How to Respond to Personal Attack in Review

Equally small concern owners, we never want to see negative reviews, and it can be quite sorry when we run into them come up in.

But what happens when tens, or even hundreds, appear in a short space of fourth dimension? Are all these real? What on earth practice yous do?

Not all negative reviews are created equally, and in this fickle world, legitimate negative reviews which want to offer your business feedback are overshadowed by negative review attacks which sole goal is to ruin your business.

How to handle legitimate negative reviews (which offer feedback on your business products or services) is a topic all to itself, simply what should yous do if your Google My Business business profile is under assault from negative reviews which are malicious and unjustified?

What do I mean past an attack?

In most of the circumstances where I've been required to resolve negative review attacks, the people behind the campaign are usually local competitors trying to tank your business or cyber-trolls who have a bit between their teeth about with the business manager (not the business itself).

Here are the usual signs which point to whether y'all're getting attacked with negative reviews

• Your Google My Business organization contour has multiple 1-star negative reviews over a brusk space of fourth dimension and completely bucks the trend of how often yous usually go reviews.
• The negative reviews take little to no text or detailed feedback; they are simply low-star ratings.
• The negative reviews are left from Google user profiles with very few reviews (e.g. 1-three reviews).
• All the reviews on the Google user profile are negative and spaced out across inconsistent times and geo-locations (e.k. 1 review in 1 metropolis).
• If the negative review does have feedback, it may be a personal assail or describe an feel which has no representation of your business and services.

The problem with negative reviews is exacerbated further as Google's algorithm is, in my stance, a little bit likewise accepting and not critical enough when reviewing their legitimacy. At the fourth dimension of writing this commodity, I'm almost 100% sure that Google's review algorithm doesn't flag large scale negative review bombs and considers it suspicious.

However, if you're getting attacked with negative reviews, don't become into total panic melt-down, there are a few things which you lot can do to take control of the state of affairs.

Here are my 6 means of combating a negative review assault on your Google My Business profile.

1) Manually report the reviews with multiple accounts

Unfortunately, Google isn't going to willingly remove reviews just considering you don't want them on your contour. Google is very 'pro' user-generated content, and y'all can't manually remove reviews, images, videos etc which have been uploaded by a Google user profile.

Information technology's a pain.

Even so, in that location is a niggling flag which can help.

Concern owners and other Google users can written report/flag all user-generated content on a Google My Business contour. If you don't call back something represents your concern, report it.

The skillful news is that this manual reporting characteristic is very quick and easy to do. Here's how to manually report a negative review:

• 

  Pace one – Go to your Google My Concern profile and click the review tab on the left hand side. Detect the review you lot want to report and press the three buttons on the right hand side of the review. Click report.

• 

  Step 2 – You'll be taken to this spider web page. Cull form the options. Disharmonize of interest or legal problems are proficient options. Click the report button once y'all're finished. You'll go an email confirmation later y'all've submitted the review

• 

  To report a review from a Google user profile in Google Maps. Go to Google Maps and find the location.

• 

  Find the review you want to report and click the iii dots next to their review. Click the flag button and follow the instructions.

In my experience, flagging user-generated content only gets you so far, and it certainly seems to accept quite some fourth dimension for the reports to be actioned past Google. However, here are a few tricks I've establish to improve the effectiveness of the reporting feature:

1. Besides equally reporting the review from your GMB business dashboard, use a Google user contour with an abundance of Klout* to report the content.
2. Report the content with more than i Google user account (come across above) at different times of the day.
3. Don't give up after one session of reporting. Try reporting the content again after v-vii days.

*Past Klout, I hateful a Google user contour (this is mine) which has a history of leaving reviews and is teaming with user-uploaded images tied to the account. A local guide level of 6+ is particularly helpful.

2) Call Google and report the reviews

Google wants to talk to you. I would become so far as to say that they go out of their style to endeavor and talk to you. Unlike Facebook, who wants y'all to employ their messaging platform to report any bug, Google places a strong emphasis on phone calls and talking to you directly over the phone.

A useful tool which you may not realise exists is the 'talk to a specialist' contact form which puts you in touch with a Google representative within minutes.

The tool is excellent because the Google Specialists have a suite of tools which you lot simply don't have every bit a Google My Business user.

Here'southward what normally happens on the call:

1. The Specialist will confirm your details
2. They'll ask you what your issue is
3. You lot'll explicate what the problem is
4. The Specialist will investigate the issue
5. The Specialist will 'escalate' the matter to their specialist team, who'll review the problem and get back to y'all via email/phone within 24-48 hours

Reporting negative reviews to a Google Specialist can take a petty bit of time, considering, in my experience, the Specialist likes to wait at every review which you want to flag ane-by-one. If you've got several negative reviews which yous demand to report, I recommend grabbing a cup of tea and having some patients.

A bang-up tip which I credit to SEMRush is to create a Google Sheet document which lists all the URLs of the reviews you want to back up. Within the sheet, you should contain the following information in split columns:

1. The name of the person leaving the review
2. The URL of the review you desire to study
3. The URL of the Google user profile
4. A 'comments' tab where you can leave a few remarks every bit to why you experience the reviews are unjustified and suspicious.

With all that being said, there are a few common bug which I encounter when talking to a specialist:

1) There can be a linguistic communication barrier.

The majority of Google's contact centres are based overseas, and non all specialists are as fluent in English. My advice is to exist patient; nevertheless, if you're struggling, politely stop the call and consummate the contact form again.

2) The specialists have a limited gear up of tools and won't be able to sort your issue immediately (they unremarkably escalate the effect).

3) Your event may not get resolved.

Unfortunately, merely considering the Google Specialist escalates your trouble doesn't mean that the review is going to go removed. It'southward down to the discretion of Google every bit to whether they'll manually remove a review, and their process is pretty much looking at their algorithm to see if the review is fishy.

Even so, don't let this dishearten you, as persistent sometimes piece of work.

Which leads me to…

three) Call Google again and change your story

Ok, so here is a tactic which sometimes works, but not in all situations. It involves ii words 'cyber-assault'.

Tech companies take 'cyber-attacks' very seriously, and it's incredible to hear the deviation in reaction a Google Specialist has if you plead that your account is under a 'cyber-attack'.

In all honesty, I practice consider getting unwarranted negative reviews as a class of cyber-attack which should be taken very seriously. The only issue is that proving that the negative reviews are indeed a cyber-attack can be difficult. Still, if your business has a big number of negative reviews which accept occurred in a short space of time from Google user profiles with very few reviews on their account, then I would pull out the 'cyber-assail' card from your deck.

The process of calling Google is precisely the same, but when you become asked what your issue is, plead that you lot retrieve that your business relationship is under a cyber-set on and that you don't know what to do. Be sincere and say that your business organisation is suffering (because it is) equally a upshot of the attack.

Also, don't forget to collate the reviews into a Google Sheets document and ship it over to them.

4) Write a response to the review which highlights why you recollect it's fake (use an example)

While y'all're waiting for the negative reviews to exist reviewed by Google, information technology doesn't mean yous should sit back and ignore them. Google'southward investigations can take days and multiple phone calls before annihilation happens, so it'southward best to set on the negative reviews at numerous angles.

The following trick is something which I peculiarly like as it puts the power back into your hands.

Respond the negative review, but be publically critical of the legitimacy of the review. Hither is a template which I've used for some of my client'southward.

—

Hi [proper noun],

Thanks for taking the time to leave us a review.

We noticed that you had left us a i-star review, but nosotros're nether the impression that you've not visited our concern. It looks similar (at the fourth dimension of writing this response) yous've only left a unmarried review which seems very peculiar.

If you didn't know, your Google profile is public, and yous can see your review history here: [insert link to their google profile]

Nosotros feel your account is just being used to leave unwarranted negative reviews.

If this is a genuine review, then nosotros would love to hear from you directly and then we can improve our service. Please, get in touch with our team directly using the email address [insert your business electronic mail address here]

Kind regards,

[your business organisation]

—

I employ this blazon of response for two reasons: one) It highlights to customers that the review is existence investigated, and 2) it includes proof (in the URL link to the users Google profile) as to why yous call back their review is suspect.

The only matter which answering a negative review won't reach is how the poor star rating will still affect the overall score on your profile. Unfortunately, this is something which can only be solved from reporting methods mentioned previously.

Regardless of the type of review (positive or negative), you should brand it function of your concern process to reply all of them. Reviews are in that location to assist you connect with your customers, and if they've taken the time to leave a review, so y'all should bear witness your appreciation by responding.

v) Write a postal service on social media and GMB explaining the situation

I believe firmly in maintaining advice and transparency between business and customers. The trust you build with your customers through clear and positive communication encourages them to empathize and support your brand.

While some businesses may think that acknowledging an influx in negative reviews is feeding the egos of those who are carrying out the attack, I believe that just ignoring the situation but means customers who are discovering your brand for the get-go fourth dimension could form the incorrect first impression of your business organisation and brand; first impressions count.

If yous're the silent business type who likes having a sandy head, that's fine. However, I would strongly recommend you make an exception on keeping silent if the balance of these methods aren't helping your situation.

Making a public statement across your social media channels, website, Google My Busines Contour (through a GMB mail service) and even a press release which highlights the upshot your business is facing paints a very articulate pic to anyone discovering your business that at that place is something unusually wrong.

If you lot're considering making a public statement, here are a few areas which I think you should cover:

• Explain the situation as clearly equally possible
• Identify why you think it'due south happening
• Permit customers know that you lot're in contact with Google and seeking legal advice
• Reassure customers that your services are the same high-quality they accept e'er been
• Inquire customers to get in bear upon with you if they exercise take legitimate feedback to improve your service

six) Focus on generating more positive reviews

I'll paraphrase a quote I got from a conversation I had with a Google Specialist not that long agone.

Me, "What should I practise in the meantime to combat these negative reviews?"

Google Specialist, "You should piece of work on generating more positive reviews as they concord significantly more weight than negative reviews and are more likely to evidence on your contour."

Fight fire with fire.

Comprehensive and content filled positive reviews are one of the main ranking factors for Google My Business concern profiles. If your business doesn't have a process in identify to generate more positive reviews, then you've certainly got an opportunity to meliorate your Google My Business organisation profile significantly.

According to our Google Specialist above, positive reviews are 'significantly' more likely to carry more weight on your ranking signals but likewise show upwardly higher on the review tab within your profile.

The procedure of generating more positive reviews is something which I go into more detail in a different article, and it's an advised tactic to gainsay any negative reviews which are stubbornly not being removed.

Shield's up! We're set boys! Bring on the negative reviews.

Bringing it all back around

Should you be worried about negative reviews? Yep, but there are ways which you can minimise the impact they'll have on your business organization.

Post-obit the steps above may or may non remove the negative reviews on your Google My Business contour, simply they'll undoubtedly give you lot a little more power.

If in that location is one tactic to take away from this commodity, information technology's to with-out-a-doubt implement a review process to generate more legitimate reviews. No matter how many fake negative reviews you become on your business page, high-quality positive reviews will rank college and ultimately prevail.

I tin can't stress enough that, no matter what, try not to let negative reviews get y'all downward. Always believe in your concern, and go on to provide the best quality service to your customers.

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Source: https://www.phildsc.com/google-my-business/2020/6-ways-to-combat-a-negative-review-attack-on-your-google-my-business-profile/

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