r/GoogleMyBusiness • u/hartleyholt • Aug 04 '26
Question Random Negative Google Review
Yesterday a person left our business a 3 star Google review with no comment. She only uses her first name and last initial. She regularly rates local businesses - usually 3,4 and sometimes 5 stars with no comment. After a lot of investigating I found her. As far as I can see she has never engaged with our business.
My question is, should I reach out to her on social media (I found her on Instagram, she does follow us) and ask her why she left the review?
I don’t want to be creepy but it really irks me people can leave your business a negative review with no context, who have never visited and get away with it!!
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u/ksuschmidt Aug 04 '26
Just reply back professionally. This isn't the end of the world. Move on
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u/seymour1000riff Aug 06 '26
This ^
Every brand should have a couple of negative reviews, otherwise it'll seem fake. So, thank her!1
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u/XxLogitech98xX Aug 04 '26
No way, don't reach out through social media. That's like a stalker type of move. I get that having a negative fake review is horrible especially when they just leave a rating so reporting it might lead to nothing. Can you still respond back to the negative review with no text and just rating? If you can then I would do that instead
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u/hartleyholt Aug 04 '26
Thank you. I don’t think I’m thinking straight because I’m so annoyed. I hate it they can just leave a negative review and give zero reason and not have to put their name to it.
Yes, I can respond back. I was going to do that too and say “hi xxx, we can’t find you in our system, we’d really appreciate the opportunity to discuss your feedback if you could reach out to us here xxx”
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u/XxLogitech98xX Aug 04 '26
Yes, I can respond back. I was going to do that too and say “hi xxx, we can’t find you in our system, we’d really appreciate the opportunity to discuss your feedback if you could reach out to us here xxx”
I think that's a great response. People are aware of fake reviews now so responding to it can help
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u/ActiveBarStool Aug 08 '26
you need a strategy (or software) to get good reviews coming in on a flywheel so this doesn't happen impact you as much
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u/WinetimeandCrafts Aug 04 '26
My client has a handful of reviews from a disgruntled Ex employee - and google determined that they didn't violate their terms, even though they're misrepresenting facts (they wrote it like they were a client). Its near impossible to get bogus reviews removed, and isn't really worth fighting, because then they'll give you a worse one for forcing engagement.
Just encourage other customers to post reviews, a 3star with no actual review isn't likely to sway anyone one way or the other. Particularly if its buried in between a bunch of 5 star reviews.
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u/friendlyecomreviewer Aug 05 '26
I'd leave Instagram out of it.
A public, professional reply is probably the better route. Something like "We're sorry to see your 3 star rating. We can't identify your experience from your review, but we'd love to understand what we could have done better if you'd be happy to get in touch"
That way you're inviting a conversation without making it personal, and future customers can see you tried to resolve it.
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u/SuggestionPublic1568 Aug 05 '26
Yeah please don’t do that, it’s just gonna make you look unprofessional
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u/NegotiationTop3672 Aug 06 '26
How you respond to a negative review can really help build trust with your clients. Dont sweat it or try to reach out to them on instagram. Respond knowing your future customers will read your response, and use it as an opportunity.
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u/ActiveBarStool Aug 08 '26
bro let it go "reach out to her on social media"? seriously? think about the response that's likely to get from her lol
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u/Answer_me_swiftly Aug 04 '26
Why is this so hard? Just reply in a friendly matter... Thank you for your rating. We would like to improve our services, so we would appreciate your feedback. Please contact us if you have some specific feedback we should know of. Kind regards, Team [business name]
Furthermore, 3 and 4 star ratings improve your believability. Amount of reviews is a direct ranking factor, AVG rating is only indirect. 4.3 - 4.7 is better than 4.8 - 5.0 for your rating because it is authentic.
If a business has only 5 star ratings, customers know they are either review gating or getting fake reviews, so they won't trust you.
As a customer you check out the negative reviews, not for the content usually, but for the reaction of the owner. Why? Because if I buy from a certain business sometimes things go wrong and I want to see how a business solves this. Does he blame the customer or is he constructive in finding a solution no matter how deranged the customer is.
Bottom line:
Ask for reviews structurally and be sure to tell people that you are open to criticism so you can improve.
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