Reputation Management Articles, Information To Improve Your Reputation

How To Remove Bad Reviews From Yelp

Toby — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 17:45:00 +0000

If you're running a retail business or consumer-facing business in today's digital world, you know how important customer feedback is.

It's not just a pat on the back or a slap on the wrist. No, sir! It's the lifeblood of your business, shaping your decisions, steering your course, and influencing your success.

And where does this all-important feedback often show up?

You guessed it - Yelp!

Those star ratings and reviews can make or break your business, turning potential customers into loyal fans or sending them running for the hills. So sit tight because in just the next few minutes, we'll dive into the rollercoaster world of Yelp reviews and how to handle them like a champ!

Understanding Concerns about Negative Yelp Reviews

Let's face it, negative Yelp reviews can send chills down any business owner's spine. And why wouldn't they? Your reputation is on the line, and in the age of the internet, word spreads faster than wildfire.

Prospects Read Reviews Before Buying

Look at the table below for search terms for a website that sells direct-to-consumer dental mouthguards. People are searching for reviews about this business. And they are searching for review for your business, too.

How to Get Rid of Bad Yelp Reviews - Review Search Terms from Google

But the common worries that plague businesses regarding negative Yelp reviews are many and varied. Some fear the potential loss of customers, others dread the damage to their online reputation. There's also the worry about a single negative review tarnishing years of hard work and dedication. And let's not forget the concern that competitors may be behind those scathing reviews (more about how to report a fake review in a bit).

But here's the real kicker:

The ramifications of NOT addressing these concerns can be far more damaging. Ignoring negative reviews doesn't make them disappear; it simply makes your business appear indifferent to customer feedback.

A bad review left unanswered can create a snowball effect, deterring potential customers who might think you don't care about their experiences.

In the end, it's not just about the negative review itself, but how you handle it that counts.

So, instead of losing sleep over those one-star ratings, let's roll up our sleeves and turn them into opportunities for growth and improvement. It's time to embrace the challenge head-on!

How to Get Bad Yelp Reviews Removed

The semi-bad news is that regardless of whether or not you’re a Yelp advertising customer or not, the only way you can get rid of bad Yelp reviews is if the review itself is inappropriate and violates the Yelp TOS (terms of service), in which case you can report the review to Yelp and it will be reviewed for possible removal.

Here’s the actual process…

Reporting a Review on Yelp for Takedown

Not all reviews are created equal, and sometimes, they may violate Yelp's Content Guidelines. If you come across a review that seems inappropriate or fake, you can report it to Yelp for possible removal.

Here's what constitutes a violation of Yelp's guidelines (you can read more about Yelps guidelines here):

1
Inappropriate Content: Offensive language, harassment, or hate speech.
2
Conflicts of Interest: Reviews written by the business owner, employees, or competitors.
3
Privacy Violations: Sharing private information about individuals without their consent.

If you have a review violating these guidelines on your Yelp profile, follow these steps to report it (you will have to have claimed your page and logged in to report it):

1
Click on the ellipsis to the right of that review
2
Choose Report Review in the drop-down menu
3
Choose a Reason from the drop-down

How to Get Rid of Bad Yelp Reviews - 1-star Yelp Review Example

How to Get Rid of Bad Yelp Reviews - Reporting a Yelp Review

After you report a review, Yelp's moderators will evaluate it against their guidelines. If it's found to be in violation, it may be removed. But often, they leave reviews in place.

So what can you do if Yelp refuses to take down a bad review?

Other Actions You Should Take

Responding to Negative Reviews

There's an art to responding to negative reviews and mastering it can make all the difference.

A professional, timely response not only shows that you value customer feedback but also that you're committed to resolving issues and improving your services.

It's a golden opportunity to turn a dissatisfied customer into a loyal one, and potentially win over others who see your thoughtful response.

When crafting your response, keep these guidelines in mind:

Stay Calm: It's easy to get defensive but remember, your response is public, and future customers will see it too. Keep emotions in check.
Acknowledge and Apologize: Start by acknowledging the customer's experience and apologizing for any inconvenience caused.
Offer a Solution: Show that you're proactive in solving the problem. This could be a refund, a replacement, or a promise to improve.

Example

Now, let's look at a case study that perfectly illustrates the power of an appropriate response.

A local café received a scathing review about their slow service during peak hours.

Instead of ignoring the review, the café owner responded promptly. He apologized for the long wait, explained that they were short-staffed that day, and invited the reviewer back for a complimentary meal. This response showed their commitment to customer satisfaction, transparency, and willingness to accept responsibility.

The result?

The disgruntled customer revised their review, praising the café for their excellent customer service, and became a regular patron.

Remember, a negative review isn't the end of the world. It's how you respond that counts!

Use AI Chat to Write Review Replies

In the fast-paced world of online reviews, responding swiftly and effectively is essential. This is where Artificial Intelligence (AI) chat can come into play, helping you craft professional, personalized responses in a timely manner. You can use any number of free AI Chat services, including Chat GPT.

Example Prompts You Can Use for AI Chat (i.e., Chat GPT):

Using AI chat to craft professional responses to negative reviews can be as simple as providing the right prompts. Here are a few examples and explanations on how to guide the AI in adopting your preferred tone and style.

Example 1:

Prompt: "AI, draft a response to this negative review: 'The service at your restaurant was extremely slow, and the food was cold when it arrived.' Please write in a polite and empathetic tone."

By specifying the tone as "polite and empathetic," you're instructing the AI to approach the situation with understanding and respect, while remaining professional.

Example 2:

Prompt: "AI, respond to this negative review: 'Your product broke within a week of purchase.' Write in a confident and solution-oriented style."

In this case, you're asking the AI to exude confidence in addressing the issue, focusing on solutions rather than dwelling on the problem.

Example 3:

Prompt: "AI, craft a response to this review: 'I found your staff to be rude and unhelpful.' Use a sincere and apologetic tone."

Here, you're directing the AI to acknowledge the customer's dissatisfaction and offer an apology, conveying sincerity in the response.

Remember, the key is to be explicit about the tone and style you want the AI to adopt in its response. This will help ensure that the AI's output aligns with your brand's voice and values, while effectively addressing the customer's concerns.

Benefits of using AI Chat:

Time-Saving: AI can generate responses quickly, freeing you up to focus on other aspects of your business.
Consistency: AI ensures a consistent tone and style in all responses, reflecting your brand's voice accurately.
24/7 Availability: AI doesn't sleep or take breaks, meaning it can respond to reviews as soon as they're posted.
Scalability: Whether you have 10 reviews or 10,000, AI can handle large volumes of feedback without getting overwhelmed.
Non-emotional responses

Limitations when using AI Chat to write your responses:

1
Lack of Human Touch: While AI can mimic human-like responses, it may not fully capture the empathy and understanding a human responder can provide.
2
Contextual Understanding: AI might miss nuances or misunderstand complex language, leading to potentially inappropriate responses.

Best Practices:

Human Oversight: Always have a human review AI-generated responses before posting. This ensures the response is appropriate and aligns with your brand's voice.
Customization: Customize the AI's responses to reflect your brand's personality and values.
Continuous Learning: Train your AI on new phrases, slang, and industry-specific jargon to improve its understanding and responses over time.

AI chat can be a valuable tool for managing your Yelp reviews, but remember, it's a tool, not a replacement for genuine, human interaction. Use it to assist and enhance your response efforts, but always keep the human touch front and center.

Encourage Positive Reviews

Encouraging satisfied customers to leave positive reviews is an excellent way to build your online reputation and attract more customers. Remember, however, Yelp specifically states that you should never ask for reviews (you can read more about that here). So, if you ask for reviews, proceed at your own risk and be discreet. But here are some strategies:

1
Ask for Reviews: Sometimes, all it takes is a simple request. If a customer expresses satisfaction with your product or service, ask them to share their experience in a review.
2
Send a Follow-Up Email: After a purchase or service, send a follow-up email thanking the customer and asking them to leave a review. Make sure to include a direct link to your review platform to make it as easy as possible.
3
Create POP material like table tents, and in-store signage creating awareness about leaving a review.
4
Use Marketing Automation: With marketing automation, you can provide a simple survey to a customer before prompting them to leave a review. If they respond positively, then, and only then, you can provide them with a link to leave you a review. If they response negatively, that option is not presented to them.

A final word of caution about requesting reviews.

Yelp's heavy-handed algorithm buries many reviews that never see the light of day. Nobody knows precisely what this algorithm is looking for, but I do know if reviews are unnatural, they will be hidden and not shown.

For example, if too many reviews come in too quickly or at a pace that is unnatural, they will likely be flagged and not shown.

If Yelp can't confirm if the person actually was at the location, the review might not be shown.

There are hundreds of reasons why reviews will not be shown. So, proceed with caution and at your own risk of encouraging reviews. Often the best course of action is to ensure you have great customer service and a great product to start with. And use your reviews as feedback to improve.

Let me know what your experience has been with Yelp reviews in the comments below.

The post How To Remove Bad Reviews From Yelp appeared first on 39 Celsius Web Marketing Consulting.

How To Respond To Negative Reviews Online

Toby — Fri, 20 Nov 2015 18:49:55 +0000

And Submit Reviews For Removal

Have you been neglecting your business’ online reviews? Struggling with how to respond and what to do with the negative reviews your business has received?

Consider these sobering statistics:

Nine in ten customers have read online reviews to determine the quality of a local business, according to a study by Bright Local
Four out of five customers will reverse a purchase decision after reviewing your business’ online reviews, according to Cone Research
And another study found that one negative review can cost you up to 30 customers!

In this post, I cover an effective process for how to respond to negative online reviews about your business and how to submit negative reviews for possible removal from Yelp, Facebook, and Google.

It’s no surprise that today your online review reputation is critical to the success of your business. When every consumer has a smartphone with high-speed access to the Internet, they are only a click away to finding a higher rated business.

This begs the questions as a business owner, what are the best ways to deal with negative online reviews?

Don’t be defensive: Managing yourself in this process is important. Don’t react poorly to negative reviews. And never respond immediately if you’re emotional about it – once you publish a response online everyone can see it. Take some time to process and gather the facts and remove your emotions.
Don’t take it personally: Reacting as if the person is attacking you personally won’t help the situation. Best to remain non-emotional, objective, and to give the customer the benefit of the doubt.
Respond professionally and publicly: You need to respond to all negative reviews. Negative online reviews that have not been responded create the perception that you as the owner or manager don’t really care.
Take it offline as quickly as possible: After you’ve responded publicly to the review, if you can, reach out to the customer via phone or email and get them on the phone to discuss the situation. We have many clients that consistently get negative customer testimonials turned around quickly by immediately reaching out to the customer and addressing their concerns. Often this means comping them some sort of service, or at a minimum just making the situation right somehow. However, don’t feel bullied either and if you feel in the right then just make sure that you empathize with the customer but that you don’t agree.
Submit the review for removal if it’s inappropriate: Sometimes you can get reviews removed, but only if they are inappropriate in some way, such as inappropriate comments or language, or just not relevant.

But the reality is that many online review sites will not remove anything unless it violates their guidelines or terms of service. This is often hard for you the business owner when you know, as an example, the customer perhaps is not telling the truth.

Here’s how to submit reviews of your business for review and possible removal from Yelp, Facebook, and Google My Business/Google Plus.

How To Submit A Review To Yelp For Possible Removal

Yelp Guidelines and Terms of Service:

Yelp's Review Guidelines

You can also read Yelp’s Terms of Service.

On the individual review there’s a small flag in the lower right – click that.

How to report a Yelp review for possible removal.

Then you will get a drop-down menu of options that are similar to the content guidelines list:

Reporting Yelp Review, Inappropriate Review

The first item in the list makes you believe that you can report a review based on false information but here is a screenshot of what you will see if you select this option:

Yelp Review That Contains False Information

Once you select a viable option, you are asked to support that option with “proof” (specific details):

Reporting A Yelp Review With Supporting Evidence

When providing specific details, it is best to be very clear as to how the reviewer violated the guideline. Here’s an example:

“We would like to request that this review be removed for hate speech. When the reviewer states that our employee, Karen, cannot speak English and should not work at our business, we believe she is discriminating against her race which is a violation of content guidelines. We would appreciate your support in removing this review. Thank you for your time and consideration.”

Following submission of the flagged review, you get an email from Yelp that states the following:

Yelp’s Response After You Have Submitted A Review

Within 1-5 days, you get a notice of agreement or disagreement with your request for removal.

For other related Yelp posts: Yelp Ad Results, and How To Get Rid of Bad Yelp Reviews

Send Me This Post To Read Later >>

Facebook Review Removal Request:

For Facebook, you have to make sure you’re in the review tab or section of your business’s Facebook page. Comments which appear on your posts are different from reviews – you have control over comments so they can be deleted if need be. I don’t always recommend deleting a comment for a couple of reasons:

One, unless you feel it’s absolutely necessary as a disgruntled reviewer may feel like you’re just trying to make it go away and she may come after you on other social sites. And two, responding can show you are engaged and care about your customers.

But in the case you have a review on the review tab for your business’s Facebook page that you want to report, here’s how you do it.

Click the drop-down on the review:

How To Submit A Facebook Review For Removal

You select it and a box that says, “I don’t like this review”, you select it:

Then you get two options:

If you choose the first option, it is submitted to Facebook, and they review it. If you select the second option, you are presented with another set of options related to the Facebook Community Standards. Here is a link to the Facebook community standards.

When you select any of the above options, you are walked through a series of checkboxes related to the type of violation. For instance, if you select “It’s harassment or hate speech” you are presented with the following additional options:

For Facebook, the reporting method seems more limited versus Yelp.

But, Facebook does give you the option to ban the user from your page or to hide all from the user as seen below. In our experience, when you ban the user while the review is still there (and factored into your rating score), you cannot see the review anymore which is a good option.

You have the option to ban the Facebook reviewer

Google Review Removal Request:

Always a good a good idea to read Google’s review guidelines.

To Submit a review to Google Plus, you flag it as shown below:

Submitting A Review For Removal on Google

Once you flag it, you are given the following options for reporting. The options directly related to Google’s review content policies.

Google's Review Policy Type - Select What Applies

Hope this helps – leave your comments below about your experiences with any of these review sites.

The post How To Respond To Negative Reviews Online appeared first on 39 Celsius Web Marketing Consulting.

Consumer Survey: Google Leads Yelp As Most Important Review Site

Toby — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 22:31:51 +0000

As part of a larger study, we surveyed 545 people across the U.S. to better understand consumer preferences about which online review sites were most important to their purchase decisions, in addition to overall how important online reviews were to them.

We sliced the survey data by gender and age to gain more insights.

Summary Of The Findings

For both men and women, Google was the leading review site by a significant margin
30% more women than men rated reviews online as important to their purchase decision
Women were 50% more likely than men to rate Yelp as an important review site
Men were 50% more likely to state that they don’t read online reviews compared to women (and it was the 2nd most common option for men)
The percentage of the population that don’t read reviews increased consistently with age
Yelp as a review site is clearly more popular with younger age demographics
Facebook is not a popular review site among consumers

Interpretation Of The Findings

I was somewhat surprised that consumers rated Google so much more important as a review site influencing their purchase decision as compared to Yelp and Facebook. I believe this could be attributed to the fact that many consumers begin their research for a product or service, or their investigation of a particular brand or company, with a Google search. Google publishes review ratings right in its SERPs (search engine results page) when consumers search so they can clearly scan review ratings right there.

Google search engine results page (SERP) with review ratings

Women as a group were also more involved with online reviews versus men. But I believe this can be partially explained because women as a group are responsible for more of the day-to-day purchase decisions compared to men. Especially when it comes to decisions that impact their family, children, or health issues, women will do more research to ensure the best decision is made.

Not too surprising, Yelp is primarily more popular with younger demographics because of mobile devices – you have to have the app and be a little more technically savvy to search for the app, download it, install it on your phone, login, and then leave a review.

And no surprise that the older you get, the more likely consumers were to state that they did not read online reviews.

The Survey Questions

We limited the options for which review sites were most important to the following 5 choices:

Google
Yelp
Facebook
I Don’t Read Online Reviews
Other (which people could leave their own response)

Which review site is most important to you?

We used a 5 point scale when asking how important online reviews were to the purchase decision.

How important are online reviews to your purchase?

Google was chosen as the most important review site for purchase decisions.

After Google, the second most common option was “I don’t read reviews,” followed then by Yelp, and finally as a distant fourth place was Facebook reviews.

Survey results – which review site most important?

Although both females and males rated Google the most important review site, females chose Yelp much more often than men did as an important review site option.

Female online review survey results

Male online review survey results

Percentage of People That Don’t Read Online Reviews Increased With Age

Not surprisingly, but as age increased so did the number of people that did not read online reviews.

Percentage of people that don’t read online reviews by age bracket.

Percentage of Males versus Females That Don’t Read Online Reviews

A far greater percentage of males versus females do not read online reviews.

Males vs females that don’t read online reviews

Yelp A Much More Popular Choice Among Females

We pulled Yelp alone to look at gender and age differences among consumers.

Percentage of females vs males that chose Yelp as a review platform

Yelp More Popular With Younger Age Groups

Online reviews from Yelp more important for younger demographics

Females rated online reviews as Very Important to Somewhat Important at a much higher percentage than males did.

How important online reviews, male vs female

So I hope this was helpful information for you. Reviews are very important – consumers read them and a negative review corpus will definitely hurt lead generation efforts.

If you found this helpful or interesting, could you tweet it too?

[Tweet “New consumer survey: Google reviews more influential than #Yelp. Facebook not a factor.”]

7 Tips To Get Rid of a Bad Yelp Reviews

Toby — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 22:45:22 +0000

Bad Yelp Reviews – It’s a common problem.

We often hear business owners frustrated at the negative reviews that are posted on their business pages on Yelp. “I have many happy customers, but Yelp will not show those reviews!” is a common protest. When asked how they get those “good” reviews, owners often mention they ask “happy” customers to post a review on Yelp (sometimes for a small discount or offer of some sort).

Why aren’t my “good” reviews showing?

“Solicited reviews are less likely to be recommended by our automated software, and that will drive you crazy” are the exact words from Yelp’s Support Center. Although they use a complex algorithm, what can happen is that reviews from Yelpers with more “influence” are more likely to show, than reviews from Yelpers that are considered less influential, or even “fake”, by having provided only one or two reviews. Yelp’s algorithm assumes that people that tend to review many places and give both positive and negative reviews are less likely to be “fake” reviews. In other words, if you get a happy customer to log on, create an account, and provide a good review for your business, Yelp is not likely to show that review.

So, what can you do if you have bad reviews?

Reputation management is a common term that refers to helping a business/person improve their online image– bad Yelp reviews are a good example of reputation management.

If you find that you need to improve your reputation on Yelp, here are a few things you can do:

1) Respond. Instead of getting angry and defensive, put yourself in the shoes of the customer and reply to them. Apologize for their experience and offer a solution if possible. You can offer them to come back and give them a discount, or a free service. At a minimum, express your sincere concern for what they feel they went through. If you do that, hopefully, a future reader will at least see that you care for your customers and are taking the steps necessary to improve customer experience.

2) Show the review to your staff. Use the bad review as an opportunity to train your staff. Even if the customer was “not right” perhaps your staff could have handled the situation differently. An experienced customer service employee is probably used to handling difficult situations, but many times, employers have to hire junior staff that could benefit from training in how to handle demanding or challenging customers.

3) Understand the root of the problem. In order to prevent the problem from happening again, you have to understand what caused the tough situation in the first place. Was the customer waiting for a long time for service? Were they inadvertently misled by the information you provided? Were they treated with a lack of courtesy? Did the product you offered lack the quality you strive to deliver? Being honest about your business operations is the only way to improve.

4) Implement a solution. Once you’ve understood the root of the problem, implement a solution. Perhaps you can give your staff some training, perhaps you need to hire additional help, or maybe you can put checklists for your personnel?

5) Monitor results. Any process improvement has to be followed by monitoring. If the issue continues to persist, meaning, you continuously get people complaining about the same problem, then go back to understanding the root of the problem and continue to try different solutions until you resolve it.

6) Use Google. Many owners “get stuck” on Yelp reviews, but they forget about Google Reviews. Many more people have Google accounts (Gmail accounts) and therefore it’s easier for people to submit Google reviews. Google reviews show up next to your business listing after a local search and can improve click-through-rate (CTR) of your listing. Also, we conducted a consumer survey of 545 people and found that more people chose Google as the Top Review Site as more influential than Yelp.

7) Continue to gather reviews – both on Yelp and on Google. Make sure there is a link from your site to both of your business pages (Yelp and Google). You can also hand out business cards with the URL of your business page on Yelp and Google, which create awareness of your Yelp and Google pages.

You can also read more about managing bad reviews here.

Reviews matter

The reality is that online reviews are becoming more and more important to people. Reviews are being read not only by potential clients but also by potential employees and even by potential investors.

Take charge of your online reputation, and remember, there is no silver bullet, the best way to improve online reputation is to genuinely care for your customers and provide good customer satisfaction.

Read more about how reviews can help your business grow!

The post 7 Tips To Get Rid of a Bad Yelp Reviews appeared first on 39 Celsius Web Marketing Consulting.