As a business owner, you want to make sure your potential clients and customers are getting the most accurate information when they look you up on Google. That is why it is essential to know when you are receiving fake reviews on your business' page. Find out ways to decipher fake Google reviews, and also learn more about what you can do to deal with those reviews.
How do you tell if a Google review is fake?
Ultimately, you know your employees and you know your clients. If a review pops up and seems far-fetched or out of the ordinary, that may be a sign of a fake review. However, you don't just want to assume it is fake, so be sure to check with your team to see if the reviewer is a client of yours or someone your team might know.
Another way to tell if a review has been fabricated is looking at the word choices. Jessica Stillman, a contributor for Inc.com, wrote a blog about a team of Cornell University researchers who developed a computer program that analyzed reviews based on word choice. It analyzed the amount of detail used because when someone does a fake review, they will not get into much detail, such as names of people they worked with, the types of services offered, etc. Instead, they will use general statements that can blanket pretty much any service or company, such as "bad customer service," "terrible communication," and more.
This computer program also analyzed the pronouns used. The justification of this was because when someone wants to seem more sincere, they might use more first-person pronouns such as "I" or "me" to achieve the intended sincerity.
The last thing that was analyzed in the reviews was the verb usage compared to the noun usage. After running language analyses on 20 different hotel reviews, the Cornell University researchers concluded that fake reviews tend to include more verbs than nouns, as the review writers often substitute good or bad sounding stories for actual insight.
What do I do if I find a fake Google review?
Step number one is to always reply to reviews, even if you know they are fake. Not everyone can spot fake reviews, so if you don't respond to them, potential clients might think that your business does not like to address customer complaints. We know this can be frustrating when it happens so it is important not to respond until you are no longer frustrated, to avoid writing something that could negatively impact your business. If you're having trouble figuring out how to respond to a negative review, check out some of our team's excellent tips!
Another way that couldn't hurt is sharing the occurrence on one of your social media platforms. Let your customers know that this review was investigated and determined to be fabricated. Coming up with witty or even humorous captions for the incident can be an excellent way to handle the occurrence.
Finally, you can always turn to Google and convince them to remove the review. It has sometimes proven to be a difficult task, but it might be worth it in the end. Unfortunately, this happens more often than people realize. However, if your business is on top of things and can handle these incidents graciously and respectfully, your business should be just fine and still come out on top!
Let an expert handle your Google reviews for you.
If you are having trouble keeping up with or even just receiving reviews, ASAPmaps might be a great investment for your business! ASAPmaps can and will handle anything and everything about your Google My Business, including the reviews. It is important to note that not only does ASAPmaps reply to the Google reviews on your behalf, but it also helps boost your business' amount of reviews as well! For more information on how this works, the ASAPmaps team has laid out everything you need to know about ASAPmaps Business Reviews in more detail.
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