Module 4

Managing Reviews

Beyond asking and responding, you need to actively monitor and manage your reviews. This includes knowing when and how to report inappropriate reviews and keeping track of your review health.

Monitoring Your Reviews

What to do

Set up systems to know when new reviews come in so you can respond promptly.

Step by step

  1. Turn on notifications. In business.google.com, check your notification settings. Enable alerts for new reviews so you're notified by email when one comes in.
  2. Check your listing regularly. Even with notifications, periodically search for your business and check your reviews directly. Sometimes notifications get missed.
  3. Set a reminder. If you're not getting many reviews, set a weekly reminder to check. As reviews increase, daily checks become worthwhile.
  4. Use the Google Maps app. If you have the app and are signed in as the business owner, you can view and respond to reviews from your phone.
  5. Respond within 24-48 hours. Timely responses look better than ones weeks after the review. Quick responses show you're attentive.

Can You Remove Bad Reviews?

What to do

Understand what can and can't be removed from your listing.

Step by step

  1. Legitimate negative reviews cannot be removed. If a real customer had a bad experience and wrote about it honestly, Google won't remove it, no matter how much it hurts.
  2. Reviews violating policies CAN be removed. Google will remove reviews that violate their guidelines — but you need to report them.
  3. Policy violations include: Fake reviews (not from actual customers), spam, offensive content, conflicts of interest (competitors, ex-employees), reviews for the wrong business, personal attacks, or reviews mentioning things unrelated to customer experience.
  4. Just being negative isn't a violation. "Worst service ever" from a real customer is not removable. "This business is run by criminals" (defamation) might be.
  5. Google decides. Reporting doesn't guarantee removal. Google reviews the report and makes the call.
What Google considers a policy violation

Google's content policies for reviews prohibit: spam and fake content, off-topic reviews, restricted content (illegal goods, etc.), sexually explicit content, offensive content, dangerous content, harassment, hate speech, personal information, and impersonation. A review must violate one of these to be eligible for removal — simply being unfair, inaccurate, or negative is not enough.

Google's official guidelines

How to Report a Review

What to do

If you believe a review violates Google's policies, here's how to report it.

Step by step

  1. Find the review. Go to your Business Profile on Google Search or Google Maps.
  2. Click on the review to see it fully.
  3. Look for the three-dot menu or flag icon next to or near the review.
  4. Select 'Report review' or 'Flag as inappropriate'.
  5. Choose the reason that best describes why this violates policies. Be accurate — picking the wrong reason might cause your report to be dismissed.
  6. Submit the report. Google will review it — this can take several days to weeks.
  7. Don't expect immediate action. Google receives millions of reports. Be patient, but don't get your hopes up for borderline cases.

When to Report Reviews

What to do

Know which reviews are worth reporting and which aren't.

Step by step

  1. REPORT: Review from someone who wasn't a customer. If you genuinely have no record of this person ever using your services, report as fake/spam.
  2. REPORT: Review from a competitor or disgruntled ex-employee. This is a conflict of interest violation.
  3. REPORT: Review clearly for the wrong business. If they're describing services or products you don't offer, or an incident that couldn't have happened at your business.
  4. REPORT: Offensive content, threats, or hate speech. Clear policy violations.
  5. DON'T REPORT: Negative but legitimate reviews. You won't win and it wastes everyone's time.
  6. DON'T REPORT: Reviews you simply disagree with. Disagreement isn't a policy violation.
  7. DON'T REPORT repeatedly. If Google declined your report, submitting it again won't help.

Legal Options for Defamatory Reviews

What to do

In extreme cases, you may have legal recourse. Know when and how this might apply.

Step by step

  1. Defamation is making false statements of fact that damage reputation. Opinions ("I didn't like it") aren't defamation. False facts ("They stole from me" when they didn't) might be.
  2. Legal action is expensive and slow. It's rarely worth it for a single review. Consider the cost-benefit carefully.
  3. A solicitor's letter might help. Sometimes a letter from a solicitor to the reviewer is enough to make them remove the review. Cheaper than court.
  4. Court orders can compel removal. If you win a defamation case, you can get a court order requiring Google to remove the review. But this is a long, expensive process.
  5. For most businesses, this is overkill. Focus on generating more positive reviews to push down the negative one rather than legal battles.
  6. Document everything. If a review is genuinely defamatory and you might pursue it, screenshot and save everything.

Tracking Your Review Health

What to do

Keep tabs on your review metrics over time to ensure you're heading in the right direction.

Step by step

  1. Track your average rating. Note your star rating monthly. Is it stable? Improving? Declining?
  2. Track review count. How many reviews do you have? How many are you adding per month?
  3. Track recency. When was your last review? Are reviews coming in steadily?
  4. Read reviews for themes. Are customers consistently mentioning something positive? Something negative? Use this feedback to improve.
  5. Compare to competitors. Periodically check how your reviews compare to main competitors. Are you keeping up?
  6. Celebrate milestones. Hit 50 reviews? 100? 4.5 stars? Acknowledge the achievement.

Simple Review Tracking

What to do

You don't need fancy software. A simple spreadsheet works fine.

Step by step

  1. Create a simple spreadsheet with columns: Date, Total Reviews, Average Rating, New Reviews This Month, Notes.
  2. Update monthly. On the first of each month, record your current stats.
  3. Note any significant reviews. Particularly good or bad reviews worth remembering.
  4. Review trends quarterly. Every few months, look at your trajectory. Are things improving?

Review management in place: