92% of consumers now read online reviews and 88% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. Let that sink in for a moment.
If you think a fake or misleading review posted about your business will not cost you money – think again.
I was recently speaking to the owner of a daycare who was targeted with a fake review. The reviewer wrote, “If you hate your child, send them here!”. The daycare owner flagged the review but was told it would not be removed because it did not violate the content guidelines. It was suggested to them that they should reply to the review – so they did. They replied by writing, “This is a fake review. This person has never been a client.”
At this point, the daycare owner thought all was good and the fake review would not lose them any business because they said it was fake. They did not think of it from a potential clients’ perspective. Imagine a parent is looking for a daycare for their child. They find this daycare and read the review, “If you hate your child, send them here!” and the owner’s response saying the review was fake. This potential customer who is not wanting to play detective and/or fact check, decides to take the safer route of choosing another daycare. Now the daycare owner has no clue they lost a client because this potential customer did not message them saying, “I was going to send my child to your daycare but saw the terrible review so I decided to choose someone else.”
It is extremely important to handle fake, misleading, and unfair reviews. When I say handle, I mean to have them deleted as quickly as possible – forever. Here at Lietect, we offer this service. Although we do not have a magical delete button – we do know how to correctly present your case to the review platforms so they will delete it. Additionally, our service is guaranteed or it’s 100% free. You can see more about this service by clicking here.