How to compete with a competitors fake reviews?

[Dan_J]

Hi guys i've just recently moved my businesse to a new location and i'm working on ranking my website up on google as well as many other local listings. One thing i have noticed however is that my main competitor seems to continuously post similar 2 line reviews containing the most popular keywords on google places and yellow pages.

Of course, there is no way for me to prove they are fake and thats not what i intend to do. I was just wondering if anyone has any wisdom they can offer me on ranking up on google places that may be able to overcome such a tactic.

I do get reviews from time to time but they are usually in the form of an email from a satisfied customer. I list these on my testimonials page.

Thanks for the help guys. You are all an invaluable resource and I hope to be able to help some of you in the future.

Dan

 

[PCX]

If this is a Google review, then you can respond to it. I actually consoled with a few other business owners (wiser and more successful than myself) and I asked them their opinion in about the same matter. They expressed to me the importance of responding to them and responding to them professionally. Since then, I have had 2 bad reviews. One from a competitors and one from a real person who actually never became a customer because she was a crazy person . . . . Anyways, I get people who come in our store and either a, tell us they came in because of the great reviews, or b, told us that they came in because of how I responded to the bad ones.

This is how I responded to the fake one.

Sammy

I'll never come back to this place! Went in to get a computer looked at, had to pay $50 just for them to look at it!!! Then they told me they couldn't even fix it!!! Went to another computer shop down the road and they looked at it FOR FREE!! And the ONLY thing wrong with it, was the screen!!!! These people are a bunch of scammers!

Hey Sammy, I apologize for the troubles you are having, but are you sure you have the right shop? We keep a record of every customer and repair that comes in and we cannot find any record of a Sam, Sammy, Samantha or similar with any issues that closely resembles what you have described. If you do feel that you have the right shop, please contact us so that we can make this right. We are all human and none of us are perfect, but we always do our best to take care of our customers. For other reading this, please be careful when posting reviews and please consider contacting the business in question before leaving negative feedback. I would like to believe that Sammy has mistakenly posted this review in the wrong place and not intentionally wrote it to give us a bad name. That said, I find it interesting that one of our competitors also experienced something similar a few days ago and they were also unable to find any record of that particular customer or repair that they were referring to. -- Dean

Also, keep in mind that this is why it is so important to have a lot of good reviews as well. We have over 30+ positive reviews with only 2 bad ones. Believe it or not, the bad ones actually add credibility to your business. You can't make everyone happy (everyone knows that) and for those who are turned away from your business as a result of those bad reviews, are probably not customers you want anyways.

If you would like to see how I responded to the real negative review, PM me and I will send it to you.

 

[Dan_J]

Thank you!

Thank you so much for the through response. I will definetly use all this information provided to combat the issue and hopefully put a stop to it. My wife told me that it's a good thing the competitor is doing as such. She said it is a sign that they feel threatened by my marketing campaigns and my quality of service. I'd love to see how you responded to the real negative review so that I may learn from it. Thanks again!

 

[300DDR]

Great advice from PCX. Bottom line: you just need to get more (real) reviews. I can spot fake reviews very quickly, and hopefully most other people can do the same. I love when these people use the same spelling errors in their reviews, that's the best.

Be sure to ask all clients to leave a google review and ask anyone who emails you something nice to post it there instead to share it with the world. It won't take long to beat the fakers. Good luck!!

 

[Xander]

Funny this post should come up as I just found this on my G+ page:

"Edward Jones" (only review ever posted)
Prompt care is the worst place you can take your system to. I went there for a virus removal and I lost EVERYTHING! I lost pictures of my late mother and grandmother that can never be replaced! They claimed they backed up my data, but when I got the computer back, they were all gone! They said they could not help me! These people over charged me and had the nerve to force me to pay for their services. Why would ANYONE want to pay YOU to delete my photos!? BUYER BEWARE! RUN AWAY! I should have went to Silvertown Electronics. I called a few other companies around town afterwards and now I wish I would have called around before all of this mess! HORRIBLE!

Every customer I have knows that it's just me, not "these people" and I have never ever lost data on a virus.

My reply:

I wish you had used your own name, "Edward" as I have had no such cases EVER of doing a virus removal and losing data. And certainly not in the last month or even the last week. I'm sorry but this review is a pure fabrication. Beyond that, it is next to impossible to lose data over a virus infection. Also, as Prompt Care is a single technician and any customer who has met me would know that, the fact that he refers to me as "these people" is further indication of the spamful nature of this post. It only leaves me to wonder why Silvertown is mentioned in a favourable light by someone who has clearly never done business with Prompt Care. This review has been reported as spam. "Edward Jones" has never been my customer.

Actually, I'm quite confident that the review was posted by a Technibbler who recently admitted to helping out a child pornographer and then defended his actions. He later accused me of spamming him (somehow) and, next thing I know, that review has been posted. Classy, Dudex.

 

[Dan_J]

Yeah, I've seen a lot of peoples pages and their reviews are all contain the same keywords they use on their website and are overly short and sweet.

I'm working hard to get some more real reviews but I often forget to ask. I'm working on that. I simply cant stoop so low as to start writing fake ones.

Interesting with the "Edward" post I've had a couple poor reviews posted on my site via my testimonials form. The funny part is that my analytics tell me the IP and often the business name connected to the IP that posted them. I've had a few come in where the IP from the post had the name of a competitor associated with it. I reported these and google removed them promptly.

I'm surprisingly picking up consistant work even though i'm located near all of the bigbox stores. I've got a best buy 2km from me and i've got a futureshop (also owned by bestbuy lmtd) Staples and a few others right in my backyard. A lot of my customers are people that have been burned by them in the past and are extremely greatful for a quality tech.

Thank you guys for taking the time to post on this question. I really enjoy reading everyones posts and i'm happy to be socializing in a community of people with similar aspirations.