How do you respond to fake negative online reviews?

[subati]

Some one gave us a one star yesterday on Google review. That person also gave one star to three other laundromats in our neighborhood on the same day. In addition to that the same person has given a five star rating to one laundromat in the area. All the reviews have no comments.
Eventhough I am not much worried about this one review, I was wondering what would you do, if something similar happened to you?

Cheers

[Howard]

Well I would do a couple of things. First I assume it is the owner of the one rated highly. How many real customers rate several laundromats at once? I would try to refute the rating, if possible - some let owners make counter claims.

Next, I don't believe in getting mad, I get even. I would go to the local library or other free Internet hot spot and make up several different accounts (hotmail, gmail, yahoo, etc...) and give yourself a few really good write-ups and trash his store as well. What goes around come around.

Why not ask people here to give you some good ratings, I just did for the heck of it

[jh]

If there's a way to contact this owner who gave the fake rating, tell him you will send a few bad rating to his store each day if he does not remove his promptly. If there's no way to contact or there's no response, then proceed to take the action and leave your email for him to respond in the future. Meanwhile, try to inform Google of the fake rating to your store.

We have a couple of good reviews on Yelp.com but never received any comment on Google Review. A lot of suspicious reviews seem to get filtered on Yelp.com. I do not encourage customers to leave feedback on the net. One or two good reviews are good enough. I have had customers emailing us to say that they appreciated our place/service. I never asked them to leave a feedback on the net. I do not want people to think that our customers visit our Google Place page or Yelp page. More people tend to use this tool when they want to "do some damage".

[rjwarner]

Really Howard?

[Howard]

Originally Posted by rjwarner

Really Howard?

Yes, I really did.

[subati]

Originally Posted by rjwarner

Really Howard?

Yes he really did and did a nice one. Thanks Howard.

Cheers

[epic02]

Originally Posted by subati

Yes he really did and did a nice one. Thanks Howard.

Cheers

Howard, I was about to do the same thing. I was trying to figure out who wrote the bad reviews so I can put negative reviews on his. But then a customer had a problem with a machine so I had to take care of that first.

[surfflite]

This happened at one of my my wife's businesses a few weeks ago.

See "Kris" bad review. Then see "Kerry's" review right above it.


http://maps.google.com/maps/place?oe...98503797722206

So to answer your question: How do you respond to fake negative online reviews?

Simple, you respond with a fake positive review. Although, everything I say in my review is factual.....it was still faked or staged as a response to Kris's FAKE negative review.

[CanCanCase]

Shill advertising (positive reviews written by an owner, employee, or paid promoter under the guise of a legitimate customer) is just as taboo in most internet review circles as bashing competition.

Yelp, for example, thinks they've got an algorithm for determining which reviews come from business owners. They then filter these reviews and the reviewer loses credibility.

Once Google and Facebook finally figure out a good way to monetize their review systems, this sort of fake negative or fake positive reviewing will earn the poster quite a few more negatives than positives.

I learned a long time ago in SEO and web development, the best way to have high search rankings is to build a good quality, good content, dynamic site that's actually relevant to your viewers. Same goes for social reviews... run a good business, and just let it run. Before long, the positives will outweigh the negatives and the folks who choose the "low road" will have their own penalties to worry about.

Now, in the case of a legitimate negative review, most review sites do give an opportunity for the business owner to respond. You usually need to have "claimed" your business listing and verified some bit of information proving you're the owner. From there, it's basic customer service 101.... I rarely make my responses public beyond initial contact. Once someone reads you gave Ms. Smith a free wash because of her negative review, everyone will write the same hoping to get a freebie. If, however, the general public sees that you are concerned enough about Ms. Smith's negative review to ask a few factual probing questions and it appears you genuinely want to make things right, it gains a LOT of credibility for your business.

-Case

[Howard]

I cannot agree with you on this one Case. When it comes to laundry reviews you will find there are typically under a half dozen reviews for most laundromats. Thus if some creep gives you a fake bad review it is important if you cannot get it removed to create your own fake positive ones. This is not the case when you have hundreds of reviews, but most do not. Thus, if there is one bad one and only two good ones you could possibly lose business because of it.

As for their "engines" being able to figure things out, not likely. If you have five friends write reviews they will never figure out if they are real customers or just your friends.