Google reviews allow customers to share their experiences with your business. Ideally, they will praise you and tell you how happy they are with your product or service. When it comes to negative reviews on Google, it is often difficult to find the right words and respond appropriately. That’s why we’re giving you some helpful tips in this article.
Google Reviews: great importance for potential customers
Satisfied customers and recommendations are the top priority for your marketing. Customers who have bought a product from you or used a service and share their experiences are an important engine for your success.
In this day and age, sharing experiences is no longer just word-of-mouth. Google reviews are an important platform for ratings. Companies that have a Google My Business profile can be rated on it. Ratings consist of a star rating from one to five and if you want, you can also leave a comment.
In addition to positive reports, critical experiences are inevitable to be expected. If only good and exuberant ratings appear, this makes potential customers suspicious. They are therefore also an indication that everything is going right.
The decisive factor is whether and how you react to criticism. Interested parties read not only the Google reviews but also your answers to them. You can present yourself openly here and admit mistakes – that shows humanity and seems honest. On the other hand, anyone who dismisses criticism or publicly describes it as untrue is harming themselves in most cases. Sniffy comments are a no-go and should under no circumstances be published.
A survey from 2019 produced an interesting result: 66 percent of the participants between the ages of 16 and 29 look at customer ratings – for example on Google or one of the many rating portals – as a decision-making aid before making a purchase. The situation is similar for 30 to 49-year-olds. Here, 61 percent stated that they read customer Google reviews before making a purchase. Among the participants between 50 and 64, it was still almost half at 49 percent.
This confirms what you may also observe in yourself: Before a purchase decision is made, a company is scrutinized.
This applies to almost all age groups. Thus, for many companies, reviews are a really important topic that should be treated with a lot of care. Check for yourself which age group is particularly well-represented among your customers. The younger the consumers, the more often they read reviews, according to the study cited. Keep this in mind.
If you are unsure how to deal with negative reviews, you will find helpful tips in the next chapters.
Comment on reviews about Google My Business
In order for customers to be able to leave a review at all, you have to register with Google My Business and create a profile. Once this has happened, you will be informed by e-mail about each new rating.
Reading tips
We have an in-depth article on creating a great Google My Business profile.
You can get an overview of all reviews when you log into your My Business account. In the menu on the left, you will find the item “Reviews”: All your reviews are listed here.
Practically, you have a filter ready. For example, you can search for answered or unanswered reviews. It’s a good idea to choose a fixed day of the week to reply to your reviews.
You should also respond to positive reviews and say thank you. If you let this slide, you quickly lose track and are confronted with a huge amount of reviews. Keep at it and make it a habit to write replies regularly.
If you have published it, the author of the comment will also receive an email notification. It is therefore quite possible that the customer will contact you again. You should then reply to this as well.
Bad rating: how to react to negative reviews on Google
If you have received a bad rating from a customer, you should first keep calm. If you are shocked or emotional, it makes sense not to answer directly, but to process the matter first.
Basically, you should always remain objective and friendly. In some situations, this will certainly be difficult for you and is also completely understandable from an entrepreneurial point of view: negative reviews can harm you. However, if you react inappropriately, you will only make the situation worse.
If you don’t know how to react to negative reviews, you can use the tips in this chapter as a guide. They’ll help you craft an appropriate response and placate the customer.
Admit your mistake
Whether the review is fair or you think it’s exaggerated, you should always let the customer know you’re sorry. The important thing here is that you show the writer that you take the bad experience seriously and want to do better next time.
So apologize politely. But avoid trying to justify yourself. For example, if a customer complains about a rude employee, you could respond like this:
“Dear Guest,
We are sorry that we were not able to meet your expectations when you visited our store. We want to do better – please come back and give us a second chance.”
This shows that you respect the customer and their opinion. If the criticism is harsher, you could also offer a phone call or an on-site meeting to clarify the matter.
Take the criticism seriously and fix the problems
Customers don’t express criticism just to warn other consumers. Of course, they also expect things to change. You should therefore take complaints seriously: If negative reports about a certain employee, a product or other aspects of your business keep coming up, you should take action.
If you fix the problems, you can incorporate that into your response and show the customer that their criticism is important to you. If the quality of a product is repeatedly criticized, your answer could be as follows:
“Dear Guest,
we are sorry that product XY cannot convince you. We are currently working on switching to other materials and thereby improving the quality. The opinion of our customers is very important to us. You are welcome to send the product back to us free of charge – we will refund you immediately.”
It is also advisable to offer the customer a solution to their specific problem. This makes him feel that you are taking him seriously and you may be able to shake off the negative impression.
Offer the customer a solution
If the criticism is harsher, you should respond to the respective customer and offer him an individual solution. The reviews are wonderfully suited for this, as they are read by other customers and interested parties – you are customer-friendly and understanding.
Small vouchers or discounts, for example, can be used as a solution. You must tell the customer how to get it. The best way to do this is to add your contact details directly to your answer.
If a customer was dissatisfied with your service, you can react like this:
“Dear Guest,
we are sorry that you were not satisfied with our service. We spoke to the responsible employee – he saw his mistake. As a small compensation, we would like to send you a voucher for your next purchase. Feel free to contact me and send me a message to example@shop.de.”
Important: Only promise things that you will keep. If the dissatisfied customer contacts you, you should send them the voucher quickly and easily. Otherwise, this will lead to more negative reviews that will make you seem completely implausible.
Answer publicly
Sometimes bad reviews can be attributed to individual customers you’ve had issues with. Be sure to respond to this review directly through Google My Business. Emailing customers about reviews is a no-go and should be avoided at all costs.
Your public response gives you the chance to clarify misunderstandings and admit mistakes. You benefit above all from the effect on interested parties. They get a positive impression of you and take you seriously. On the other hand, if accusations go uncommented, you get the impression that customer opinions are not important to you – and of course, you should avoid that at all costs.
Respond promptly to the comment
As we mentioned above, you should respond to criticism promptly. If customers have to wait weeks for an answer from you, they quickly get the impression that you don’t care about the opinion of your customers.
It is important that you first investigate concrete incidents. If a customer hasn’t received their order, you should investigate and find the cause. You then directly present an explanation and ideally also a solution to the problem.
However, if a review has struck you personally or upset you, you should not respond directly. Wait a few days to calm down and then reply. This will make it easier for you to answer in a factual and friendly manner.
Compose individual messages
In their reviews, customers often describe specific situations and experiences. Respond to these with custom-written replies. You won’t get very far with hackneyed phrases. Avoid standard responses that you use with all clients. This applies even more to bad reviews than to positive reviews!
How can I take action against fake negative reviews on Google?
In addition to honest reviews, more and more fake reviews are creeping in on rating portals. Google has policies that ban some content.
These include, for example:
- Spam
- Illegal Content
- identity theft
- Fake reviews
- Sexually Explicit Content
- Non-Themed Content
If you put a review in one of these categories, you can take action and report it to Google. Search engine employees then check whether deletion is necessary. If you think a comment is excessive or unfair, that is not a reason for deletion.
Like all portal operators, Google acts in the interests of the users and only removes content that violates the guidelines. If a review contains insults or untruths, there is a good chance it will be removed.
Received a bad rating with negative reviews in Google? Hire a lawyer
If you have the impression that one or more ratings do not correspond to the facts and are causing you noticeable harm, you also have the option of consulting a lawyer. However, you should only dare to take this step in extreme cases, because as I said: it is not easy to take action against bad reviews.
There must be a specific reason for deletion. Otherwise, the reviews are subject to freedom of speech and there is not much you can do about it. So if you can prove that the claims are untrue, you should consider hiring an expert.
It is similar when reviews are offensive to a specific person or spread untruths about you. Personal rights protect you from this, which is why you have a chance of deletion in such cases.
The law distinguishes between expressions of opinion and statements of fact. There have already been several judgments that you have to put up with negative reviews on the internet if they are considered expressions of opinion because they are subjective and subject to freedom of expression. What can be contested, however, are untrue statements of fact.
Here is an example of an untrue statement of fact: A customer complains that your shop was simply closed on day XY, even though you had made an appointment for a consultation. But if your shop was open, an untrue fact is being spread here – this is not legal and can be a reason for deletion.
So if any of these facts apply to your case, you should consult an attorney and get feedback on whether a lawsuit would make sense. He can then arrange for the review to be deleted and protect you and your company from further reputational damage.
Conclusion: Received a bad rating? Respond to negative Google reviews objectively and politely
It is undisputed that Google reviews are an important source of information for potential customers. Statistics show that a good half of all consumers read reviews from other users before making a purchase – whether directly on Google or via numerous other rating platforms. Especially with the younger generation, this is often simply part of it.
For you, this means: Don’t just leave positive and, above all, negative reviews. Answer all reviews with a factual and polite comment. This is sometimes really difficult with negative comments. Keep in mind, however, that your responses to feedback play a big part in how users perceive you.
Think back to your own experiences: You have probably read a completely inappropriate and emotional comment from an entrepreneur in the reviews. Did that make a good impression on you? Probably not. If in doubt, wait a few days and then write a reply that is as friendly as possible. In the long run, this will make itself felt.
Last but not least: Think carefully about whether you really want to consult legal counsel in the event of a bad review. Many negative reviews on Google are an expression of opinion and can therefore not be contested – but if it is an untrue statement of fact, it is advisable to go to a lawyer.