popularize its services or goods. However, rating sites can function against you if you’re only getting negative reviews.
Here are the steps you can take to get rid of negative reviews from Trust Pilot and drive tones of traffic to your business.
Answer Negative Comments
It is preferable to respond respectfully and appropriately to negative comments. Some of the tips you should use when listening to reviews involve thanking the user for their input, keeping the answer short and friendly, and encouraging the consumer to discuss the matter offline. The optimal solution answers the situation and should thus be both professional and relevant.
Exploit Negative Reviews
Negative reviews can be a beneficial thing for your company. Firstly, they will help you earn trust and appreciation from returning clients. They also encourage you to express sympathy when you respond respectfully and intelligently. This is going to boost the revenue. It is also a symbol of trustworthiness and honesty. Many consumers are suspicious of businesses that have just 5-star ratings.
Last but not least, negative ratings give you a chance to learn. You’ll get insights that can help you boost your user service by resolving issues. As an outcome, you can transform unsatisfied clients to returning clients and draw new clients
Report Bad Reviews
If a review is made out of spite, you should report it to Trust Pilot to delete it. Trust Pilot will help you to delete reviews that are contrary to the consumer policies. However, if there is no allowance for removal of the system, you can request a court ruling. With a judicial order, you will be able to persuade the client to withdraw the review or be responsible for damages.
Impact of Negative Reviews on Businesses
Negative reviews have a detrimental effect on your company. If you don’t improve after negative reviews or use them to win more sales, then you may allow them to destroy your image permanently. Not only will your image in the sector be affected, but you may also get much less traffic to your business website, and you will probably lose your current clientele. In the long run, an accumulation of negative feedbacks can lead you to shutter your business after the expense that you incur for managing the harm exceeds your profits.
Importance of Improving Customer Experience
No service or product is without its drawbacks. The role of the customer is not only to buy a product or service that contributes to their money, but also to point out things that they did not do things with that specific product or service. A good businessman benefits from the corrections he gets from his clients. By fixing flaws and answering most of your client’s questions, you can boost their relationship with your service or product. It not only boosts sales, but also improves your rankings in your sector.
We remove bad reviews and negative search results
New business models rely on targeting the global market across the Web. One avenue that creates traffic loads for several businesses is the review sites Consult us to help boost your brand’s online reputation and delete negative reviews from your Trust Pilot account. When a person is highly ranking on review pages, they also rank high in search results and drive steep and steady traffic to their business. All the best.
In the last few years, the usage of social media platforms for interaction has increased widely. Many users post on sites like Google, Twitter, Facebook, and other sites that are usually 70 per cent of that posted content is malicious and even sometimes mean-spirited. It often intended to hurt the reputation and public image of others.
Though sharing something negative or related to criticism is not illegal or cannot lead to a lawsuit. But if it is directly targeted to defame someone’s image, it can end up with some serious legal rights.
What if someone has Posted Malicious Comments about you on Google?
That depends on the situation. First, you need to analyze the fact and reality of that fact presented about you either in verbal or written form. If you find that comment of review defamatory, in that case, you should immediately use your right to protect your reputation. Consult with legal lawyers to sue the lawsuit against the person who said or posted that content about you.
How to Find out that the Statement is Defamatory?
Bad Google reviews or Facebook comments, or defamatory tweets can make or break a business or an individual image within seconds. A single negative comment, review, remark, or statement given online is enough to drive a prospective buyer or customer away. With some comments being snarling malicious attacks, the question arises as to whether such a public declaration of negativity is defamation or not?
Defamation means saying or writing stuff about anyone that harms the reputation of that individual. Radio, television celebrities and big businesses or companies often face these kinds of comments or reviews as compared to common men. To be proved as defamatory, a claim must be portrayed as accurate but, in reality, inaccurate.
What to do?
If the content isn’t that severe and you can handle it without a lawsuit, here are some steps that you can follow (if it is worst and can harm you, follow the above-given step and immediately content with an attorney to solve the matter legally):
Reply to the review or comment positively:
The first measures that the business owner must undertake to delete a Google review are to react to the compliment. Tell the truth, and the consumer can opt to delete the Google review or comment on their own. At the very least, you will minimize the harm, as other future clients can see your side of the story and realize a bit about your user experience capabilities.
Flag that malicious review
If you feel that you have got a false, unsuitable rating or promotes a rival, you can flag it to be checked by Google for deletion. Just comments that breach Google’s guidelines will be deleted.
Follow these measures to flag a review:
Check into “My Business” in Google.
Choose the place (if you have numerous)
Pick “Reviews” from the panel.
Discover the review in question. Tap on the three-dot menu, then pick “Flag as inappropriate.”
It can take a few days for them at Google to evaluate your application and decide if they will remove Google reviews or not. If feasible, ask others to flag the review as well, as this could attract more attention to the scathing review and prompt Google to delete that review fastly.
Reach Google Small Business
Flagging the comment or review and/or responding to negative remarks often let that content being removed. o But if these methods fail, the next move is to report that review to Google Small Business Support. To
contact Google support, take the following steps:
Search support.google.com.
Scroll down and pick “email us.”
Pick “Customer Feedback and Videos,” and then “Manage customer reviews.”
Choose to get assistance via mobile, live chats, or email.
Using all of these approaches, you may expect assistance within 24hrs. If you want to approach Google via chat or email, it’s great to have a screenshot of that negative review in your email or chat question ready to go.
The next move:
If someone from the support team comes into touch with you, it’s up to you to justify why the review must be deleted. Be prepared to tell them that you consider that review is inaccurate or in violation of the guidelines and justify your request to delete it.
Most probably, by now, you may have a strong understanding of how to remove malicious comments from Google by taking the steps listed above. Delete a negative Google review now and get your business back on track.
The single most common question I receive in doing Local SEO is “How can I delete a Google review?.”
The email is typically laden with frustration, tears, and often, a fear of leaving the house.
Negative reviews on Google can make you feel as though you are wearing a Scarlet letter everywhere you go.
Feelings of shame over your first negative review are understandable. It should not serve as a time for hiding out in your closet.
boy with 2 thumbs down leading
1-star rating, left by an unhappy customer
Bad reviews happen, to everyone.
Your first 2-star review could be well-deserved, it might be competitor sabotage, but it is never the end of times.
All the same, things are not as easy as just summoning remove negative Google review to the Internet Gods and going about your day.
You are going to have to make considerations, potentially be humble, and always take action. I finally decided to start offering reputation management services.
Negative Online Google Reviews Can Cripple A Small Business
A poor online reputation can spell doom for any business, large or small. I consider it a form of negative SEO.
Online reputation and brand management are critical to business success. These days, every potential client and consumer is only a search away from finding your dirty laundry spilled all over a review site. Read my post on Tools for managing your reputation online.
When a consumer considers a product or service they are more likely than ever to Google the product or manufacturer’s name.
The potential customer is often looking for specific bad reviews because they want to see how you handle dilemmas.
Here are a few likely consumers to leave bad reviews:
Product malfunctions
Incomplete or poor services rendered
Inaccurate charges
Incorrect orders
Potential customers like to know that when they spend their money, on the off-chance that things go wrong, the business owner will make things right.
As a business owner, you cannot expect to avoid negative Google reviews, but you can aspire to make sure they not only don’t hurt you, but they work to your benefit.
Wait, what? Can false reviews be turned into good positive reviews?
Things just got confusing, but don’t worry, we are going to iron all of this out below.
Let us dive in and.
1. Bad Google Online Review – Plan Your Response
Read the official policy on reviews, from Google.
an image that shows how to remove bad reviews from google local
Before we get started on what you SHOULD do as a business owner who is faced with a bad Google review, let’s talk about what you should not do.
You should not immediately react emotionally. Whatever you do or say may have lasting effects on your product and your reputation as a business owner. While you do need to rectify the situation with immediacy, it is best to formulate a professional and mature strategy first.
Unless you know for sure, for example, that you delivered the utterly wrong order to Hilda’s house for her Superbowl Sunday party and ruined her life, you are best to take a few steps back and honestly examine what happened.
Even in cases such as the hypothetical one I have posed with Hilda, whereas you are sure you are wrong, you still need to take a moment and gather your thoughts to ensure you make the most professional response possible.
3. Determine Authenticity Of The Review
The Internet is a land of fakes and frauds, that much we know, so it should come as no surprise that negative reviews are sometimes the work of weak competition or, your ex-spouse.
Do your due diligence on the complainer by checking to see if this person was someone who purchased your products or services.
Your business may not lend itself to easily identifying past customers, but that does not mean you cannot contact, say, your restaurant’s host for the afternoon in question and inquire of him or her that day’s to-go orders.
There are savvy ways to figure out if a bad Google review at least has the potential to be authentic.
Here’s the bad news: You are going to have to respond professionally.
I know, that is a tough pill to swallow, however, when we look at how to remove fake reviews on Google a bit down, you will see that the process does not happen incredibly quick.
While I do recommend that you not respond to any reviews in emotional haste, you also can’t allow them to sit there unresolved because unfortunately, potential customers gleaning over your Google business listing will have no idea that Google review is fake.
3. How To Respond To A Fake or False Review
how do you reply to a negative review
My cheat sheet on how to reply to a fake review.
Your goal when responding to negative reviews is to show your potential customers and clients who are considering your business that you are on top of customer service.
Because you have determined that the Google review is, in fact, likely a fraud, there is a bit of a different approach you should take.
Reply immediately with an apology. Make it obvious that you understand the depth of the complaint and that you feel legitimately bad and want to rectify the problem or issue.
Note that you are not able to verify the situation and this is harming your process to resolve the matter further; both in preventing a future incident from occurring and potentially in rectifying the customer’s bad experience in refunds or future discounts. Remember, the review is fake, you are essentially asking them to reveal themselves privately to you under the guise that you are going to help them out.
Leave your personal/business email address, phone number, and any relevant contact information and request the reviewer contact you so that you can get the additional details needed to resolve the issue.
Now for the fun part: Flag the review.
shut off google reviews isnt an option so you need to report
4.How To Flag a Fake Google Review
This is often the best way to delete a Google review.
First, log into your Google My Business account dashboard.
Display all your business reviews. You will see them on the left side of the screen
Find the evil fraudster who’s giving you grief.
Stare at it for a moment and place a hex on the evil person who lied (hey, it never hurts to try).
Now, you will see three dots stacked on top of one another, click those.
flag a review as inappropriate
You will now have the option to “flag as inappropriate.”
report a policy violation in google my business
Simple form to report a policy violation in Google My Business
Now, you have completed the necessary steps in divorcing yourself from this outlandish review, but you can do more to help expedite the process.
Pick up the phone. Google has a support contact number that allows businesses who have grievances call them. Visit your Google My Business account and look down on the left side for “support.” Click that.
Google also allows you to report reviews through legal means here
This is more relevant for reviews that slander your business.
Here’s the bad news: There is no guarantee that Google will remove the review promptly, or ever, no matter how many of these hoops you jump through.
However, you have hedged your bet in the matter by leaving a professional response to the negative review so it should never appear you do not attempt to rectify dissatisfied customers.
5. How To Respond To A Negative Review | The Real, Deserved Ones
A negative review could be both real and underserved, so forgive my headline which seems to assume all reviews are legit.
Situations happen, and we are all human, which leads us to our own unique conclusions over circumstances. Part of being a business owner is attending to reputation management beyond everything, and this happens by sucking up your pride and apologizing in most cases (deserved or not deserved).
Remember when we did not freak out.
That was the start of how to respond. At this juncture, we need to react and make sure that we preserve the goodness of our brand and product.
Let Us Talk About Online Reputation Management
Your reputation is built faster when you respond to criticism then it is when you celebrate in all your glories.
Consumers always want to know what will happen if they purchase your services or products and aren’t satisfied.
A negative Google review might be more of a blessing than a curse because it gives you the immediate opportunity to show your willingness to resolve issues that are related to your business.
women with one thumb down with a reputation management tshirt on
You may need a professional review management company.
The time to not freak out is over; now it is time to reply.
Here are those steps:
Be calm, collected, patient and reassuring. Don’t act shocked entirely or appalled in the intro of your response. You immediately want to set the tone that you are “apologizing.”
Be action oriented. Now its time to offer to rectify the matter. This may come in the way of an immediate refund, a free product or service for the future, or even a gift card. Keep it short and sweet.
You can now be a little overdramatic, appalled, or what have you. Tread lightly or not at all. Telling disgruntled customers that something has “never happened” can sometimes sound condescending. Whatever you say needs to make sure it keeps the blame on you, not the customer. The last thing you want is a hostile exchange between your business and an already upset customer breaking out.
Tell them how much you appreciate their business and conclude with a second formal apology.
Let’s put these steps to work in an example response:
Hi Hilda,
I want to first and foremost apologize for the mistake we made on Superbowl Sunday. I can’t imagine how upset I personally would have been over such a mistake and to think that my business caused such a thing causes me sadness.
I know I can’t make up for ruining such an important event, however, I would like to offer to make it up to you by not only refunding Sunday’s catering bill (that goes without saying) but also by comping you the same amount for a future day of your choosing.
I’m truly upset this happened to you and that my business was the cause. While mistaken orders are a rare occurrence with us, I can never not feel terrible when it does effect a great customer like yourself.
Your business is appreciated and we hope to earn it back. Again, apologies, please contact me at EMAIL or PHONE so I can work out the details expressed above.
Google Policy Update in 2019
Google is not entirely unaware of the power that business reviews can yield.
Last December, Google disallowed employees from leaving negative reviews about their past jobs.
Over the years, Google has increased its policies regarding consumer reviews as a way to fight back against the growing trend of leaving fake reviews to disparage a business without merit or spamming.
Google’s algorithm does work to snuff these cases out before they ever see the light of day. Unfortunately, there is no longer a way to turn off reviews in your Google Local GMB account.
Now you know how to dispute a Google review
Learning how to handle poor online reviews is essential knowledge for a business owner.
However, nothing trumps having a business reputation management strategy, not only with rogue negative reviews but also all over the web. Focus on building good reviews; they will overshadow the random bad ones.
I recently helped a roofing company clean up several reviews left by former employees.
Fortunately, you do not have to go it alone if you do not want to. At SEOExpertbrad.com, I not only help clients gain increased positions in Google search, but I also support businesses and companies with critical brand management.
I can provide a free consultation.
Also, if your business is plagued with legitimate bad reviews online, I am not that kind of a fixer.
Clients are taken on a case by case basis and only if I am sure I can help you grow. If you need to remove or delete a facebook review, I covered that in this post.
Amazon product reviews… the lifeline that boosts sales into success celebrations or kicks listings all the way back into the bane of page 20. When sellers launch a product, reviews shorten the lag time between unknown and popular. Product reviews influence conversion rates so strongly that they are a sellers’ powerful tool of transformation from zero to quit-my-day-job income.
There are basic pro-active steps sellers take to make sustainable success possible:
A high-quality product that earns rave product reviews;
An outstanding product detail page that leaves no buyer doubts; and,
Customer service fit for royalty.
Knowing these elements are in your hands makes you an empowered seller. On the premise that you have mastered the above three, let’s move forward.
The Achilles heel of every seller is negative reviews and in a previous article about how to deal with them, I focussed on how to learn, grow and benefit from all types of reviews, even the negative ones. Amazon will not remove negative product reviews just because it makes you unhappy. But what if you have some negative product reviews that don’t seem like fair play? It’s time to investigate if a bad product review is TOS compliant and actually warrants their presence.
Knowing The Difference Makes A Difference
It may seem like a tedious task, however, you could discover an Amazon-approved reason for requesting product review removal in these two areas: Customer Feedback ratings (aka Seller Feedback) versus Product Reviews.
Some buyers write Customer Feedback content as a bad Product Review and visa versa. That is actually grounds for removal submission in both cases.
Acceptable Customer Feedback
Customer Feedback covers the issues of delivery, packaging, the condition of the product or container (opened, leaked, cracked, broken, etc.) and customer service (rating their experience with the merchant). These ratings directly impact your overall account health.
FBA sellers can get negative customer feedback comments about low ratings for delayed, damaged goods or return issues removed since Amazon handles all of this on your behalf.
Whether you are an FBA or FBM Seller, if a low customer feedback rating is only about the product; you have an absolutely valid reason to request removal since that content doesn’t belong there.
Check out this real-time example:
product review
I contacted Seller Central Support to notify them of the above issue on behalf of a fellow seller.
seller support
Because these were product reviews written as Customer Feedback, that was an Amazon acceptable reason to request removal. Amazon responded at 7:55 a.m. (yes, that’s 3 minutes later):
07:55 AM
Greetings from Amazon Seller Support,
Thank you for contacting us. I am happy to help you with the issue related to removal of the feedback.
I have checked all the details and found that the feedback is related to a product review that was provided by the buyer and it had nothing to do with your performance or your services. As per your request,I have removed the buyer’s feedback.
And voilà! By the way, this seller had a “Fair” Account Health rating. After two low ratings were removed; it returned to a 5-star “Good” status once again.
Moving On To Product Reviews
As a general rule of thumb, Amazon doesn’t make a habit of removing product reviews. However, reviews containing Customer Feedback details and nothing about the product itself are possible removal candidates. Amazon lists these criteria as well:
Inappropriate Content
Hate Speech & Offensive Content
One-word-reviews
Promotion of Illegal Conduct
Promotional Reviews
Amazon would also consider removing at least one review when “a buyer, unhappy with their purchase, posts multiple negative reviews for the same product.” Some people do this through multiple accounts. Why they would go out of their way to post more than once, is beyond me.
Grounds for Product Review Removal
Here is an example of a product review worthy of removal consideration… notice how this person just wanted to rant. If anything, this falls into the Customer Feedback ratings, and as you can see, the review has nothing to do with the product itself.
Remove product review
Take a look at this one. In this case, no one can tell if the reviewer even took the product out of the box it came in.
1 star review
Customer Opinions
Product reviews are opinions. And Amazon likes every customer to have one. To be clear, just because a review is negative but it’s about the customer’s experience with the product – Amazon won’t even consider removing it. That type of review is legit.
Assuming you have an Amazon approved reason, no one knows if Amazon will actually accept it nor how long it could take for them to respond. I understand that Seller Central transfers such cases: “The team that owns this feature is outside of Seller Support and does not use the case system. So your case will appear closed in Seller Central… results of investigations are not shared.”
Remember, the only guaranteed outcome is that nothing will happen if you don’t try.
The How-Tos
There are two ways to go about submitting non-compliant negative product review removal requests: Report abuse and/or contact Seller Support. I will include both ways. I don’t believe this is an either/or option, so I recommend using both.
Report Abuse
Next to the “Was this review helpful to you? Yes – No, click on “Report abuse”.
report abuse
This window will show up:
Inappropiate product review
Write clear, authorized reason(s) why the content is inappropriate (just stick to Amazon’s guidelines). Then submit by clicking on the orange Report as inappropriate button.
Contact Seller Support
This option allows for much more information to build your removal case.
Before you go wild reporting every 1-star review, remember that Amazon may, or may not delete the ones with real content violations so don’t waste everyone’s time trying to get legitimate negative ones removed.
Amazon
Can Negative Product Reviews Be Changed?
For some sellers, 3-stars or less is a source of frustration. Others recognize that multiple 2 or 3-star valid testimonials are perceived as more authentic feedback. Consumers find a mixture helpful. That’s why they read both.
Consider that having a few negative reviews isn’t going to be your demise. Let’s say that you have compliant negative product reviews that Amazon would easily refuse to remove; you could try reaching out to the customer. Just do so wisely. At no point can you ever state or imply that if a customer improves their product review, you will give them a gift, discount on their next order, refund or anything other than a genuine “Thank you.”
Sometimes a reviewer simply doesn’t understand how to properly use a product (even with included carefully crafted instructions). Generally, prospective buyers discern that it’s a limitation of the reviewer versus the product itself. As the seller, taking time to respond in a professional, friendly (non-defensive) way on the detail page for everyone to see, counterbalances those negative reviews and builds confidence in your name/brand. In many cases, answering questions leads to a customer changing their review of their own inspired volition.
While it may be tempting to take your customer interaction offline: Don’t. It works in your favour to keep Amazon in the proverbial loop. When Amazon sees that a seller is responding to product issues, they smile upon it. Prevent getting busted for misunderstood resolutions attempted off of Amazon’s platform. Even the best intentions may come back with haunting repercussions if a buyer ends up writing about how you contacted them by phone or directly via a personal email, then offered x, y, z to get their negative feedback removed. If reading that makes your palms sweat because the thought had crossed your mind; take it as a think twice sign.
Instead, take confident steps via Amazon and remember to leave a trail so that they know your efforts are genuine.
Reducing Recovery Time
One way to make up for drops in conversion rates resulting from multiple compliant negative reviews is to actually acquire more reviews. This is easily accomplished by running promotions or sponsored product ads or review campaigns.
Proactively Prevent Negative Reviews on Amazon
Want to increase your Amazon seller feedback score? For a limited period, register your interest in FeedbackExpress below to receive a 30-day free trial which includes 10,000 free messages! What have you got to lose?!
First Thing’s First—Don’t Panic
A bad review, especially one that is particularly cruel, can be hard to read. When you get a bad review, try these steps first. We’ll go through each one in more detail later in the post.
Don’t panic, and don’t react immediately. Read the review, take a breath, and leave it alone for a bit. Maybe go into another room, or do something else for a while.
Once you’re clear-headed, determine if the review is real or fake. Do you recognize the poster? If you don’t, it might be a fake review.
Respond. If the review is fake, flag it, and state why you think it is fake. If it is real, try to solve the problem, or provide another calm, reasonable response.
Change the customer’s mind. If the review was real and the reviewer reasonable, try to fix the problem and change their mind. Then, ask them to edit their review. With a bit of luck, you’ve removed your bad Google review.
How to Remove Google Reviews—The Details
It’s important to understand what Google reviews are and why they exist. The reviews submitted to Google, which appear in a search along with your location, hours, and other information, are attached your Google Business profile. You can claim your profile and make a Google Business account for free at any time, but this profile and the attached reviews will exist either way.
Google Business reviews are primarily for customers using the Google search engine. Just like the search engine itself, the goal of the reviews is to provide information and help customers make decisions.
Google reviews are supposed to be honest accounts of an experience by a real customer. However, this is not always the case. Competitors, spammers, former employees or other disgruntled people may write a bad review when they never even used your products or services. Since these reviews are false, you have options you wouldn’t have for true reviews. For this reason, we’ll divide this post into tips to remove true and false Google reviews.
Business Owner’s Guide to Google Reviews
Minimize the effect of negative reviews by building a raving collection of Google reviews. Get your direct link for sending requests with our Google Review Link Generator, and download the Business Owner’s Guide to Google Reviews for review request templates and more.
Tips to Remove a Real Google Review
What is a real Google review? It’s pretty simple; a real Google review is a truthful review of your business from a real customer.
First thing’s first; you can’t remove a review simply because it’s bad. If that were the case, every review would be positive and reading Google reviews would be pretty pointless. However, there’s still hope for removing bad Google reviews, even if they’re true.
1. Ask the Customer to Edit Their Review
Google reviews are not permanent. The original reviewer can delete or change their review, but you’ll have to change their mind first.
First, determine whether or not this is a reasonable person who actually could change their mind. If the reviewer left a long list of emotionally-charged complaints, or it’s clear that the product or service simply isn’t for them (for example, a quiet person at a noisy bar or a meat-lover at a vegan restaurant), they probably won’t change their mind. Respond to their review respectfully, but remember that there are a few positive effects of negative reviews.
Perhaps the customer left a bad review because something just went wrong—the service was slow, the chef was having an off day, or a defective product somehow fell into the customer’s hands. These are reviews that are most likely to be fixed. Try the following strategy:
Respond to the review. Thank them for taking the time to write, and apologize for the mistake. Inform them the situation has been rectified, and you’d like a chance to make it up to them. Give them your contact information or ask them to visit again for a special offer.
If they contact you or visit, make sure you deliver what you promised. Be friendly, and thank them for visiting or using your service again.
Finally, follow up and ask them if they would change their review. Emphasize the importance of reviews, and give them instructions on how they can change it.
A customer can edit their review pretty easily. Follow these steps.
Go to Google Maps. You can search any location to get there.
In the upper left-hand corner, click the menu icon (three horizontal lines).
Click “Your contributions.” Click “Reviews”
Find the review in question, and click the three vertical dots near the business name.
Click “Edit review” and rewrite or change the review.
remove google review
2. Push the Review Down
Most people read less than 6 reviews of a business. This means, though you may not be able to actually remove the review from your listing, you can essentially remove the Google review from sight by adding other positive reviews. If you get six more positive reviews, most people won’t see the bad one. If you get 10, you’ve effectively removed the Google review for 90% of customers.
How do you get more Google reviews? It won’t happen overnight, but you can make a focused effort to add more reviews over a short time frame. Start a testimonial collection promotion to rally your customers and get more reviews. Use Boast to get more Google Business Reviews and save time by automating this process. Try some of the following methods to gather reviews fast;
Set up a review collection kiosk in the store.
Periodically ask customers in the store to leave a review.
Put a review request at the bottom of receipts
Start a review collection campaign or contest
Ask customers for a review at the end of a meeting, or when your business together has concluded.
Include review requests with packages.
Start a review request email campaign.
Contact previous customers where possible to ask reviews.
Include a review request at a check-out line or waiting room
Include a review request with a follow-up email
Business Owner’s Guide to Google Reviews
Minimize the effect of negative reviews by building a raving collection of Google reviews. Get your direct link for sending requests with our Google Review Link Generator, and download the Business Owner’s Guide to Google Reviews for review request templates and more.
3. Rebrand
Big companies that have had serious PR debacles know the value in rebranding. WorldCom, the biggest accounting fraudster in U.S. history, became MCI Inc (later Verizon Communications). Marlboro maker Phillip Morris rebranded to Altria to distance themselves from deathly cigarettes. Hundreds of other major and minor companies have rebranded in similar ways. If you have a lot of bad reviews and you don’t see a way to repair your reputation, this is an option to consider. However, it will take your existing business literally off the map, so this should only be a last resort.
how to remove google review
A rebrand means physically and digitally changing your business. This means changing your business name, logo and website, at the very least. With this complete, you’ll need to close your Google Business account and inform Google that the previous business has closed. You’ll see this option in your Google Business account, if you have one, and you can also use the “Feedback” option at the bottom of your search results card. This will bring up a message box to “mark as closed, non-existent, or duplicate.” It will take some time for Google to verify this, but the listing will eventually disappear from search results.
Then you’ll need to register a new Google Business account, inputting your new business name, phone number, website, address (where possible) and other information. This means starting from a clean slate, so gathering good reviews right from the start will be important.
Remember that this is a strategy to completely change your business and start with a clean reputation. This is not a way to simply trick Google, trick customers and keep the rest of your business the same. “Closing” your business in order to get rid of bad reviews and then reopening it again under the same won’t work, and you may be banned from Google completely for violating their terms of service.
A full-scale rebrand is a big undertaking. Consider this option carefully and consider repairing your business reputation first.
Tips to Remove a Fake Google Review
What is a fake Google Business review? Also pretty simple. It’s a review that is not truthful and/or not written by a real customer.
It is possible to remove these Google reviews, though proving they are fake can be difficult. All of the previous strategies may work with a fake review as well, though getting a fraudulent poster to change their review is unlikely.
4. Flag and Respond
If the reviewer doesn’t look or sound familiar, they may be fake. Check your records if you can, and see if you have done business with this person. Also, check the reviewer’s other reviews. Fake reviews tend to be non-specific, while real reviews will include details about that person’s experience.
tips to remove google review – flag and report
If you’re fairly certain the review is fake, first flag it as spam and report it. This signals Google staff to look it over and remove it if it is obviously fake. It will also show the message, “This review has been flagged and reported to Google.” This signals to other prospective customers not to take the review seriously.
Respond to the review and state that you do not recognize the reviewer as a customer. If they made false statements, refute them calmly. Though it is frustrating to be defamed this way, try to avoid emotional statements. Stick to the facts.
When you report the fraudulent review, Google will check it and may remove it. However, there are millions of Google Business listings all over the world. Unless the review is clearly abusive or inappropriate, it’s unlikely to be removed. Try flagging the post multiple times, appealing to customer service reps on Twitter @GoogleSmallBiz, or taking your case to the Google Community. You’ll need proof that the reviewer wasn’t a customer, could not have made the review, or is being paid to review, which could be tough.
5. Legal Action
In some cases, you may know the reviewer making false statements. They may be an angry ex-employee, a competitor, or someone who personally dislikes you. In this case, you may want to take legal action.
First, respond and flag the review. Then, if you are certain you know the reviewer and can send them a message, do so. Ask them, politely but firmly, to remove the false review.
If you believe the review is significantly hurting your business, you may want to take legal action. Writing false statements about a person or business can qualify as libel or injurious falsehood (AKA trade libel), and may be grounds for a civil suit. To do this, you’ll need to be able to prove the statements are false and prove who wrote them. However, a cease and desist notice from a reputable attorney may be enough to persuade the reviewer to delete the review, and a full legal case won’t be necessary.
Business Owner’s Guide to Google Reviews
Minimize the effect of negative reviews by building a raving collection of Google reviews. Get your direct link for sending requests with our Google Review Link Generator, and download the Business Owner’s Guide to Google Reviews for review request templates and more.
Your business reputation is a valuable thing. Though it may seem obvious, the best way to protect it is to run a reputable business. It’s also a good idea to regularly ask customers with positive experiences to write reviews. This way, if you have to displace or remove a Google review, customers will still know who to trust.
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Get everything you need to collect online reviews and leverage them to grow your business.
Check Out the Business Owner’s Guide to Online Reviews
Online reviews are the modern day word-of-mouth, and small business owners know how crucial positive word-of-mouth can be to their success.
Getting positive online reviews can result in gaining more customers for your business, while negative reviews can lead to potential customers avoiding your company altogether. You might think, why not avoid reviews altogether? Well, we’re here to tell you that to show up in Google searches and Google Maps listings, you’ll want to have frequent reviews left by your customers on Google My Business.
Turn Fans Into Reviewers – CTA
Here are some fast facts about the effects that online reviews will have on your business in 2019:
87% of consumers say a business needs to have a three- to five-star rating before they will use them (Source)
73% of consumers think reviews older than three months aren’t relevant (Source)
Customers spend 31% more with a company that has excellent reviews (Source)
On average, one bad review can cost you 30 customers (Source)
88% of consumers who conduct local business searches on a mobile device either call or visit the business within 24 hours (Source)
46% of all searches on Google are seeking local information. (Source)
These statistics should convince you of the importance of having good online reviews. For those of you who know that reviews are important, but only have bad reviews, let’s talk. Shouldn’t it just be easy to delete these? Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. These negative reviews could cost you tons of new customers every day.
Negative Review Sites on Google
The Business of Customer Complaint Sites
It’s tough to get anything taken offline—especially when some websites monetize customer complaints. In an ideal world, every fake or false thing said about your company could be removed easily and immediately.
There used to be only a couple of ways customers could complain if they didn’t like a product or a service. In the past, customers could complain about the business to a friend, or request to speak to the manager to try and find a solution. Now, consumers are much more empowered with social media and the internet. People use the web to find local businesses, compare prices and services, and make purchasing decisions. Bad and fake reviews can spread from Yelp to social media, to customer complaint sites.
A customer complaint website has the sole purpose of collecting bad or false reviews, only to charge a fee to get removed. These sites are meant to warn other consumers of scams, but they are not always used according to that intent. They say you can request a removal but again, usually come with a cost.
Review Management Software – CTA
Some users abuse these sites and use them to spread damaging or untrue comments about businesses. It could be a former employee trying to sabotage a company or a very upset customer. Either way, your business suffers from these bad reviews on complaint websites.
So, how do you keep negative reviews from showing up in Google search results? While improving the customer experience is always a good move, you will still need online damage control in the interim.
Don’t let bad or fake reviews ruin your mood or online reputation! Check out these steps to stop negative reviews from showing at the top of Google searches.
How To Remove Bad Reviews from Google Search Results
6 Steps to Push Bad Reviews Out of Google Search Results
Since you can’t remove the bad reviews, the next best thing you can do is to bury the bad with the good. Here are some steps to take in reversing your negative search results and make them positive again.
Step 1: Have a plan to attack those negative keywords
When it comes to search results, your keyword authority is very important. No control over your keywords can mean negative search results! If there is negative content associated with your business name, you will want to try to outnumber it. To do this, find all the negative keywords that come up when you search your company. Then, work to create positive content using those same keywords. In time, you’ll push down negative results and raise positive results. Eventually, you’ll regain control of your online reputation.
Reviews – Manage – CTA
Step 2: Claim and manage public profiles for yourself and your business
To help drown out the bad comments, create social media profiles for both yourself and your business. Make a Facebook Business Page, confirm your Google My Business account, and set up as many online listing for your business as you can. Social accounts like Twitter and Instagram can also help in owning your businesses brand. The more online profiles you claim, the better online authority you have. Plus, these social media accounts often beat out other types of content in search results.
You can take it a step further and also join communities and forums surrounding your industry. The same idea as above is at work: you are creating new, accurate information online that is associated with your personal and business names. In doing so, you bury the old, bad information.
Claim social media profiles
Step 3: Comment publicly in these industry blogs, forums, and social media
If you joined a forum such as Quora, make a point to comment on topics often. Showing up online while you give advice is a great way to solidify your expertise. Try commenting with support or positivity on neighboring companies’ social media posts. The public will see your business as approachable and friendly.
Remember, anything you say online can be traced. When commenting and posting on social media, practice a little self-censorship. It’s worth it. Posting intelligent, well-written content about your industry can make you more professional and established.
Facebook – Show How Facebook Reviews – CTAStep 4: Do something newsworthy and promote it with a press release
A press release is a great way to get mentions in the media. Be careful though, not to push out news releases every single time something happens. It is worth knowing that not all news is newsworthy. Sure, a new piece of equipment is exciting to you, but it’s not deserving of an entire press release. Instead, exercise your creativity. Brainstorm new ways to create buzz around your business.
The goal of many marketing campaigns is to generate a buzz. Craft up a clever social media campaign, run a contest, or host a local event to make the news. However, don’t expect to receive automatic media coverage simply because you hoped for it. To get press hits, send out a well-written press release to media contacts who are best-suited to receive the information. Doing this can help down out those negative search results with pages upon pages of good press.
Step 5: Link your promotions to priority pages
Lastly, to manage what shows up in your Google search results, it’s best to know how Google chooses what shows up. One factor is linking. Google uses the number of links to a site to help determine its credibility. The more sites that link to your site, the better. While it would be great to receive a lot of links back to your site organically, it is not always possible right away.
The solution is, you can add links yourself! Link your social profiles and community pages as much as you can on your high-priority website pages. By linking these entities together, you’re increasing your authority over the keywords associated with your business.
Get more positive reviews in Google
Step 6: Get more positive reviews!
Since nothing is going to get rid of your negative reviews, it’s time to start getting more positive ones. If all of your negative reviews appear in the past, potential customers will know that you’ve changed your ways and are producing quality work. After every completed job, ask all your happy customers to leave you a review on Google, or wherever you have the most negative reviews. That way, you’ll drown the negativity out and begin to take charge of your online reputation. Learn from your feedback and reviews and always adapt your business when there’s repetition in the feedback. If you don’t want to ask for reviews yourself, you can always use a review management software like Broadly.
Google – We Can Get Google Reviews – CTA
Conclusion
Online reputation management can be tough for small business owners. A lot of local businesses don’t have the time or resources to monitor online reviews and search rankings. That’s why Broadly created review management software—to make it easier than ever to receive and promote reviews. Promoting your positive reviews makes them work double-time on improving your online presence.
A reputation management strategy is imperative to winning new business and retaining current customers in today’s online world. Keep your search results positive with Broadly’s help! With this automated assistance, you can keep an eye on your company’s reputation and are free to focus on other parts of your growing organization.
how to remove a bad review from google my business
bad reviews on google
Page navigationWe are different to other online reputation management companies because we get negative online reviews deleted, not just pushed down in Google or ‘displaced’. It is impossible to ‘displace’ a page for every given search term and so permanent removal is the best option. We are an established business with over five years expertise in repairing negative reputations of companies, brands and individuals alike.
Unlike our competitors we handle each page individually, so there is no need to tie you in to a contract. We only charge a one-off fee for pages we can remove. Our website is Paypal integrated, allowing us to instantly refund you if the page is not completely deleted within 2 weeks. We have a no quibbles guarantee. When you place an order with Yahoo Reputation, you gain access to our unique Removal Management Suite. This will allow you to easily manage your orders. As soon as the Yahoo Answer page is deleted it will be shown on your dashboard. Here is an example of a removed Yahoo page.
We have removed negative content on many websites over the years, but specialize in removing content on Yahoo Answers, Yelp, Yell.com and Google Suggest. Below is our contact form which you can use to contact us about removing any bad reviews you may have. We remove reviews about you personally, as well as negative business reviews. Click here to read real Pure Reputation reviews. If you want to be forgotten under the right to be forgotten act, we can ensure that happens as quickly as possible. Contact us today.
At Pure Reputation Agency, we can help vendors and sellers and online market places to remove bad reviews from their customers. This improve the star rating and increase the appeal for future client. Find out more about removing vendor reviews from here.
Google reviews can make or break your business. Sadly, there are people who do leave negative or even downright mean Google reviews. But what, if anything, can you do about it?
Here we walk you through how to delete a Google review—or at least how to try. Google reviews are the internet’s “word-of-mouth,” influencing potential customers before they even visit your website or walk in your store.
Ultimately, having both good and bad reviews on Google isn’t the end of the world. In fact, having a couple negative reviews mixed in with mostly positive reviews is a good thing—it shows that you are a real business and that you didn’t just beg your friends to say nice things about you.
However, in the case of a truly nasty or possibly fake review, it’s worth it to do what you can to delete the Google review.
How to Delete a Google Review of Your Business that is Bad
Unfortunately, there isn’t a button that reads “delete Google review.” However, if you are the owner of the business that has received a bad review, there are different ways you can go about getting the review removed.
Respond to the Review
One of the first steps the business owner should take for how to delete a Google review is to respond to the reviewer who left the review. Say the right thing, and the customer might choose to remove the Google review on their own. At the very least, you can mitigate the damage as other potential customers will get to see your side of the story and learn a bit about your customer relations skills.
Here are 3 vital tips to keep in mind when responding to a negative review:
Respond kindly and be nice
Do not get defensive, and don’t make it personal
Keep the response brief and to the point
These three tips could be the key and make the difference between the reviewer retracting the bad review or letting it stand. Ask the person to contact your company so that you can investigate the issue that caused them to leave a bad review in the first place. If they do follow up, do everything you can to help them have a positive experience.
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How to get Google Reviews
How to Respond to a Google Review
Not sure how to log in so you to respond to the review? Google makes it pretty simple. Follow these steps:
First, make sure you’ve claimed your business listing—that is, registered yourself on Google as the owner. This will give you access to the listing on Google’s search results so you can edit information such as the website or hours—and respond to reviews. Claim your business by visiting Google.com/business and entering details about your business.
Sign into Google My Business (you’ll set this account up in step 1 if you haven’t already) and select the location (if you have multiples) with the review you’d like to respond to.
In the menu, select “Reviews.” Then click “Respond” next to the review you would like to address.
Type your response and click “Submit.”
Flag the Review
If you believe you have received a review that is fake, inappropriate, or promotes a competitor you can flag it to be reviewed by Google for removal. Only reviews that violate Google policy will be removed.
Follow these steps to flag a review:
Log into Google My Business.
Select the location (if you have multiple)
In the menu, select “Reviews”
Find the review in question. Click the three-dot menu , then select “Flag as inappropriate.”
It can take several days for someone at Google to review your request and determine whether they will delete your Google review. If possible, ask other people to flag the review also, as this might draw more attention to an offensive review and encourage Google to remove the Google review.
Report to Google Small Business Support
Flagging the review and/or responding to the unfair comments sometimes gets the review removed. But if those strategies fail, the next step is to report the review to Google Small Business Support.
To contact Google’s support for businesses, follow these steps:
Go to support.google.com/business
On the top right of your browser, select “contact us”
Select “customer reviews and photos,” and then “manage customer reviews”
Choose to receive help via phone, web chat, or email
Using any of these methods, you can expect help within 24 hours. If you choose to contact Google via email or chat, it is helpful to have a screenshot of the review in question ready to go.
You can also send a tweet to the Google My Business team (@GoogleMyBiz) from your company Twitter account. Someone may reply to you and you can take things from there. You could also search for and seek advice about the removal of reviews in the Google community support forum.
The Next Step
When someone from the support team gets in contact with you, it is up to you to explain why the review should be removed. Be ready to tell them why you think the review is false or in violation of policy and to defend your request to get it removed.
In some cases, the member of the support team may tell you that they will escalate the review to a specialist, who will make a decision about the outcome. You will again have to wait for an email confirmation or phone call from the member of the support team who helped you. Hopefully, they will be contacting you with good news.
How to Remove a Review You Left on Google
Have you ever left a bad review for a business and then had second thoughts? If you realize your review might have been unfair, you might be asking yourself if you can delete a Google review you wrote. So how do you go about it?
You probably left the review using Google Maps. If so head back to Maps then follow the steps below:
In the left-hand corner and you will see the icon for the menu, with three lines. Click this.
Head to “Your Contributions” and then pick “Reviews.”
Find the review that you want to delete in the list under Reviews.
Click on the “More” icon (the three dots, one above the other).
You can then choose to either edit the review that you left or delete the review.
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How to Leave a Google Review
Is It Possible To Remove a Google Review?
In short, yes. There are steps you can take if you feel that your company has been wronged with a review or a review has been faked. Google reviews and complaints can be the death of any business but are more detrimental to small or new businesses. The good news is that you can dispute a Google review. However, it is not an easy process and it can be frustrating.
Unfortunately, it is not as simple as going to your own account on Google and removing the review yourself. You can contact Google with the hope that they will remove the review, but there is no guarantee that Google will listen to what you have to say and remove the review for you. However, it’s probably still worth a try.
Hopefully, by now you will have a solid understanding of how to delete a Google review by following the steps outlined above. Remove a Google review that is bad and get your business back on track.
