How to delete a Google review?

Imagine yourself reading a title of a book whose author is mysterious to you. What do you do now? Yes, there you are! We will just google him. Google is the preferred review site for 64% of its customers and a bad review, just a single one, can demolish your entire heap of efforts to reach the top! And if this has happened to you right now and you are here looking for some answers – first of all STOP PANICKING!

Just like you, every company desperately wants positive feedback but the ratio of the number of customers with a bad experience reviewing you to a number of customers with a good experience reviewing you is 2:1. These google reviews are a part of Google algorithms and hence, a negative review on google will pull you down from Facebook and other review platforms as well. Yep, you read it right. 

DO NOT PANIC. We will fix it. 

Google does not allow you to directly delete a review, but we can try a few of the following steps and get back into the limelight. 

Learn what went wrong. 

The first step in such case is to check it with your data if the customer is actually your customer. There are zillion examples of fake reviews intentionally written either by competitors or by randoms. Hence always check with the help of your reports. If the customer is genuinely disappointed by your product, check out their time of purchase. You can contact the customers and try to fix the issue and make efforts to bring them back to the business. 

You can try to bring the customer back by responding to the review. You can directly address their specific issue. It helps in making the customers feel special by giving a personalized touch. It creates an image that your brand is committed to its customers and is willingly ready to help them. If this goes according to the plan you can even ask your customer to edit the review. This can be done in a few easy steps:

1. Open Google maps on the computer or device.
2. Click on Menu on the top left.
3. Click on Your contributions and then select Reviews.
4. Click on the 3 dots beside Review.
5. Click on Edit or Delete as per your requirement.
   

Beware of the fake reviews.

As I mentioned above it is not uncommon to have a fake Google review. Its only motive can be to cause collateral damage. The authenticity of the reviews should not be avoided. Although Google has spam detection measures for spams, you can decide to come in the front line and delete a review which is unauthentic with the help of a red flag.

In such cases, you can Flag the review as inappropriate. You can Sign in to Google Business – Select your business location – Click on Reviews – Find the inappropriate review, click the 3-dot menu and click on Flag as inappropriate.

Explore “Support” 

Apart from flagging the review, you can always quicken up the entire process of deleting a review. This can be done by requesting a callback, requesting chat, or emailing Google My Business. 

• Go to Google Business, Click on menu and scroll to Support.
• Then click on Contact Us that appears on the pop-up and then go to Need More Help.
• Choose Customer Reviews and Photos and go to Manage Customer Reviews.
• Choose from the given three options: Request a callback, Request chat Or Email support

Call for help

In order to rectify the mistake, you can ask your customers for help. You can ask them to write a positive feedback for your brand. This will not only help you to rectify the negative image that has been created and also bring a positive wave of impression for your brand. 

If you have a habit of remaining in touch with the customers through emails, always remember to add a link of the review section with the email. This might help in bringing more feedbacks to your profile. 

Take legal actions

Removing the fake review with Google’s assistance is not an easy task. There may be chances of Google overlooking your issue and not responding to it. With cases like defamation, Google may skip your complaint or may take a longer time than required. In such cases, you can always choose to file a case and get a court order to get the complaint removed. If the reviewer’s identity is known, filing an Internet defamation case is the best possible move. If the reviewer’s identity is not known you can file a John Doe lawsuit. It is the best practice when one’s identity is unknown and requires specific filing criteria.

Removing negative or fake reviews must not be done alone. It should be done with the help of an experienced team that has successfully removed a fake or negative review by keeping in mind Google’s content policies. At 1into2, we not only remove fake reviews but try to bring an end to the misleading fraud and help you put your best foot forward!