How To Get A Google Review Removed

delete Google reviews

How can I delete a Google review? If you are a reviewer asking this question, the process is really easy. Just scroll down a bit and see how you can do it easily. If you are a business that wants to delete a Google review, we'll also talk about some strategies for you.

Here's what you'll find in this article.

Want to Delete a Google Review?
How to Remove a Google Review as a Customer
A 3-Step Guide to Managing Negative or Bad Reviews
Remove a Fake Google Review
How Birdeye Can Help You Manage Negative Reviews

Looking for more tips on how to manage your Google reviews? Check out this audio guide. It covers everything you need to know about the subject in less than 20 minutes.

Want to Delete a Google Review?

Nowadays, 92% of consumers use Google search before making a purchase decision. That means that the first thing a potential customer will see is a Google review. Because of this, we all have a responsibility to make sure that these reviews are as accurate as possible.

If you're a business owner who wants to improve online reputation and remove a Google review on your business page, let's start off with a bit of bad news and then some really good news.

Bad News: As a business owner there is no way you can delete a Google review.

Good News: There are people who can delete the Google review for you.

No matter how upset you are about a negative review, there's no button you can press to instantly get rid of it. But here's who you can reach out to:

The customer who wrote the review.
The Google team

Though you can't delete reviews, you can still reach out to the people who can. This guide will show you how to limit the damage that negative reviews can do to your brand.

How to Remove Google Reviews as a Customer

Your experiences may change and so might your perceptions. Maybe you had a terrible experience at a restaurant but after you submitted a complaint, they made it up to you with a fantastic free dinner. In cases like these, you might want to edit your initial review so that it fits with your new impression of the business.

If you have posted a Google review yourself and are looking to remove it, here's how:

Open Google Maps in your browser
Click the Menu (hamburger menu in the top left)
Next, click on "Your contributions"

After that, click on"Reviews.
Next to the review you want to edit or delete, click the three vertical dots on the right side, then Delete.

A 3-Step Guide to Managing Negative or Bad Reviews

Review platforms like Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor, and others aim to deliver honest and unbiased online reviews. Some sites have strict penalties for businesses that try to game the system either by writing fake reviews, offering incentives, or some other backhanded maneuver. Only reviews that explicitly violate the review site's Terms & Conditions have a chance at being removed, but only by a site administrator.

In other words, an authentic Google business profile displays ALL opinions from ALL customers, not just the ones the business prefers. Businesses cannot delete Google reviews simply because they disagree.

Though a negative review may at first seem detrimental, it's important to note that a few negative reviews can help you more than they hurt you. A study by the Spiegel Research Center at Northwestern University found that customers are most likely to purchase from companies with 4.0-4.7 review ratings. That's because customers are usually somewhat suspicious about businesses that have only positive reviews.

Every business has unhappy customers. Though you can't control customer opinion, you can control how you choose to deal with negative feedback.

Here's how you can respond to negative reviews.

Take a deep breath and relax

It's easy to have an emotionally-charged reaction to a negative review from a customer. But try your best not to do that. While it might feel good in the moment, speaking to a reviewer aggressively only makes you look worse in the eyes of potential customers.

Don't take bad reviews personally. Take it as a blessing. Sometimes, a bad review can highlight issues in your actual business operations and can show you where you might have room for improvement. At the very least, it can give you the opportunity to highlight your customer service.
Prepare Your Response

Reviews piling up with no response tell customers your business doesn't care about their experience. Be proactive to control customer perception.

Apologize sincerely for the problem that the customer encountered. You want to show everyone that sees your response to know that your business is serious about providing superior service to every single customer.

If it's unclear what exactly they had a problem with, provide direct contact information so you can make sure you can combat the problem directly. For an example, check out this apology response template.

Thank you for providing your feedback and letting us know about this issue. We set a high standard for our service and are truly sorry to hear that standard was not met in your interaction with us. Please get in touch with us on (company phone number) and we'd be happy to help you out.

Once you feel certain that you understand the customer's complaint, offer options to ease their concerns and show you care. Consider the following:

Refund their money. Use your best judgment to determine if the issue was exceptionally awful enough to merit a full refund.
Offer a discount for the next time they return. This increases the likelihood of the customer giving you a second chance.
Promise to fix the problem internally. List specifics on how you will address the issue and when you expect the issue to be resolved.
Ask the Customer to Remove or Edit Their Review

After providing a thoughtful response, you can politely ask your customer to delete or revise the review.

Here is an example of a message that can be used to ask a customer to remove or edit their review of your business.

Hello (Customer),
Thank you for helping us to improve our customer experience. We regret that your initial experience with us turned out to be a negative one. Based on your feedback, we have taken steps to make sure that this issue will not happen again for you or any other customer. If there are any additional issues you would like to see resolved, let us know and we will work to quickly resolve them.

We do understand that your review of (Company) on Google was based on your initial experience. We hope that your opinion on our brand has since changed in a more positive direction. If that is the case, we would appreciate if you edited your review to more closely reflect your current opinion. We take all of our customer reviews seriously and we want to make sure that every review is as accurate as possible.

Remove a Fake Google Review

Think you might be dealing with a fake Google review? Make sure to flag the review. Remember, reviews posted on Google My Business are meant to represent the genuine experiences of customers. If Google believes a review doesn't represent a real experience, it will be removed.

Google's review policies list reasons why reviews may be removed. Here are four of the most common.

Spam and fake content-Content should reflect genuine experiences and should not be placed in an attempt to manipulate ratings.
Off-topic-Content should be related to the specific location being reviewed.
Restricted content-No calls-to-action for materials restricted by law such as alcohol, tobacco, guns, etc.
Conflict of interest-Business owners, employees, and employees of competing businesses cannot

Here are the steps you can take to dispute a specific Google review.

Find your business listing on Google Maps.
Find the review you'd like to dispute.
Click the three vertical buttons on the right side, then flag as inappropriate.

What if that Doesn't Work?

If the review doesn't get taken down, there are a couple of other steps you can take to escalate the process. You can either contact Google by phone to ask about the status of the flagged review or you can fill out a legal removal request if the review can be considered libel.

Here's how you can get Google to contact you about the status of the claim.

Go to Google My Business Help
Navigate to the section on the top right labeled "Contact Us"
Select Customer Reviews and Photos
Select Manage Customer Reviews
Click Request Callback

If you believe that a review might be libel or slander, here's how you can fill out a legal removal request.

Click here to go to Google Legal Help
Select the tab labeled "Submit a Legal Request"
Within the tab, you'll see a link to a tool. Click here for the Legal Removal Request form.

Still, disputing a review does not guarantee that Google will remove it. Being proactive and responding to negative feedback is usually the best way of dealing with reviews making false claims.

How Birdeye Can Help You Manage Negative Reviews

Customers who have bad experiences are much more likely to leave reviews than customers with good experiences. That means that a couple of very angry customers can skew your rating to be much lower than it should be.

Luckily, there's an easy solution to this problem: Asking customers for more reviews. With a software like Birdeye, you can make sure this whole process is automated. You can send email and text review requests while you do the hard work of running your business. Make sure that your online reputation matches your customer experience with Birdeye.