How to respond to a bad Google review

Before you type anything

• Wait until you’re calm. A defensive reply stays on your profile for years.
• Check whether it’s a real customer. Search your records for the name, the date and the job.
• Decide what you’d say if the reviewer were standing in front of you with a line of customers listening, because that’s effectively the situation.

A reply that works

1. Thank them and use their nameIt sounds small. It tells readers you read reviews and take them seriously.
2. Acknowledge the specific problemNot “we’re sorry for any inconvenience.” Name it: “I’m sorry the crew showed up two hours late on Saturday.”
3. Give the short version of your side, if there is oneOne or two sentences, facts only. “We called at 9:15 to say the earlier job ran long” is fine. Arguing is not.
4. Take it offlineGive a name and a direct number. “Please call me, Sarah, at 843-555-0100 and I’ll make it right.”
5. Follow throughIf you fix it, the customer will often update the review on their own. Asking them to remove it as a condition of fixing it is a bad look and a bad idea.

Never put these in a reply

• Anything private about the customer: what they bought, their address, their account. For medical, dental, counseling and other health practices this can be a privacy law violation, not just a bad look. Reply in general terms and invite them to call.
• Accusations that they’re lying, or that a competitor wrote it, unless you can prove it.
• A copy-pasted reply you use for every review. Readers notice.

When Google will take a review down

Google removes reviews that break its policies: fake engagement, spam, off-topic rants, hate speech, harassment, conflicts of interest (a competitor or a former employee), and personal information. It doesn’t remove a review because it’s negative or because you disagree with it.

To ask, open your Business Profile, find the review and report it, choosing the policy it breaks. Then you can check the status in Google’s review management tool. Keep your public reply professional either way; if the review stays, the reply is what readers see.