How to Get Rid of Poor Google Reviews
Wondering how to get rid of poor Google Reviews? AKA anything less than 5 stars?
Spoiler alert: you can’t (and if you do, I’ll clap for you because that process is hella hard and not forgiving lol)
Instead, let’s focus on what you can do if you get a negative review for your business.
Table of Contents
What is a Google Review?
If you have a local business, you’re able to collect reviews on Google My Business.
Google Reviews are public-facing and are extremely important for local businesses as they demonstrate a business’s ability to get results for their consumers, as well as their customer service skills, areas of expertise, and give an insight into a consumer’s overall experience of working with the business.
Ideally, you get Google Reviews from your customers when you do well! But, here’s the thing: sometimes you will get a negative review. Sometimes it happens if you catch someone on a bad day, if someone didn’t understand what the service was, and sometimes if your service and customer experience need some work (which is a positive thing if you choose to see it that way).
Can You Actually Get Rid of Google Reviews?
No, you really can’t. The title of this blog was pretty much clickbait because you can’t get rid of Google reviews that are “legit”.
“Legit” meaning that someone signed into a Google account and left the review for your business.
And honestly, that’s the whole point. If the ability to leave a review with fewer than 5 stars didn’t exist, then why bother having the feature at all?
The long and the short: you can only get rid of a Google review if it is spam. You can go through the review appeals process, and Google may choose to approve the removal of the review, which is hard, and I wouldn’t count on it.
Here’s a quote directly from Google:
Report only reviews that violate Google policies. learn more about Google’s content policies.
Don’t report a review just because you disagree with it or don’t like it.
2a. Google doesn’t get involved when businesses and customers disagree about facts.
2b. There’s no reliable way to tell who’s right about a particular customer experience.”
Now, after reading that, you can pretty much take away that “if it’s from a legit human, it’s staying. Deal with it”.
The Google Review Appeals Process
Honestly, I don’t have much to say here. It’s pretty self-explanatory, so if you want to go for it, just head to support.google.com and type in “Google review removal” in the search box. Then, follow the directions from there.
Why Is It Hard (Impossible) to Get Google Reviews Removed?
You might be wondering why the heck it’s so hard to get Google Reviews removed. Well, Google reviews require that people sign into a Google account to leave a review. This means that the reviews they leave are public and attached to their name (given that they don’t create a fake Google email account to leave said review, which does happen).
So, if someone chooses to leave a bad review, well… they’re doing it very publicly (unless someone creates a fake account, which, again, happens and is quite unusual.)
Can You Edit a Google Review?
Not really. The only way that you can “edit” the review is if the person who originally left the review goes in and edits the review.
I’ve seen people contact review leavers, respond to the review, etc., but unfortunately, if they don’t edit that review, you’re stuck with it.
What to Do if You Get a Negative Google Review
The truth: It will probably happen to you at least once in your career. So, let’s talk about what to do about it.
Get more reviews by keeping on keeping on and asking for reviews.
Provide the best service you can.
Respond to every review, especially the negative ones
My first recommendation if you get a negative Google review: Get more reviews by asking for more reviews. That’s pretty much all you can do and control when it comes to reviews.
Obviously, it’s helpful if you get 5 stars each time.
But, let’s take a moment to think about this: All of it comes back to the service you provide and the relationships you build. So, if you do receive a negative review, is there a role that you played in that? Is there something to be learned or gained?
Is there something that could have been better? How can you grow from that review?
Next, I recommend that you respond to negative reviews in a positive manner because the public can see your responses, as can the review leaver. Focus on acknowleging their experience and focus on how to provide better service next time or make it right for them if you have the ability to do so.
How to Prevent Negative Google Reviews
Understand that sometimes, no matter how good your service is, some people are just angry, even if the service was delivered exactly what it was intended to be, and you can’t fix or control for that.
What We Can Control
At the end of the day, we have to realize that there are only a few things that we can control, but they are actually the big things.
The quality of the service we provide
How we respond to those negative reviews we do get
How often we are asking for reviews from our clients
So if you’re focusing on those things, you’re doing the best you can.
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