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
Posted in: 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.
Negative business reviews are terrible for your company’s reputation.
When a potential customer reads a negative review they believe them. It doesn’t matter if the complaint is unjustified, it doesn’t matter if the review is fake, or posted by a competitor… They just read a bad review and now they don’t trust your business.
If you have bad reviews in Google, or Yelp, Facebook, TripAdvisor… it doesn’t matter where it shows up. People read it and people believe it. For this reason a negative business review costs your business dearly in new customers, it also erodes the general reputation and image of your company, and it invites more negative comments in the future.
Does your business have negative reviews?
If you have found negative reviews about your business in Google you need to get rid of them. We have a great success rate in actually removing negative reviews altogether. Where a bad review can’t be removed, we bury suppress and replace them with positive search results that promote and protect your business.
Don’t let a bad reputation destroy your company… Contact us now for a FREE QUOTE.
Call us for a chat on 0800 088 5506 or fill in our contact form below.
