Remove a Bad Review from Your Google My Business Profile
News travels quickly today with, social media often acting as the new word-of-mouth accelerant that many businesses live and die by. However, online reviews play a significant role in influencing shopping (and buying) behavior. People love to take the prerequisite time to analyze products before buying, but this also extends to exploring experiences like travel spots and restaurants.
Google My Business remains essential because modern consumers value other people’s opinions. For this reason, when they feel unsure of something, they’ll look to the review section before making a purchase.
As a business owner, you’ll likely care about what former and potential new customers think. Negative reviews can make or break you. Although a mixed set of reviews are a good thing, this certainly looks better when most of the reviews are good ones.
Mixed reviews show that a business and its offerings are authentic. It is important to remember that your company can’t please everyone all of the time. Sadly, some negative feedback on Google My Business remains inevitable. But it isn’t all bad news.
Removing reviews with a negative impact from a Google My Business profile isn’t easy. While it can prove to be a complex process, it isn’t impossible. GOA-TECH has the tips to remove a bad review from your Google My Business profile.
Dealing with a Fake Review?
Impressions matter. It is essential that your company thinks quickly and gets to work to limit damages by responding to reviewers, even in situations where you think their review might be fake.
This will demonstrate to other potential consumers that you care and actively involve your company in feedback with customers. The way that you respond enables the company to show off its support service skills, empathy, and consideration and can help them understand your side of the story.
How Does Google’s Review Removal Policy Work?
Google outlines its review policy guidelines very clearly. When trying to remove any negative content, pay close attention to this information to ensure your negative content falls in line with what Google classifies as an inappropriate review. This often bares fruit with the best shot to remove a bad review from Google My Business.
Google will remove any review that is fake, defamatory, or inappropriate. When reporting a review due to the aforementioned criteria, the easiest way to do this is by:
- Log into your Google My Business account and select your location
- Navigate to the “Reviews” section from the menu on the top left
- Locate the review you want Google to delete and click on the vertical dots menu
- Select “Flag as Inappropriate”
Responding to Negative Reviews on Google
As your business grows and you accumulate more reviews, this can mean you may get some more negative reviews. When customers leave reviews, negative feedback can put a damper on otherwise positive business success. The good news is that this isn’t a huge issue and enables a business to save face with the right review response.
When someone writes a review complaining about a product or service, this offers companies the chance to apologize and explain that it won’t happen again. Furthermore, other customers will see this back and forth with the reviewer and demonstrate to them that the company cares about its online reputation while aiming to help customers have the best possible experience.
How to Remove a Bad Review from a Google My Business Profile | GOA-TECH
Google reviews help consumers to make informed buying decisions about places, services, and people. Removing them isn’t easy, and even after submitting a review for analysis from Google, this doesn’t mean the situation is a done deal.
Reviews increase brand trust, bolster a company’s online reputation, and enable the company to show consumers transparency and how they deal with both positive and negative feedback from customers.
Reviews often drive click-through rates and can ultimately convert browsers into buyers. It pays to formulate and implement the proper plan to respond to bad reviews on a Google My Business listing. Some consumers will actually seek out responses to see how a business responds to negative feedback.
Ensure your business takes the proper proactive steps to ask for reviews while responding to them in a timely fashion. This will help to drive traffic to your website and hopefully turn browsers into buyers as well.
For more information or assistance on proper customer response management and the right process to handle or remove a bad review from a Google My Business profile, reach out to our dedicated team from GOA-TECH today!
