How to deal with a fake negative review
This is probably a business owner’s worst nightmare, I suppose.
It’s because fake reviews, or negative reviews, can cause you damage and how you deal with them depends on how much damage they cause.
I’ve come across a really good example of how to respond to a fake, negative review. And just let me explain, this review that I’m going to show you isn’t fake in regards to that it’s real. It’s real because Google have allowed it to go on there and this somebody has an Google account. In my opinion, I believe that it’s not a customer of this business. My experience tells me, in reputation management, that this person didn’t do any business with this company. Anyway, let’s crack on; let’s show you what I mean.
I came across this because we were doing a little bit of research.
Double glazing in Poole is a search that I’ve typed in into Google and so the usual comes up, the ads and then you’ve got the three-pack.
Now, Seyward Window Company Limited has three reviews, so on the surface of it, you think, yes, that’s good.
But once you click through to the company to find out more where you can check out their reviews…
So a chap has wrote a really condemning review. It’s real, but I believe that he hasn’t dealt with this business and it’s as in his review he says “ Cowboys selling inferior products.”
It just goes on, even in capital letters, “ DO NOT DEAL UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES” pretty condemning.
And the business owner has obviously come across this and responded, rightly so, in my opinion. This is one of the best responses that this business owner could have come back with because he’s addressed the issue; he hasn’t left it out there for people to make their own conclusion, which would have been the wrong thing. And he’s put, “Dear Mr Pullen, I’ve checked our records and it appears we don’t have your name listed as a previous customer but I would be more than happy to deal with your problem if you could call us on blah, blah, blah.
So the business owner sort of made it clear that this Mr Pullen is fictitious in regards to he hasn’t dealt with his company and he’s put his side across.
So if you get what I call a fake, negative review, so it’s somebody who hasn’t dealt with you, then it might not be a bad idea to do what this business owner did and write a little, short response, rather than leave it out there for people to make their own minds up as to whether or not it’s negative, which would be the wrong thing to do. So congratulations to that business owner.
I thought that may well help yourselves as it’s a good little tip. So that’s just a good way of how to respond to a fake, negative review.
I hope the above article was of interest and you found it useful.
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Author: Andrew Hurrell
