Small Business Reputation Management And How To Get A Bad Review Out Of Google

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Since Precison Garage Doors of NJ Opened in 2000, Doug Bencsko, the owner, has guaranteed 100% satisfaction. The problem was the only way to measure it before online reviews was in the number of complaints, which really didn’t work. The thought process was no complaints = 100% satisfaction but of course that isn’t always true.

To fix this problem, Precision started to encourage every customer to review their business online. This would provide positive as well as negative feedback to help improve customer service and make the whole process transparent to new customers.

Putting the process in place was decidedly low-tech. The first stop in getting positive online reviews is to make sure the customer has a positive experience. Then ask the customer at the completion of each job, “Are you satisfied?”. If the customer is not satisfied, NOW is the best possible time to find out why and fix the problem. If the answer is yes, then it becomes a good time to encourage them to write a testimonial or review.

You would think this process would be fool-proof, but alas, as you know, nothing is… and as a result a negative review can end up on Google.

Eventually, this will happen to every small business. Reviews can be really emotional. You need to look at it like it’s an opportunity. After all, these same people would have been saying these negative things about your business before the internet but it is likely it would not have come to your attention. Now you get the opportunity to address it. All small businesses should take advantage of that.

Getting A Bad Review Out Of Google

We discovered, quite by accident, how to get a bad review out of Google. This method is also decidedly low-tech and will only work when the review is legitimate. If the review is fraudulent refer to this thread.

On a Saturday afternoon in March, Precision Door of NJ got a scathing review from a very unhappy customer. The next day this unhappy customer received a telephone call from the Owner.

The owner thanked the customer for taking the time to submit a review of his business on Google. He let the customer know that he took reviews seriously and that he appreciated the review because it gave him the chance to fix the problem. He also used the time to understand the customer’s problem and see if he could rectify it.

It turns out the customer had a legitimate gripe. A couple of things had gone wrong on the call, and on top of it the customer was charged for something he probably shouldn’t have been.

Doug was able to use this opportunity to refund the customer’s money. And as importantly, he was able to get additional training to an employee he wouldn’t have otherwise known needed it.

Although the customer still wasn’t thrilled he went back to Google and posted another review of the business – A 3-Star Review.

The interesting thing that happened was that the original review disappeared. Our guess is that Google only allows an individual to review each business once. (If anyone can confirm this we would be very interested.)

Either way to get the bad review out of Google you need to treat the bad review like an opportunity, thank the customer for taking the time to post it, and work with the customer to thoroughly understand the problem.

It really helps to have a system in place that does 2 things: Monitor your online reviews and make it easier for your customers to review you online.

You can see all the reviews for Precision Door NJ here.

About the author: Tim Coleman has been involved in Local Advertising since 1996, when of all things he started selling yellow pages. In 2004, he moved to the internet department with Verizon and has been involved in Local Search ever since. He writes whenever time allows at Convert Offline