Opening the Curtains on Fake Reviews of Your Window Fashions Company

Opening the Curtains on Fake Reviews

What do you do when someone incorrectly or unfairly reviews your business online? Here are several ideas

BY WELTON HONG

W

indow fashion pros know that the aesthetics of windows are enhanced with proper decoration, but the wrong curtains or coverings unnecessarily obscure the view without adding anything of value.

Online reviews work in a similar manner. Appropriate reviews provide insight into your company and help consumers make a choice about contacting you for services. But fake reviews obscure that view, confusing consumers and marring your brand name. So let’s go over what you need to know (and do) about fake reviews.

First, let’s define fake reviews. These are simply reviews that aren’t based on fact—typically from people that haven’t even used your services.

Why would anyone leave blatantly false reviews, especially if they haven’t interacted with your window coverings business? One reason is entertainment. Unfortunately, some people like to spend their time pulling mean-spirited pranks online, and these internet trolls are not

above leaving fake reviews.

In other cases, fake reviews might come from people who have a political, cultural or social bone to pick with your company. Sports fans caught up in an overzealous spirit of competition, for example, have left negative reviews for brands that sponsor (or are otherwise affiliated with) rival teams.

Another source of fake reviews could be your local industry competition. Sadly, that’s a real thing. Reviews are powerful. According to BrightLocal, almost 70 percent of consumers report they will trust a local business more if it has positive online reviews. More than 85 percent of consumers look at reviews as they research a purchasing decision.

Unscrupulous competitors sometimes try to use this to their advantage. If they can reduce the impact of your legitimate positive reviews with false negative ones, that gives them an edge in search engines and with consumer perception.

A final type of false reviews are ones that come from real customers but include details that are incorrect, either due to a misunderstanding or because the client is being purposefully dishonest.

With fake reviews potentially pelting you from multiple directions, what do you do to pull the curtains away so consumers can clearly see the real information about your business? Here are some ideas.

Do Your Homework on Each Review

Is this a real customer? What is false about the review and why does the customer seem to think something is true that isn’t? Is it a case of a misunderstanding or not seeing the entire picture, and do you have a way to bridge that gap?

In cases like these, begin by reaching out directly (and privately) to the customer to try to resolve the issue. Often, taking the time to understand the customer’s perspective and make an issue right prompts the person to edit the review, changing it to a more positive and accurate account of their transaction.

If the review is not from a legitimate customer—or the customer is not responsive to your attempts at reaching out—take the next step and leave a public response to the review.

The expectation of a company response to a review has been a trend for several years. A recent RevLocal study noted that more than half of all consumers expect businesses to respond within a week to reviews. Additionally, BrightLocal noted that almost a third of consumers considered business responses to reviews as a factor in buying decisions. You can flag and report a review as being fake from your Google My Business dashboard. Given that it takes five or more flags to ensure that Google takes a look at a review, you also should flag it from your personal account and ask employees, friends or family members to do the same.

Flagging doesn’t guarantee that Google or any other review platform will take down the false review, but it only takes a second and might be your only option in the end.

No matter how much work you put into your brand, products and services, if you’re not doing the proper maintenance on your reviews, the positive truths about your company could get hidden.

Take time to review, respond to and appropriately flag reviews on a regular basis. Encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews for you. No company can completely control the online review process, but you can work to dress these little windows into your business in the most favorable coverings. z

Welton Hong is the founder of Ring Ring Marketing and a leading expert in creating case generation from online to the phone line. He is the author of "Making Your Phone Ring with Internet Marketing for Window Covering Companies."

RingRingMarketing.com Facebook: RingRingMarketing

Leaving a public response lets you meet those consumer expectations while demonstrating that you care about customers and their experiences. It also provides an opportunity to set the record straight on a fake review. You do need to walk a careful line here; responding in a mean or unprofessional manner ruffles the curtains rather than pulling them back.

If the review is not accurate but comes from a real customer, present your side of the story in the most positive way possible (after you’ve tried to work with the customer directly). If the review is not from a real customer, you might indicate that by stating that you don’t have a record of the transaction and asking the person to contact you so you can make the issue right.

Take Steps to Remove Fake Reviews

Finally, you do typically have some recourse for completely fake reviews that are from trolls or part of a smear campaign. Google and other review platforms truly want to ensure consumers have access to relevant, accurate reviews. When a fake review is discovered, for example, Google is likely to remove it.