Reviews That Kill Your Reputation
Before the advent of the internet the saying was, “if you do a great job your customer might tell one person, if you do a poor job they will tell five.”
And it was always those who actually did business with you that would leave a review. I mean that’s only fair, right?
You would think!
Yet, thanks to Facebook, Yelp, Google and other online review sites…the rules of reviews have changed.
Now it seems anyone can leave a review.
Regardless, if they used your service or not.
Yeah, not really the way the system was supposed to work, and yet…here it is.
Non-customers are leaving negative reviews because they were offended by something they heard about your company.
What? No!
Sorry, but sadly…that’s how it is.
These online services believe that getting reviews for your service allows potential customers to get to know the facts, the real you, the bottom line.
Somehow, I don’t believe getting reviews from people who have never experienced your service is an indication of the true picture.
Unfortunately, when you have a less than perfect review status…potential customers take notice.
And, if your real customers have given you outstanding five star reviews and the non-customers have given you 1 star negative reviews…well, then it could mean you have a 3 out of 5 score…which is low.
What if, you posted something that was of a political, religious or even personal nature and it triggered a slew of negative comments. And, the backlash that resulted caused your review score to drop even further. Sadly, this scenario plays out everyday against small and large businesses across the globe.
Recently a coffee shop in Tucson posted a political message on their Facebook page that resulted in past customers deleting their positive reviews and non-customers leaving scathing reviews that were so nasty the coffee shop deleted it’s Facebook page altogether. And, then one of the partners resigned.
Incidentally, one of my own clients had their reviews on their Facebook page turned off because at one time they had received a bunch of 1 star blank reviews that brought their ratings below a 3 out of 5. They wanted to increase those numbers. They turned the Facebook review feature back on and sent out emails requesting those who loved their service post reviews. The problem was they needed hundreds of reviews to bring the score up to at least a 4 out of 5. After six months of getting clients to post positive reviews, the score was climbing. It got up 3.8. Then…it started dropping again. A bunch of blank 1 star reviews started coming in lowering the score. Yep, six months of hard work getting hundreds of people to leave positive reviews destroyed by non-customers, maybe even competitors, who maliciously posted to try to destroy my client’s online reputation. My client was pissed and rightfully so. And, they turned the reviews back off again.
It’s sad really.
The notion that reviews are supposed to be based on your personal experience dealing with a service is completely turned upside down and now reviews are used as a weapon to destroy a business.
Just doesn’t seem right.
What do you think?
Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
Other articles that you might find interesting…
- When Negative Reviews Get You Sued
- Controlling Online Reviews
- Negative Reviews: Cyber Targeting
- The Power of Reviews
- The Lousy Facebook Review System
- Flagging A Fake Google Review
Rob is affectionately known as “Mr. Sarcasm” to his friends - to everyone else he’s a Certified Digital Marketing Strategist, a Foremost Expert On Specialized SEO, a Best Selling Author, Podcaster, Speaker and Authority Broadcaster who can help amplify YOU to your audience.
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The small online business owner can’t defend himself from competitors outside the US. They flood sites like TrustPilot, SiteJabber, PissedConsumer and more. The more fake negative reviews they post and the more replies you add only add fuel to the fire. If you don’t post fake positive reviews to counter the fake negative ones then your business can be ruined. I’ve seen businesses suffer 30% or more in lost revenue based on fake negative reviews. They are done by design. To help the poster sell more of his products/services. If you destroy a business then that opens the door to more sales for them. Enough is enough!
This is why we created Rebusify. To stop fake reviews from happening. Our free tool lets only real customers leave reviews on products/services they just bought. Once a review is left we can take it a step further and post that review to the Ethereum Blockchain to ensure that reviews can’t be modified.
I am surprised these places have the right to do this. I have been given a three bad reviews from people that are either outright telling lies or people who give one start without a response. I think is is horrible that people can fake an account and go around bad mouthing businesses. Shame on google etc.
The system is definitely flawed and needs an overhaul.
If you don’t want bad reviews then treat your customers right. Bottom line. Only scam artists try to remove bad reviews. Own up to your mistakes and try to make it right with the customers.
Hey Bob, thanks for leaving a comment. I’m not sure you fully read the article. Sure the idea of treating your customers right should be at top of mind…however, the article focused on fake reviews by people who have never frequented the establishment in question. Anyone can leave a negative review regardless if they were a customer or not. Even competitors. Is that fair to the company who has treated their customers right? So your comment about only scam artists trying to remove bad reviews is unwarranted. Companies who go above and beyond to treat their clients with respect and friendship are getting bad reviews from people who aren’t their customers and competitors who want to discredit them. Those are the reviews that need to be removed.
True, a reputation that can take alot of time, money and effort could just come down in an instant with horrible people posting bad reviews with the intention to kill.
I just got 2 bad reviews from a same person for one product. On a same advert. Now my sales is suffering.
Unfortunately, some places do not have systems in place to help sellers defend themselves properly.
Some reviewers are so creative in passing negative reviews really.
Why are all these happening in an already difficult world?
Requires a person business to really understand
Hi Rob,
I just found your article and it really deals with something we have been going through recently. My wife and I run a licensed 501.c3 guinea pig rescue in Georgia. I got on Google business when I started the rescue about five years ago and now wish I had never signed up for many reason including the rating system. We run the rescue outside of our full time jobs so we do sometimes get behind on following up since we have so many animals to care for. Unfortunately people treat us like a service industry and leave bad reviews usually when they do not follow the instructions we post on our site.
Another rescue last week posted this on their Facebook page and it really sums up how I feel. I thought I would share and see if you had any recommendations for non profits like ours.
https://www.facebook.com/NewhouseWildlifeRescue/posts/2978456432242537
The other issue I have with Google is the only way to remove your company is to mark permanently closed which just seems very heavy handed on Google’s part. Thank you for your time!