Can Businesses Protect Themselves from Malicious Reviews? Absolutely. Here’s How.
Online reviews are critical to small business success, but sometimes they can be unfairly weaponized against you. Whether from a competitor, disgruntled former employee, or bad actor, malicious reviews can harm your reputation, making it important to know what protections and actions are available. Here’s what small and medium-sized businesses can do to protect their hard-earned reputation and maintain customer trust.
Protections Available to Combat Malicious Reviews
Review Platform Policies
Many major review platforms, such as Google, Yelp, and Facebook, have clear policies against malicious or inappropriate reviews. Most have built-in tools for reporting problematic reviews that allow businesses to report any that are false, offensive, or clearly meant to cause harm. If reported and deemed inappropriate, these reviews can be removed.
For example:
Google Business Profiles allows you to flag off-topic, spammy, or harmful reviews directly from your business account.
Yelp and Facebook have strict content guidelines against conflict-based or fake reviews. Violations of these guidelines can lead to prompt review removal.
FTC’s Protection Against Deceptive Practices
The FTC’s recent guidelines extend protections to businesses against unethical review tactics by competitors or other malicious actors. The FTC’s stance on review integrity helps discourage anyone from manipulating reviews in bad faith. In severe cases of provable harm, businesses may also have legal options under defamation law, especially when significant financial loss or damage can be shown.
Defamation Lawsuits for Extreme Cases
For the most severe instances, small businesses can consider defamation lawsuits if there’s evidence that false reviews were posted with intent to harm the business. This legal route is usually reserved for cases where damages are significant and clear evidence exists of malicious intent, but it can be a worthwhile course of action when all other avenues fail.
Proactive Solutions to Manage and Offset Malicious Reviews
Online Reputation Management Tools
Investing in tools like BirdEye, Yext, or ReviewTrackers enables small businesses to monitor their online presence across multiple review sites and respond quickly. These platforms offer monitoring alerts and other tools to help identify sudden negative patterns that may indicate malicious activity, allowing you to address issues proactively.
Professional and Calm Public Responses
A calm, professional response to a malicious review can help minimize its impact on your reputation. Keep responses courteous and brief, addressing any legitimate issues without appearing defensive. Often, this demonstrates your commitment to transparency, which reassures potential customers. For example:
“Thank you for your feedback. We are committed to making sure every customer has a great experience. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any record of your visit, but we’d love to speak with you directly to address any concerns. Please contact us at [contact information].”
Cultivate a Base of Positive Reviews
Encouraging honest feedback from satisfied customers can help build a robust, authentic presence. Send gentle reminders to loyal customers via email or on receipts, inviting them to leave a review. This honest base of positive feedback can reduce the impact of occasional negative or malicious comments.
Stay Alert for Patterns
If you notice sudden patterns of negative reviews, particularly from new or unverified accounts, this could signal a coordinated effort. Track these patterns using your reputation management tools or manually, and if necessary, submit evidence of patterns to review platforms, which often respond to documented abuse reports.
Take Charge of Your Online Reputation
With the right approach, small businesses can protect themselves from the damaging effects of malicious reviews while building genuine connections with customers. By actively managing reviews, staying compliant with the latest FTC rules, and using transparent and responsive communication, your business can strengthen its online reputation and build trust that stands up against malicious actions.
