Fight the Good Fight: Stop Fake Reviews for Your Business
I think most business owners would agree with me when I say that getting fake online reviews left for your business is as frustrating as it is damaging. At RepCheckup, we provide online reputation management software for a variety of industries and business verticals to stop fake reviews from impacting your business.
After all, what restaurant owner wants a fake review that says there are cockroaches in the kitchen to be listed at the top of your professional profile?
If you own a car dealership: do you want prospective customers to see a review stating that all of your sales reps are con artists?
If you run a hotel: do you really want potential vacationers to read that you have bed bugs?
The answer to these questions should be a great, big NO!
That’s why we’ve put together this resource guide to three of our favorite resources that can help you fight the good fight and stop fake reviews from harming your business’s reputation online.
Are You Doing All You Can to Fight Fake Online Reviews? (And Are You Sure?)
We cannot stress enough the importance of online reviews in 2018. As search engines and business directories are placing more and more value on businesses who have a large amount of reviews and a high rating, even placing them higher on Apple Maps searches, business owners have to see things from the perspective of their potential clients.
Nowadays, the number one question is:
Can you trust online reviews?
With businesses succumbing to both fake positive and negative reviews, it can be more difficult for users online to figure out which ones are real and what reviews are fake. Even Amazon is struggling with fake reviews.
So what do you do if you want to reign supreme over honest, positive reviews instead of constantly struggling with fake reviews?
Arm Yourself With Online Review Monitoring Software
Online business directories that display ratings and reviews for businesses are notoriously difficult to communicate with, especially since they often take the side of the reviewer in order to provide them with a safe space to leave their feedback or read about other’s experiences.
Online review monitoring can help stop fake reviews by giving business owners the ability to easily monitor their review profiles to make sure they aren’t letting fake (and real) reviews, slip through the cracks and go unaddressed.
Because so many businesses have professional profiles on review platforms across the web (even if you didn’t create them), it’s important to monitor as many of your profiles as possible. By using online review management software, like RepCheckup, you’re able to do just that – but from one centralized dashboard instead of needing to log in and out of individual accounts.
If a fake review is published, you’ll be able to find it quickly and, if possible, begin working on having it removed.
Capitalize on the Importance of Real Positive Customer Reviews to Bury Fake Reviews
If you want to really stop fake online reviews, capitalize on the ability to get more online reviews from real customers by actively soliciting them. For this second fake-review-fighting resource, we’re recommending that you and your staff use a review management platform, like Repcheckup, to solicit a continuous flow of new reviews.
The thing with fake reviews is that there isn’t a surefire way to prevent or remove them from your profiles.
So bury them!
A steady flow of honest reviews coming in from real customers will prevent fake reviews from artificially damaging your business’s reputation
If your employees are trained to properly ask for reviews, and with your online review software sending out texts and emails to gain feedback, you’ll be able to accomplish two things:
- Prevent any fake or negative reviews from bringing down your overall star rating
- Improve your business’s online standing by growing the number of recent reviews for potential customers to read
Don’t Overlook Your Own Voice to Stop Fake Reviews
One of the most important resources you’ll need to fight fake reviews is your own (digital) voice.
Here’s the thing:
Potential customers who are looking at your business’s online reviews won’t be able to tell which ones are true and which are false.
Your best weapon in these situations is responding publicly to each and every review, which would allow potential customers to see that you appreciate and listen to everyone’s feedback.
Perhaps more importantly, though, responding to a fake review gives you a chance to show potential customers that a specific review isn’t a real one. If you’re able to construct a response that clearly states you’d like to hear more about their experience but that you cannot find any records indicating their patronage or the situation, you can use your voice to fight the impact of fake reviews simply by asking.
For more information about what you can do to improve your online reputation, gain more honest online reviews, and fight fake reviews, make sure you start your free trial of RepCheckup.
