How to respond to the good, the bad, & the ugly reviews | Part 3 — the ugly.

Fake reviews are a growing nuisance for companies, especially for small and medium-sized businesses. Anyone can sign up for an account in a review aggregator website and leave a one-star rating of your product or company. . If they choose to automate this process with a bunch of email addresses, your product’s rating can drop in no time. This is a serious issue that companies need to tackle.

In the final installment of my three-part series on how to respond to online reviews, we’ll be looking at how to handle online trolls. To learn how to respond to positive and negative reviews, check out the links provided. In this post, I’m going to talk about how to handle the ugly; fake reviews.

Fake Reviews.

Fake reviews can be written by people who are determined to destroy your brand name online or even by competitors who create bots that write fake reviews to pull you down the ranks. This can be dangerous for your brand if you don’t remove them quickly. Almost every review aggregator has a policy instituted against fake reviews, and with concrete evidence, you can get them to remove it.

Why respond to fake reviews?

1. To double-check. Even if you can instinctively tell that a review is fake, you cannot be sure unless you talk to them about their issue. Ask them for their customer ID, billing information etc., which are only issued to actual customers.
2. To yield a response. Most fake reviewers sign in and sign out of their accounts, just to leave a review. So respond politely, tell them you’d like to compensate with offers and discounts and see if they respond.
3. To call them out. When you are certain that the review is fake, go ahead and call them out in the public. This way, customers will know which reviews are fake when they’re making a decision.
4. To show intolerance. Let your competitors and haters know that you will not let fake reviews misrepresent your public rating. When you take action to remove such reviews, they will think twice before writing a fake review again.

How to write a response?

Step 1: Do your research.
Before you jump to a conclusion, make sure the review is indeed fake. Do not start writing your response before doing your research. . Here are a few signs to watch out for:

• Name: Is the reviewer’s name silly or does it sound made up? Chances are that JamesBond007 and PikachuPew are not actual users of your products.
• Profile Image: Is their profile picture an actual person? If so, search it on Google. If the image pops up with different names, then the account is likely fake. Memes and stock images are also signs of fake review accounts.
• Language: Is their writing style suspicious? When the reviewer uses complicated words but does not make a constructive criticism about anything, they are trying hard to sound legit. Use of crude lingo and swear words are also signs to watch out for.
• Formatting: Is the review written in all caps? Are exclamatory marks all over the place? Look for formatting that even a low-knowledge user wouldn’t choose to use.
• Brand mentions: Is the name of your brand/product mentioned a lot? Then, they are likely trying to impact your SEO. Another warning sign is if you think pronouns could be easily swapped for your name in multiple places.
• Account activity: Was the account created moments before the review was written? Has the reviewer left a negative review for every alternative of your product? Have they given a polarizing positive review to your direct competitor? These are signs that you might be dealing with a troll.

Step 2: Sketch your strategy.
What are you trying to accomplish by responding to this fake review? Are you trying to check if it really is fake? Are you going to call them out? Are you going to build your case to get it removed? Your response varies depending on the intent.

Step 3: Apologize, but be resilient.
If you’re trying to double-check if the review is fake, start off with an apology but don’t give in yet. Ask for customer ID, billing information etc., which are issued only to legitimate customers. Tell them that you need more details to actually help them solve it. This way, you can double-check the authenticity of the review and quickly recover in case the review is in fact real.

Step 4: Ask questions.
When you ask questions regarding the product or ask for proof, fake reviewers will not respond to it. They’ve likely never purchased or used your product and so they will not be able to give you a proper answer. When they haven’t responded in a long time or refuse to share the details with you, you have your answer. .

Step 5: Flag the review and get it removed.
Once you have evidence to flag a review, bring it to the attention of the aggregator and get it removed. Your public rating can get skewed if you leave fake reviews unattended. Time is of the essence here, as if you take too long to remove it, the damage would’ve already made an impact in your sales.

Step 6: Call them out.
And before the aggregator removes it, call them out publicly and share it on Twitter. This protects your company’s reputation and shows others that you don’t tolerate fake reviews and will indeed take action.

What to avoid?

➤ Don’t be aggressive. It’s natural to feel angry when you realize someone’s on the hunt to damage your brand, but showing it in your writing will only help them accomplish that. Once you’re sure that a review is fake, call them out in a professional and calm manner. Remember, everyone online is watching you.

➤ Don’t point your fingers against competitors. Even if you know for a fact that they were behind this, calling them out directly on social media would spark some unwanted troubles. Make sure you address the issue while also keeping their identity anonymous.

➤ Don’t forget to flag fake reviews. This is important, as letting the market know that you take actions against such practices will curb such events in future.

➤ No matter what the review says, always respond promptly, personally, and in their language. If you take too long to respond or automate responses using various bland templates, customers will feel hesitant to leave feedback in the future. Additionally, if the review was written in Spanish, find someone who knows Spanish in your office and ask him or her to write a response.

Taking an effort to communicate the way a customer would be most comfortable with, will always be welcomed. Like all forms of writing, crafting good responses requires practice. You will get better at it as you write responses to different people, who all have something different to say.

I hope this three-part series on how to respond to positive, negative and fake reviews online, was helpful for you. Do you have any tips? Perhaps, an interesting incident with reviews? Let us know in the comments below!

(Part 1: The Good; Part 2: The Bad)

Written by Akilan S,
Product Marketer at Zoho Corp.

Akilan is a passionate blogger, a tech enthusiast, a small business advocate, an avid gamer and a time traveler. He’s game for a cup of coffee 24x7.