According to BrightLocal, 95% of people read local business reviews, and 85% of consumers trust those reviews as much as they trust advice from a friend or family member. This means that you must monitor your online reviews so you know what your potential customers or followers are seeing. Doing this on your own can be a daunting task, and without professional tools and advice, you will likely only get a glimpse of what consumers are seeing. Working with a business review management company for online review monitoring and review management will give you all the information you need to turbocharge your online reputation and correct small problems before they go viral.

In most cases, the best way to deal with negative reviews online is to address them in a positive manner or ignore them (when there’s abusive language, for instance). However, there are some cases in which defamation or libel are involved, and the removal of the review will be in your best interest. The procedure for removing a negative review is highly dependent upon the platform where it was posted — Yelp, Glassdoor, Google all have different and complex requirements for review posting and review removal. Consider working with an experienced online reputation management company with knowledge of copyright laws, the Communications Decency Act, Fair Use, confidentiality, false and unprivileged statements rules, and the terms and conditions of review sites.

Google is the number one place for online reviews, making Google My Business highly visible in search results, and very important to the online reputation of your business. In 2019, 4 million business profiles and 75 million reviews were removed by Google. Your best course of action, should you find a negative review of your business on Google, is to contact the reviewer and ask them to remove the review or reach out to an online reputation management company. You can also ask a reviewer to edit the negative review, or you can respond to it publicly, offering to correct the situation. Please note that Google will not remove a review simply because you do not agree with it – opinions, even negative opinions, are protected speech. You must prove it to be fake or in violation of a law to have it removed.

Google does have a spam filter in place to flag fake reviews, however, it’s not perfect. It’s estimated that 74% of internet users have read a fake review in the past year. If you find a fake review on Google, and you can prove that it’s fake (the reviewer never actually did business with you, for instance), you can request that Google remove it. This can be done by flagging the review and speaking with Google. The process will take a minimum of a few days and can often be expedited by working with an experienced online reputation management company.

A negative review should not be responded to with denial or anger. Negative reviews should only be ignored if the reviewer uses foul language or other online behavior so that resolution or compromise is impossible. If you discover a negative review, start by thanking the person for their feedback. Then ask what you or your company can do to remedy the situation. Even if you do not wish to save this person as a customer, your response is important because hundreds, maybe thousands, of other potential customers will read your reply and see your commitment to customer service and the steps you have or will take to improve your operations. In fact, 82% of consumers will actively seek out negative reviews, simply to read the interactions between reviewers and businesses. Plus, studies have shown that customers will spend five times longer than average on the site when reading conversations between reviewers and the business.

When you or your business get a positive online review, it’s important to acknowledge the reviewer and thank them for their time. Do not respond generically. Instead, directly address the language they’ve used and been specific. This shows them, and everyone else who reads your response, that you care about the results of your work. When you reply to positive reviews, reviewers are far more likely to become brand ambassadors and word-of-mouth advertisers.