Fake reviews on Google?
After finally reaching a 4.9 out of 5 rating on Google - which we had strived towards for so long, we were devastated to have a 1-star review left just a few days later from a "Morgan Treeman".
As this name doesn't feature whatsoever on our database, we can only conclude that it is not a legitimate review. It is a shame that someone has used a fake review to try and discredit us in this way, but that is the nature of the online beast and reviews can be left without being verified customers or clients.
We understand that sometimes feedback will be negative and so long as it is legitimate this can be very beneficial for us. Negative reviews can provide valuable information to a business about areas where they need to improve. This can help businesses address problems and make changes to better meet the needs of their customers. Also by responding to negative reviews professionally and constructively, it can demonstrate to potential customers that we are committed to providing a high-quality product or service and are open to feedback.
Not limited to just our reviews, but false online reviews can have several negative consequences for everyone, including:
- Misleading consumers: False reviews can lead to people making uninformed purchasing decisions based on inaccurate information.
- Damaging to businesses: Fake negative reviews can hurt a business's reputation and reduce consumer trust in the business.
- Decreased trust in online reviews: When people can't trust the accuracy of online reviews, they may be less likely to rely on them in the future, which could lead to a decline in their usefulness as a source of information.
- Unfair competition: Fake reviews can give an unfair advantage to businesses that use them, as well as harm businesses that do not engage in this unethical practice.
We have also had some reviews left for us in the past that were intended for other agencies with similar business names that have been negative. This is even more frustrating in a way because it is the actions of another agency that are causing you to have bad reviews left. To counter this, we ended up creating a Google MyBusiness for this agency so that they would be easier to find on Google and so that their customers would be able to leave a review for them in the right place.
There are of course other review sites out there such as TrustPilot, but right now if anyone Googles 'ProTech Recruitment' then the first rating they see will be the rating that we have achieved in Google before any others.
So we will continue to focus on getting our customers to leave their legitimate reviews on our Google page and be appreciative of our (now back to) 4.8 out of 5.0 rating.
