The last thing you want to see is a negative review of your business. Even if the review is in jest, it can still adversely impact your reputation. Therefore, it helps to put more effort into deleting the review. Of course, it’s not easy to remove negative reviews, especially if they hold water. However, some don’t deserve a space on review sites. The good thing is you can find a way to ask for their removal.
Check Google’s policy
Google will take the necessary steps to review what others wrote about your business and remove them if they violate the policy. Usually, reviews get deleted if they contain spam and fake content, off-topic content, restricted information, sexually explicit content, offensive statements, and derogatory words. It’s not easy to determine which reviews will fall under these standards due to the vague lines. However, Google will be fair in its decision and respond accordingly.
Flag the reviews
Use your official account to flag the review. It’s easier to get Google’s attention when using your company’s account. Answer the form and provide the reasons for the removal of the reviews. Again, your justification won’t always be right. Google needs to balance the interests of companies and customers. Things might not be favorable for you once the review is over. Regardless, you should still try. It’s part of your reputation repair effort. Otherwise, the negative review will spread, and there’s no way to prevent or disprove it.
Request the customer
If you can send a message directly to the customer, it would help. Be diplomatic in sending a request, even if you feel enraged. You don’t want to worsen the situation. Besides, your message can get displayed in public view after taking a screenshot. It will further damage your brand. You can’t expect success in your request, but there’s no harm in trying. Be willing to apologize and offer ways to make it up to the customer if you’re on the wrong side.
Take legal actions
You don’t want to sound threatening, but it could be an option. If you exhaust all means to prevent negative information from spreading, it’s the best way to survive the challenge. Let your legal team do the job and focus on ways to avoid the same issue from ever happening.
It’s possible
Removing negative reviews on Google can be challenging, but it’s possible. Focusing on reputation repair is necessary if you want to entice more people to buy your products. However, it also helps if you pay attention to review generation. You want to drown negative reviews with positive ones. If you can’t delete the negative reviews, you can at least counter the narrative. The positive reviews won’t necessarily prevent how people feel, but they have something to think about.
Whether you want to start with review generation or focus on online reputation repair, it helps to ask experts to be by your side. Then, you can figure things out when you receive help instead of dealing with the problem from scratch.
