As of today, Googles answered critics about reviews on Google Places by allowing business owners to publically respond to criticism.
It's been a worrying flaw, as anyone can bad mouth you online, and until today, there was little you could do about it on Google Places!
If you are on Google Places then check to make sure you haven't been slandered, and if you're not on, go sign yourself up!
You can read more about it on googles blog.
Steve thanks for the advise, will have a look later.  Mark Pitts
There was a news special on the other night about it. Some Phtographer had given all of his competitors a bad review, he had not even change the copy just a straight cut and paste, but he also signed it with another photographers name. Google refused to take them down. "All our customers have to right to free speech the internet is an open platform and we are adhering to the that" Stavros
“From my experience it is hard to dispute even false reviews that was posted by competitors. The best thing to do is to post more good reviews on top it to kind of " cover " it and to increase tha amount of good reviews.” Yup which is why business owners now have the right to reply. Think you have the record for the most pingbacks for one post! Guess you do the SEO for the moving company, seen your numerous listings on My Local Services USA  Please no more, think you have more than enough now 
The best thing to do if you get bad reviews (true of false) is to respond to it in a properly of course, but you should try to bury the reviews with good ones. So try to get customers/clients that you know is happy with your work/service to help you out with a review on Google Places. JamesK
I have a local search marketing expert friend and he said it is best to always send customers a review style email so they can give you there feedback. This way you can fix any customer problems you may have before they feel so wronged they have to resort to social media as an outlet. Fun123
“I have a local search marketing expert friend and he said it is best to always send customers a review style email so they can give you there feedback. This way you can fix any customer problems you may have before they feel so wronged they have to resort to social media as an outlet.” This is great to moderate reviews, so you can filter out the negative ones and respond to them in a private manner. But you won't be able to put those reviews up on Google Places which is the aim, since it helps you in your Google Places rankings. The best way is to find the clients that really happy with you and then ask for them to post a review on your Google Places listing if isn't to much trouble for them. If they say no then its not a problem. But be careful where you ask for reviews from for your places listing as someone who wasn't happy might post it up there. JamesK
“This is great to moderate reviews, so you can filter out the negative ones and respond to them in a private manner. But you won't be able to put those reviews up on Google Places which is the aim, since it helps you in your Google Places rankings. The best way is to find the clients that really happy with you and then ask for them to post a review on your Google Places listing if isn't to much trouble for them. If they say no then its not a problem. But be careful where you ask for reviews from for your places listing as someone who wasn't happy might post it up there.” Actually, what you do is send them an email that says: 'please review "add your company here" in the title of the email. It is best to use a form like 'Mach Forms' or a page on your website, that you send them to, via a link in the email that says "please review my business". In the form you send them to, via the link in the email, have it set up where they can review your business for 1-5 stars and put a small text box in the form where they can give you a review (in the form have them add there name, email, review 1-5 stars and a text box for the review with a submit button at the bottom). Once the form is submitted it comes strait to your inbox. Here is a great example of a page you would send them to for the review from you: http://www.imahawaii.com/local-search-marketing-java-gym-review When you get a 5 star review you send them another email and copy and paste their review in there and have links to all of the review sites you are listed on (Google Places, Yahoo Local, Yelp etc.), whichever they are already a member of they will post to. Then ask them to please copy and paste the review to one of the review sites listed in the email. This basically ensures you get all 5 star reviews and makes it easy for your clients to post the review with little effort. If you get any review less than 5 stars you can then use the info they made in the review, that you received, and try and make it right to the best of your ability. This is a great preemptive strike to ensure all your customers are happy and that you get all 5 star reviews for your business on local review sites. Fun123
Yeah, thats a great way to moderate reviews, but it has its problems.. Firstly how many people actually have accounts at yelp, yell, thomsonslocal and or google account? Then you basically ask them to submit the review twice, which looks dodgy and asking a little much.. The fact you only have 5 star reviews on your Google places listing? lets say you have 15-20 your bound to get a few 4-3 star ones if not lower.. Googles alarm bells will be ringing here. You can moderate all you want, but nothing will beat sending clients who are overly happy with your service the link to your listing where they can submit a review. JamesK
In the end, there is no better way to get 5 star reviews than providing 9 star quality and service. Fun123 |
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