Negative reviews on platforms like Google Maps, Trustpilot, App Stores or any other review platform can seriously hurt your business reputation. Many businesses and customer success managers find it tough to handle these online comments.
We know how challenging this can be. Google and Trustpilot, for instance, have strict content policies to block fake or abusive reviews.
In this article, we’ll guide you on identifying harmful reviews, reporting them, and using services like Replystone to manage your online reputation.
Key Takeaways
- Monitor Your Reviews Regularly
Check Google Maps and Trustpilot frequently to find reviews that violate platform rules. - Understand Platform Policies
Learn the content guidelines of review sites to identify fake or abusive comments effectively. - Flag Inappropriate Reviews
Use tools on platforms like Google Maps to report and request the removal of harmful reviews. - Use Professional Services
Partner with agencies like Replystone to manage and remove negative reviews efficiently. - Protect Your Reputation
Ensuring only genuine feedback is visible helps maintain a positive image for your business.
Identify reviews that violate policies
When responding to clients reviews, we regularly spot reviews that violate platform policies, like fake or inappropriate comments. By understanding the content rules of different review platforms, we protect the reputation of our clients and ensure only genuine customer feedback is displayed.
Understand content policies for review platforms
We keep up with the content policies of major review platforms like Google and Trustpilot. Trustpilot for instance, has a good guide for reviewers. These rules stop abusive language and fake reviews. Google policies also ban the promotion of competitors in customer reviews.
Here are a few typical examples:
- Trustpilot requires all reviewers to only write original and verifiable experiences. Negative reviews about experiences that clearly did not happen, and therefore not provable, can be flagged and eventually be removed. This is also true about experiences made by a friend or someone else than the reviewer. Trustpilot requires reviewers to only write about their own experiences.
- On pretty much all review platforms, it’s against their policies to write anything harmful, hateful, discriminatory, defamatory or threatening. Also illegal content is prohibited. In case a review contains obvious harmful language, there’s a good chance the review can be removed.
- Most platforms prohibit promotional content. This can be ads for competitors, referral / affiliate codes or any other form of promotional material.
- Doxxing any individuals, and therefore disclosing sensitive private details, are against review platform policies. Typical examples include angry customers disclose the name and details of a support agent they were unhappy with. Under certain conditions, this is against the guidelines of Trustpilot, Google, etc.
- The reviewer meant to review a different company. You’d be surprised how common this is.
- On Trustpilot, the profile photo and name must not contain any harmful content.
Knowing these guidelines helps us protect reputation. When we see negative reviews, we check if they follow the platform’s rules. This way, we can spot fake reviews or inappropriate feedback that shouldn’t be there.
Understanding these policies lets us take action quickly. We can flag negative reviews as inappropriate if they break the rules. For instance, a review with hate speech or false claims can be reported for removal.
By following the content policies, we ensure our online reviews remain honest and reliable. This approach supports our online reputation management efforts and helps maintain a positive image on review platforms and search engines.
Note that on platforms like Trustpilot, it’s publicly visible how many reviews were flagged by a company. When flagging reviews, stay fair. You can’t flag all negative reviews, this might do more harm than good. Additionally, a 5.0 rating is sometimes not as trustworthy as a 4.9 rating.
Spot fake or inappropriate reviews
Fake reviews often use abusive language or promote competitors, which violate Google policies and Trustpilot guidelines.
Once we identify suspicious reviews, we flag them as inappropriate using the platform’s review flagging tools. This process helps with Google review removal and maintains the integrity of our customer reviews.
Our agency Replystone does not only assist in managing online reputation by detecting spam and fake reviews across various channels, we do all the work for you. That’s why we call ourselves a Done-For-You Review Management Agency. One part is the prompt review deletion, to ensure that the online presence of our clients reflect genuine customer feedback only.
Steps to report negative reviews
By marking spam and inappropriate reviews, we can request their removal, ensuring our online reviews reflect genuine customer feedback.
Platforms like Google, App Stores and Trustpilot have buttons and tools to flag inappropriate reviews.
On Google for instance, simply go to the review you are convinced is against the policies. Next, click the three dots and “Flag as inappropriate”:
On Trustpilot, just click on the flag icon and select a reason like “Not based on a genuine experience” or “Advertising or promotional”:
On Apple App Store, go the review, click the “Report a Concern” button and select a concern:
Within the Google Play Console, click on the flag icon and report it:
Some platforms make it harder to get them removed, so we usually send a message to the platforms support team to have a look.
Usually the process of flagging reviews to eventual deletion can take 2 days to up to 2 months, depending on the case and processes involved.
It’s important to always stay professional and leave out any emotional bias.
Even tough there’s a high chance of removal if a review does not adhere to platform policies, there’s no definite guarantee reviews will be removed.
Utilize agencies like Replystone taking care of your reviews
We know how negative reviews can hurt your business reputation. Spotting and reporting reviews that break platform rules keeps your online presence strong.
Utilizing agencies like Replystone simplifies managing our online reviews. Replystone handles responses to customer feedback on pretty much all platforms and takes care of the entire flagging of fake or inappropriate reviews.
The done-for-you service require no time commitment from you, allowing you to focus on growing our business.
Together, we can ensure your customer feedback truly reflects your quality.
