Reviews & Google Review Guidelines
Google have strict policies and guidelines in regards to reviews on Google My Business Listings. Unfortunately there is not a feature that allows us to sign in to your listing and just remove the review. What we can do in regards to the review is flag the review and then raise this to the Google support team in an attempt to get said review removed from your listing.
When we first flag the review we have to select an option as to why we are flagging the review for removal, there are 4 options which we can choose from when flagging the review, and these are:
A review containing hateful, violent or inappropriate content
When selecting this the review must contain obscene, profane or any offensive language towards the experience they had or the business/employees at said business. This option would also be selected if there was a personal attack on a member of staff at the business as this can also be considered a violation of this policy.
A review containing adverting or spam
When selecting this as an option when flagging the review within the body of the review this must contain advertisement for another business (adding links, phone numbers, websites or instructing others to go to a specific other business). Also if the review contains promotional or commercial content which shows the reviewer post the same content multiple times.
A review that is off-topic
When selecting this option the review must contain content that is clearly aimed towards another business e.g. if someone has left a review in regards to a nice meal they had but the business is a building firm. This option can also be selected if the review is based on someone else’s experience e.g. my mum came in to the salon and was not happy with the service.
A review that contains conflicts of interests
When this option is selected the review must contain content that suggest the person who has left the review has accepted money to leave the review or if the review has been left by a competitor of the business.
Once we have flagged the review for one of the above reasons, we will then leave the review for 3 days whilst the technically team at Google observe the review to determine whether the review does actually breach the policies about reviews on Google. Once the 3 days are over the review will either have been removed from your Google My Business Listing or the review will still remain on your listing. At this point we would then contact Google directly and raise the review to them over the phone and explain why we believe that the review should be removed, Google would then inform us that they will hand the review over to the relevant department and the if the review beaches Google’s policies then the review will be taken down within 7 days.
If the review would still remain on Google after all this then Google would suggest 2 things to do, these are:
More reviews
The first thing that Google would suggest is to kindly approach past and present customers and see if they would mind leaving you a positive review to counter act the negative review and boost the overall star rating of your listing on Google. There are a few different methods you could use to approach customers,
· - You could put a sign up in store asking if customers have been happy with the service if they would mind leaving you a review.
· - You can send an email to customers thanking them for using your service with a link at on the email which direct them straight to your listing so they can leave you a review.
· - You can call the customer and ask if they have been pleased with the service and if they wouldn’t mind leaving you a review if they have been.
· - You can create a card/flyer to pass out to your customers once they have used your service or alternatively add this to your receipt/invoice which you hand your customers.
The more positive reviews you receive on your listing the higher your overall rating will be. Customers can leave reviews on your listing between 1 & 5 star rating which they can also add text to and images of the experience they had at your business if they choose.
Respond
The second thing that Google would suggest that you do is respond to the review. Responding to your reviews is a great way of showing your customers and potential customers that any issue that the individual came across when using your service that you are attempting to come to a resolution to the issue that they may or may not have come across. All reviews on your Google listing can be responded to whether they be positive or negative reviews. Google would always highly recommend responding to all reviews to either thank customers for leaving a review or trying to come to a conclusion with the customer or getting across your point of view in regards to the review that has been left.
In regards to responding to the reviews there is 2 ways of responding to them, you can either come up with the responses and email them over to us for our Technical Team to post the responses. Alternatively our Technical Team can draft some responses for you and send you the responses for you to proof read them before we post them.
Additional things you may need to know
· - Anyone can leave a review on your business whether they have visited your business/used your services or not.
· - In order to leave a review you would need to have a Gmail account or a Google compatible email address
· - A review can be between 1 & 5 stars and can contain text and an image if the person leaving the review chooses
· - Reviews cannot just be simply deleted