Google reviews can make your business so we are going to tackle the number one questions we get asked “How To Remove A Bad Review On Google My Business”.
If your a small business owner of whatever size you probably would have suffered from Fake Google reviews, Negative Google reviews, Bad Google reviews on your Google My Business listing, and you would have been left to wonder how to handle them!.
You know those reviews from highly suspicious customer reviews (those competitors that feel the need to try and dent your 5* rating) or those reviews left by people you know you have never done business with.
The good news Is Google have released a brand new tool to combat this common and highly damaging practice on Google My Business.
Google My Business have launched a brand new tool to help local business owners report inappropriate and malicious Google reviews they want to remove and keep track of the status of the reviews they’ve already flagged.
Our Step By Step Guide On How to Delete a Bad Google Review of Your Business With The NEW Google “Manage My Reviews”.
1. To access the tool you can click on the link [Manage your reviews – Google My Business Help]
2. Log in using the email address linked to your Google My Business profile.
Select your Business or Location you want to check the review status for, then click on Continue.
3. If you have never reported a bad or negative Google My Business review you’ll see a table that contains all the reviews that have been published for your listing. The information included in the table are a snippet of the review itself, the star rating the customer has given you and the date it was posted. Clicking on the View on Maps will take you directly to that review on Google Maps itself.
4. To report a review you feel goes against Google’s guidelines, click on the “Report a Problem” link.
5. You will be taken to a screen you may be familiar with if you’ve reported reviews in the past.
6. Select the most suitable option, then click on report after which you’ll see the ‘Thank You’ message.
7. You will also receive an email from Google confirming your request to remove a review has been received, there is NO fixed time for this to be reviewed so please keep an eye on your account and the progress.
So Far You Might Think There Is No Major Change To The Previous Process…. But You Could Not Be More Wrong
If you log back into the tool and select the business listing from which you’ve flagged a review, you should now see an option that says ‘Check the Status of a review I reported previously’. Tick the radio button and continue. On the next screen you’ll see the list of the reviews you’ve flagged in chronological order along with their status(es).
In this example Google’s decision is still pending. This is because reported reviews may take up to 72 hours to be evaluated; after which, your status should be changed.
If the review is infringing Google’s policy, it will be removed and will no longer be displayed on this list.
If, however, Google deems the review to be genuine the pending status will be updated to the following status. Report reported – no policy violation.
For more details about the decision, you can select that review by clicking on the radio button and click on Continue.
If you are unhappy about the decision you have the possibility of appealing so the review can be assessed a second time. You can only appeal once, after which the decision will be final.
We personally think this is a superb new Google tool which now provides much needed clarity over how to deal with negative Google My Business reviews and clears up years of uncertainty on how to remove these.
Steps On How to Respond If Google DO NOT Remove The Bad Review Of Your Business
One of the first steps the business owner should take if Google do not side with your request to remove the negative review is to respond to the negative reviewer.
We think that responding to these kinds of reviews shows the level of customer service you have at your business, and how much you value any feedback.
Remember with any company it’s impossible to get 100% 5-star reviews, that is just un-attainable, there will always be a customer who had a less-than-great experience with your business.
By simply reaching out and giving a compelling response the customer might choose to remove the Google review on their own (you would like to hope they would if the review is not malicious). At the very least, you can reduce the damage to the brand as other potential customers will get to see your side of the story and learn a bit more about your companies superb efforts towards customer relations.
Here are some tips to keep in mind when responding to a negative review:
- Make sure you respond kindly
- Try to avoid being defensive, and NEVER make it personal
- Apologise if necessary and offer to make it right, to allow the general public to view your openness
- Keep the response brief and concise, offer to reach out to resolve the issue over the phone
- Take the conversation off to a private channel like text or email
Our Guide To “Downplaying” A Negative Google Review
These 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.
To downplay negative reviews you could try the following strategies:
• Keep calm and clarify the situation in your response to the negative review, remember your response will be viewed, maintain a professional manner and tone of voice.
• Reconcile the situation and then politely ask the person that left the review (offline over email or text or phone) if they are willing to update their negative review to reflect the positive outcome from the company resolving the issue for them.
• Ensure that you have a strategy ongoing to allow you to gain more positive customer reviews, which has the effect of pushing the few negative reviews down.
Downplaying a review means that the bad Google My Business Review has a lessened gravitas and impact on your brand/business.
Helpful Google My Business Links:
Google My Business Support
If you have any other technical issues you can always reach out to Google’s support for businesses support.google.com/business
Googles Policy Violations
The 10 types of reviews that are prohibited and restricted by Google’s review policy
How To Take Your “Google My Business From Good To Great In 7 days”
Our FREE guide to leveraging your Google My Business.
Not On Google My Business Then Get started For FREE
Click To Create Your Listing
What Is “Google My Business”
Discover What Google My Business Is
Reach Out To Google My Business On Twitter
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