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In my previous post I talked about how having a few negative reviews can actually build credibility. However, if you are getting flooded with seemingly unwarranted bad reviews, then they may be fake. Sometimes it is a competitor, or sometimes a disgruntled customer that exaggerates to hurt your business. Either way, it can be frustrating and costly.
Fake reviews are a huge problem with the urban review sites like Yelp and Insider Pages. The temptation is just too great for some people. If you suspect a review is not legitimate, check out their profile and see if they have any other reviews. If they only have one or two, and the review seems to be bogus, then you do have some recourse, though not much.
Usually a competitor that posts a fake bad review or two won’t mount a full-blown smear campaign. If that is the case, then just ignore them. A couple of bad reviews won’t hurt you if they are just a few among many positive reviews.
One thing you can do is to flag a comment for review. This will take time, and often not work at all, but if the company agrees it is fake it will be removed. Then follow up with the site and press them for reviewing the comment. If you are persistent, you have a chance they will remove the fake review. Some people have had success getting an attorney to write a letter, though that usually is ignored as well. For larger companies that are being targeted frequently with fake reviews, you might want to consider hiring a reputation management firm such as Reputation.com.
But the best way to deal with fake review is to flood your reviews with positive ones (legitimate of course), which will push the negative reviews to the bottom, and increase your overall rating. As I mentioned in my previous post, do not succumb to the temptation of putting in your own positive reviews. The best way to do that is to encourage your happy customers to go online and post legitimate reviews.
So how do you get your customers to give reviews? Make it easy for them. Give them a few links to the review sites where you are getting some action, and ask them to leave a review there. You can also give them a little incentive in the way of a coupon or discount for doing so.
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