What to do if you’re targeted by abusive reviewers

Let’s start with the business dream and delve into some entrepreneurial success. Let’s take a look at Melbourne businesswoman Gee McCracken who was the model of a successful small business entrepreneur around mid-2017. She’d already built and sold off one successful business in the beauty industry, and had built up a second – BodyOlogy – to the point where it had expanded into four Melbourne franchises and a master-franchise in Queensland, generating $1.5 million in revenue less than a year. At this point, she was excited, committed and determined for a bright future.

Then just when everything is positive and heading for success, the nightmare occurs. In October 2017, a scathing one-star review appeared on BodyOlogy’s Google Business profile, which was swiftly followed by three more. While McCracken says two were genuine but were due to easily resolvable misunderstandings, the other two were fake. It didn’t matter. Bookings dropped by 94%, staff soon had to be let go and within 10 months the entire business was in liquidation. How can this happen? How can everything collapse so rapidly? Well, I suppose it all comes down to reviews and overall customer experience.

In our modern times, online reviews and how to manage them have become an incredibly important part of managing a  business and connecting with the needs of Gen Z. They can be the make or the break-in your rise. Many new businesses have been able to use online reviews as the secret sauce in their early success, outflanking much bigger competitors by prioritising customer service and seeing that rewarded through better reviews on Google, Trip Advisor, Trust Pilot, ProductReview.com.au or the dozens of other review-driven sites that have sprung up over the years. After all, as Forbes has written, “We live in a world where your online reputation can be your strongest asset or your biggest liability.”

Just in case you think we are exaggerating, here are a few facts. Software directory firm Capterra released a survey earlier this year that found 98% of Australians read online reviews before they make a purchase, and 94% believe them to be trustworthy. This is even higher than in America, where a startling 85% of people trust an online review as much as a personal recommendation. The impact goes even wider than that - the quality of a businesses reviews can count for up to 15% of Google’s ranking score for a local business.

If you haven’t got an online review strategy in place, it’s time to create one. Being proactive is key. While some review sites forbid solicitation of reviews – and you should check which ones your industry relies on – many, like Google, actively encourage you to ethically ask customers or clients for online reviews. There are two main ways of doing this.

1. If you have a physical store you can simply get your team to speak to happy customers and ask them to write up their love in a review
2. or you can add suggestions to physical materials like menus or receipts. If most of your business is done online, however, you can include notes encouraging reviews in online receipts or other communications.

Asking works: the reason half the podcasts you listen to start with a presenter asking outright for reviews is because it triggers action and makes their shows rise up through the podcasting rankings. But getting reviews is not the end of your review strategy. Once customers do leave reviews you must respond, whether positive or negative. This shows existing customers you care, but more importantly, it shows future customers you care. And, believe it or not, there are ways to turn a negative review into a positive. Sometimes an unhappy customer can be so impressed that they revise their review, but if not, other readers may be so impressed with your customer service that they take your side and decide to support your business.

Of course, there are times you can’t overcome a bad review and shouldn’t have to, especially if they are fake or malicious. Another Australian entrepreneur in the beauty business, Ira Bale, reports a growing problem – being blackmailed over bad reviews: "I received an email blackmailing me, that if I don't pay them $100, they're going to put lots of one-star reviews on Facebook.” Fake reviews are a huge and growing problem everywhere: as Street Fight Magazine recently headlined a feature: “Fake reviews are Silicon Valley’s next fake news problem”.

If you’re sure you are dealing with a bogus review, almost all of the reputable review sites do offer some recourse. After all, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission say clearly on their website that “businesses and review platforms that do not remove reviews that they know to be fake risk breaching the Competition and Consumer Act 2010”, so you do have the law on your side. For example, Google offers business owners who have registered their GoogleMyBusiness site the chance to flag a fake review, but reports suggest this is rarely enough. Your next step should be to log into your Google MyBusiness homepage and call or message the support teams, explaining exactly why you have flagged the review.

However, if this doesn’t work and you can prove that the review is fake, it may be time to involve a lawyer. Bale, the beauty entrepreneur above, did just that. Fortunately, these situations are rare. For most people, the review sites remain a great leveller, an opportunity to grow your profile and your marketing impact by simply doing a better job at giving your customers what they want. We hope this is your experience, but we’ll be there for you if it isn’t.