Reviews are a great way for your credit union to build a positive reputation. But they can be a nightmare if an angry commenter has a bone to pick with you. In a world where anybody can critique your credit union without ever visiting a branch or coming face-to-face with your employees, it’s crucial to pay attention to your online reviews. In fact, 93% of consumers read reviews before deciding about local businesses, and it only takes one to three reviews for about 40% of potential customers to form a decision about a brand. The average consumer can’t tell the difference between an accurate review and a fake one. Because of this, it’s more important than ever that your reviews reflect your credit union positively and accurately. What can your team do to make sure your listings are free from fake negative reviews?
Fortunately, Google has nine specific violations that allow a business to remove bad, negative, and fake reviews from their listings. By removing reviews that are in violation of Google’s Review Policy, you can improve your ratings, climb the rankings, and ultimately entice more members to visit your branches.
Google’s 9 Review Violations:
1. Spam and fake content.
Online directories are really starting to crack down on people who leave fake reviews. Most local search directories have automatic filters that attempt to mitigate fake reviews from being posted on local business listings; however, some still slip through the cracks. In these cases, you can flag the reviews to Google’s attention. To spot a fake review, look for signs like an overly generic review, ridiculous usernames, fake/non-human avatars, nearly identical reviews left by the same person for different businesses, or multiple reviews posted by the same reviewer in a short period of time.
2. Multiple negative reviews from the same person.
This situation happens more than you think: A member has a negative experience, and he or she leaves many different reviews from multiple accounts about the same experience. OR, he or she asks friends to leave reviews on their behalf. There are many other ways to violate this rule but using multiple accounts to leave many different reviews about one experience is against Google’s guidelines and it should be flagged for removal.
3. Inappropriate content, profanity and racial terms.
This may seem obvious, but the use of inappropriate content in a review is grounds for removal. This includes, but is not limited to, explicit content, offensive content, hate speech, harassment, and bullying. Google’s Review Policy includes the specifics of the different guidelines restricting this content from reviews. If you feel a review violates this policy, we recommend flagging it for Google to evaluate.
4. Fraudulent reviews from competitors.
Competition is a fundamental component of local rankings, but sometimes businesses go to drastic measures to beat their competitors in local search results. This may result in attempts to tarnish a competitor’s online reputation. One sign this is happening: a person leaves bad reviews for multiple businesses in the same industry and in the same general area in a relatively short timeframe, while also leaving a competitor a glowing review.
5. Oops! Wrong business.
There are some circumstances where a member clearly, but accidentally, leaves a review for the wrong business. This is easy to spot because the member typically refers to products or services that are completely unrelated to what your credit union does. In this case, you can either respond to the review and politely ask the reviewer to remove it, or you can dispute the review with Google.
6. Reviews posted for locations not visited.
If you have multiple branches, a bad experience at one location could cause a member to go on a tangent of writing bad reviews at every location in an attempt to damage your credit union’s reputation.
Google’s review guidelines state that you can only leave a review with a business location that you’ve engaged in customer experience with. It’s unlikely that a member visited more than one location on the same day and had the same negative experience at each location. Another good clue is the location of the user versus the location of the business. For example, if the user is in Florida, but they wrote a review about locations in Ohio and Texas in the same few days, it is likely in violation of Google’s policy.
7. Reviews from current or former employees.
Whether the review is good or bad, reviews from current and former employees directly violate Google’s review guidelines under the “Conflict of Interest” section. Employees also aren’t allowed to post reviews about competitors.
8. Reviews that aren’t relevant to an actual experience.
Digital media enables rapid, widespread distribution of news and other stories. However, this means that if your credit union becomes the subject of a news article, you may begin to receive reviews from people all over the country (see, Red Hen restaurant in Washington, DC). The issue arises when random people comment on the news stories, voicing their opinions, making personal rants, etc. Reviews are meant to contain content that is based only on customer experiences, which means anything off-topic or unrelated to personal experience is against Google’s review guidelines.
9. Inappropriate Images
People can also submit reviews in the form of photos. Many of the guidelines that apply to the text in reviews also apply to any visual content uploaded along with the reviews. Images should only depict the experiences being had at the actual location that the customer is leaving the review for.
How To Flag And Remove Google Reviews:
If you believe you have reviews on your listings that violate Google’s Review Policy, follow the below steps to flag and remove your reviews.
1. Open Google Maps and Search for your business location.
2. Click to view all your business reviews. Select “All Reviews”.
3. Click the three dots in the top right corner of the review you wish to remove and select “Flag as inappropriate”
4. Fill out the ‘Report a Policy Violation’ form and submit
For removal of reviews that violate applicable laws – like slander or copyright infringements – submit a legal removal request. Follow the directions on the page. Google will walk you through the legal removal process.
What To Do If Google Will Not Remove The Review:
Sometimes there is a gray area as to whether a review is violating Google’s review policy and not. If Google will not remove a review, it’s important you respond to it.
How To Respond To Negative Google Reviews
Apologize and thank them for their feedback – Negative reviews can help you and your team make changes to improve your current business practices. Apologize for the unsatisfactory experience and thank the member for providing honest feedback.
Respond appropriately – Remember that the conversation is public. Never blame the member or attempt to argue with them.
Invite the conversation offline – Don’t go back and forth with an unhappy member on a public review site. Ask them for more details to ensure it doesn’t happen again and provide them with contact information for further assistance.
Short and Sweet – Don’t say more than absolutely needed. The idea is to handle the review as quickly and politely as possible.
How To Respond To Fraudulent Reviews
Keep your cool – Remain calm. Don’t attack the reviewer, you don’t want to bring more attention to this review than it deserves.
Clarify the situation – If the interaction the reviewer is alleging did not happen at one of your branches, make sure you clarify that. Reply that you have no record of doing business with that person.
Ask the reviewer to take it down – It doesn’t hurt to ask the reviewer to take down their fraudulent review. Sometimes people will regret writing a fake review and when you bring it to their attention they will take it down.
