Bad Temptations with Google Reviews
In life, there are a lot of temptations we try to avoid, one more cookie, the last cookie, cookies in general... Prospective customers are reading your reviews and so it's natural to want more of them. You also want them to be good, but you can be tempted to use approaches that are a violation of Google's terms of service and will eventually work against you.
To avoid such temptations, it's helpful to read the Google guidelines relating prohibited and restricted content, highlighting a few items in the area Google calls "Fake Engagement". In past articles, we've spoken about the importance of honesty in reviews and the dangers of buying reviews, but what about the smaller, more subtle strings you can pull to manipulate reviews?
Photo by Tijana Drndarski on Unsplash
1. Never incentivize for a review
Don't pay or offer anything for a review that doesn't represent a genuine experience. Of course, you can go above and beyond for your customers, but don't encourage a positive review with discounts, giveaways, or even cash.
2. Never incentivize a customer to remove a negative review
This is similar to the first item, but after the fact. Once a negative review is posted, the best thing to do is reply to their review asking them to reach out to you so you may address their concerns, and take care of them immediately… hopefully to their satisfaction. Whether or not the original customer updates their review, your response shows a prospective customer that any potential wrinkles they might experience will be addressed quickly and professionally.
3. Never ask employees to post, and never pretend to be a customer
Other than being a conflict of interest and against Google's policies, it can run afoul of the law as evidenced by Sunday Riley Modern Skincare's actions. They had employees and managers post reviews for 2 years, and when they were caught it was all taken down. Then in defiance of the FTC, they then continued the practice hiding behind a VPN in an attempt to appear they had complied with the order. It isn't worth the risk, the consequences are too great; you suffer damage to your personal reputation, your brand is tarnished, and not to mention the legal costs.
In Google's words, "Using Google Maps to mislead others is against the spirit of delivering useful information to assist users…". The person who violates Google's policies risks losing profile ownership and any SEO benefits that have been earned. In extreme cases, businesses have been delisted from Google Maps and banned from other Google services like AdSense, YouTube, and Google Pay.
Google reviews are a necessary part of business today. Reviews can appear in search results, can attract new customers away from businesses that don't have Google reviews, improved SEO, and can increase trust in your brand. With these in mind, it's in every business owner's interest to get familiar with Google's Prohibited and Restricted Content guidelines.
What we do highly recommend is connecting your LoyaltyLoop account to your Google Business Profile, then you and your team can receive alerts letting you know when you receive a new Google review allowing you to quickly reply to it.
To connect your Google Business Profile to LoyaltyLoop, click on the 3 stars in the left-hand menu. Then click on the "Connect" button. You may need to enter your Google Business Profile credentials, and then it will connect. If you see a graph, you're already connected! Be sure to go to Settings and then Alerts & Notifications so you can turn on notifications and set who should be notified when a new review comes in.
If you would like assistance connecting LoyaltyLoop to your Google Business Profile, email us at support@loyaltyloop.com or call us at 888-552-5667, option 3 and we'll be glad to help. It takes seconds.