Online Reviews, Online Reputation Management - Codifica Design Studio

How To Handle Fake And Negative Reviews? Online Reputation Management

In today’s world reputation is critical. Right online reputation management (ORM) can build healthy customer perceptions of your brand and encourage people to purchase your product or service. A poor reputation can negatively affect sales and also deter those who might want to work for you – depriving you of new chance as well as revenue.


Online Reputation is a very important aspect of small business’ digital marketing strategy. If a consumer doesn't know about your brand then he/she will choose you by reviews on your page. Consumer opinion is mostly based on the number of positive reviews of your website or Google business page.

Fake reviews have become such a big problem and some big companies like Amazon and Yelp also face these types of problems. So they have taken measures to help block the influx of fake reviews on their sites.

When a business receives a negative/fake review and doesn’t address it or discovers it several months later, they could potentially have lost out on thousands of dollars in revenue.

Why are Online Business Reviews important for your Business?

According to a survey, 88% of consumers (youngsters 18-34 years old) trust online reviews as personal recommendations. What’s more, 91% of customers read businesses’ responses to reviews. That leads to the conclusion that monitoring your business online should be your priority in digital marketing.

  • Reviews create a positive impact on the brand. 
  • Good customer relationship.
  • Grow up business or brand.
  • Reviews are the 'first-hand' information for customers.

A brand is a keyword for the public these days. The brand is an image created in the minds of customers which is the sign of trust and loyalty. Being the best Codifica Design Studio helps to build this trust by removal of Google negative reviews, removing fake reviews from Google and deleting negative reviews from Google.

How to handle Fake Reviews?

Reasons of fake review are:

  • A black hat SEO attack.
  • A personal issue.
  • A serious customer service issue.

And if you are attacked then my friend you can fight back without doing any harm to your reputation.

1. Pause and Process

First thing is to don't act speedily. Just wait for some moments. It's natural to feel angry and defensive when someone spreads lies about your company. And at the same time, you don't want to let that review for a long time. So, just wait for an hour at least, cool down your brain and then proceed.

2. Try to Remove the Review

It's an ideal scenario to remove that review before anyone can see. However, depending on the website, you may be able to remove the comment or review.

Here are some major review sites in this situation.

Facebook

Facebook will only remove that review if it doesn't match with Facebook Community Standards instructions like sexual harassment, bullying etc. So you have to follow these instructions:

1. Find the review in question.

2. Click the V-shaped icon on the top right corner of the review.

3. Click on "Report Post" and then follow the prompts or  instructions.

Google

Google will remove posts if an independent moderator tells Google and collects evidence from other visitors who have visited this place before. But here are some instructions you have to follow:

1. Search for your business on Google maps.

2. Click on overall ratings. It will take you to a list of reviews.

3. Use the mouse to hover over the review you want to remove.

4. A flag icon will appear and then click on it.

5. Follow the prompts. Note that you can't write an explanation of why the post should be removed; you can only request for the post to Google to review.

Yelp

It will only remove a review if the reviewer had a clear enter the interest, and didn't focus on their own experience or included some vulgar language/private information in any post. You have to take these steps:

1. Log in to Yelp's business account.

2. Find the review.

3. Click on the flag icon of the bottom of the review.

4. Select the reason you are reporting the post, and explain. 

3. Consider Responding Publicly

No matter if it is fake or negative just reply to all of those reviews. If consumers see you respond to one negative post, but not to others, they might think that other negatives post are correct. That's why you are not replying.

4. Attract more Positive Reviews

It's important to make a good user profile on the web. Here is a trick for you:

Use an automated system like “Reputation Stacker” to do the heavy lifting in reputation.

All you need to do is to enter the phone numbers and email address of visitors or customers and then “Reputation Stacker” will contact them with a one question survey. Happy customers are directed to the review on your website while negative or dissatisfied customers are directed back to you in a private blog. From which you can make improvements in your business.

How can we help?

Codifica Design Studio aims at customer satisfaction. Hence, negative comment removal plays a vital role here. For that very reason, what we do here is, efficiently manage reviews. Codifica Design Studio stacks negative reviews with pleasant ones. A lot of the businesses are not aware of the impact a review can have on their product or sale of the business.

How to Handle Negative Reviews?

1. Look internally

When you get any negative review, the first thing you must do is to seriously consider what the review is saying. Put yourself in the shoes of the reviewer. It could be unreasonable but they might be showing you a problem with your service. Just look at your services. You need to look at it from another side. Maybe it’s time to rethink some of your customer services again. Do you want to try if everything is fine? Or it was just a fake review.

2. Contact as soon as possible

When you receive a negative review, you have to contact that person as soon as possible. It doesn't matter who is wrong here but still, you have to reach out to them, The more you do to make it right, the more they will appreciate it and rethink about their review they posted.

3. Ask to Review

Just in case if someone has posted a review, ask for how to improve it? However, if they don't seem happy after you reach out, it is better to leave the comment section. Because they might just write something worse that could be damaging to your online reputation.

4. Acknowledge the problem

There are some times when you just can't do anything. It might be that it was a time-sensitive situation and you just can make the situation good. So at this point, you still need to acknowledge what happened. Make sure you apologize for the experience they had and try to convince them that it will not happen again. Whatever you do, make sure you are always pleasant to your customers. There is no rudeness or shortness with them.

5. Get positive

If you are having some bad reviews honestly they are not a bad thing. Some people will find it a little fake if your review section is so glorious. If you are having 4 positive reviews and 2 negative reviews, most people will see that you are generally liked. 

Contact Codifica Design Studio

Are you a small business owner that needs help building an effective digital marketing strategy for your brand? Codifica Design Studio, an online reputation management agency that specializes in web design and development, search engine optimization, social media marketing, pay per click, mobile app development, online branding, email marketing consulting and content marketing. To learn more about our services to schedule your free consultation.

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