Negative Google Reviews can cause your business to lose clients. Here is what you should do to prevent these reviews from impacting your brand.
Flag as inappropriate
You might be asking whether or not it is possible to erase reviews on Google and whether or not it is possible for someone to remove unfavorable articles from Google. Although local Google business account owners do not have the means to remove reviews, there is a process in place to remove reviews. Follow these steps to report the review in question.
- Log in to the Google account that is associated with your listing
- Launch the ratings and reviews section.
- Locate the review that you want to dispute.
- Select “Report Review” from the menu that appears when you click the three dots in the upper right corner.
Once you select Report Review, you will be given a number of choices for negative Google reviews:
- Off Topic: review doesn’t pertain to an experience at or with this business
- Spam: the review is from a bot, fake account, or contains ads and promotions
- Conflict of Interest: The review is from someone affiliated with the business or the competitor’s business
- Profanity: the review contains swear words, has sexually explicit language, or details of graphic violence
- Bullying or harassment: the review personally attacks a specific individual
- Discrimination or hate speech: the review has harmful language about an individual or group based on identity
- Personal information: the review contains personal information, such as an address or phone number
- Not helpful: the review doesn’t help people decide whether to go to this place
(These options were taken from Google.)
Choose the option that fits the best. Also, once you complete the process, you can start again, and mark a second/different option. Example: Spam and Conflict of Interest- if it’s a fake review from a competitor.
Contact Google
If you want to submit a negative Google review, you might find it more convenient to speak with a real person rather than deal with an automatic response system or AI. Google provides a variety of channels via which users may communicate with their customer support team. However, be sure that your expectations are realistic. Since Google has billions of customers, the company “picks” the consumers who will receive support from one of its workers rather than providing support to all of its customers.
You have the option to report an illegal review if you have been given one. An unlawful review is one that lowers your reputation online or the reputation of your brand. Make use of the Content Removal Tool, and when prompted in the Google Business Profile Manager, answer any questions that pertain to your complaint. A review is more likely to be removed from Google if it breaches laws against defamation. This is true even if the review is negative.
We have found an email that Google will answer. The AI will respond to the first couple of emails, but if you continue to inquire about your review, a real person with either answer the review or give you a phone call. (Numbers could be coming from California, or honestly, anywhere in the world, and usually do not say “Google” in the identifier.) googlebusinessprofile-support@google.com
Please use this email sparingly, as it is a direct way to talk to the Google review team.
Request an edit
It’s also possible to talk with the person who left the review. Sometimes, by speaking to the person, directly, you can discuss what they were not satisfied with, and help them with what was lacking. After the issues are resolved, ask them to raise the review to 5 stars and/or rewrite it. This is completely legal to do.
Provide a response
You should respond to all reviews- both positive and negative. Sometimes an excellent response to a negative review will help future clients decide if they want to do business with you. Reply in a respectful and compassionate manner, not defensively nor attacking. Maintain HIPAA and not mention anything personal about the person in the response.
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