Tag: Employee Reviews (Page 1 of 2)

Bad Reviews? No Problem.

Sure, you can always get an SEO company to bury those pesky negative reviews. With the help of a professional targeted strategy, they’ll boost the right information to the top and allow the rest to go unnoticed. What most of these companies don’t tell you is that there are also simple actions you can take on your own to improve your online rep.

Most SEO companies don’t want you to know this – but I guess it’s a good thing we’re not most companies, right?

Read on to get insiders tips on DIY fixes for your online reputation.

Respond to Negative Client Reviews Calmly and Rationally

When someone leaves you a bad review, it’s easy to get heated. But wait. Take a deep breath. Collect your thoughts before sending an emotionally charged response. Instead, answer calmly and show that you value the client’s opinion.

Even if you’re not quite sure why they’re upset, it’s always best to apologize. The customer is always right, after all. Try to take an empathetic and understanding approach. If you’d like to go the extra mile, ask them to reach out in private to discuss the situation. There might be an opportunity to make things right, and they might even leave you a new positive review in return.

Take the Conversation Offline for More Effective Communication

You can’t control the reviews people leave, but you can control how you respond to them. After you’ve left a polite and professional public reply, leaving contact information can allow you and the dissatisfied client to hash things out in private if they so choose.

Taking the conversation offline can help you communicate more effectively, as tone and nuance are better conveyed over the phone. You might even find that the customer isn’t as unhappy as they seemed in the reviews—especially now that you’ve reached out to them.

Keep Track of What People Are Saying About You Online

Whether you like it or not, people are going to talk. And when you have a company, it’s important to be in tune with what people are saying about it, and where and how they’re saying it. With the help of online tools like Google Alerts, you can track individuals that mention your business online.

These tools will monitor the web and notify you when your company name is brought up. This way, you can always stay in the loop, regardless of whether the conversation is good or bad.

View Common Complaints as Constructive Criticism

Are you seeing a pattern in the negative reviews you’re receiving? It might be time to lay down the groundwork for some change. Ultimately, you should be dedicated to customer satisfaction and always want to better your services.

So, pay close attention to what your clients complain about—especially if you often receive similar complaints. Take it as constructive criticism and an opportunity for improvement. If you put in the work, you can only go up from there!

There you have it, folks. The secret (not-so-secret-anymore) online reputation management tips that can help you turn those negatives into positives—all on your own. Still, if you find yourself needing more expert advice, or if you’d like to boost your rep even more, drop us a line at website@linknowmedia.com or call us at 1.888.667.7186.

How to Fix a Bad Online Reputation

By Eve Mendelovitch

On September 16, 2019

In Blog

Do you feel like your online reputation has suffered a blow? If someone has left you a negative review, don’t panic! It isn’t the end of the world.

Understandably, someone slandering your business online can be frustrating. But before you stress out over it, it’s important to assess the situation and take a proactive approach!

Make an Assessment of the Damage to Your Reputation Online: Is It Even that Bad?

So, is your reputation really damaged? A snide, negative comment left by an unhappy customer or jealous competitor is a bummer, but is it really that big of a deal?

Think about the review that was left. Does it look like it could be spam? Google tries to filter out these types of comments as they don’t find them relevant. Does the reviewer have any credibility? Do they mention your specific market specialties in these comments? Without an actual history of leaving reviews, Google won’t take their word for it. Plus, a negative comment can be a bummer, but if they don’t mention specifics, the review won’t hold much weight with potential clients.

Once you have a good grasp of the situation, you’ll not only be less stressed, but you’ll be able to come up with a plan of action. Try applying a combination of the following strategies where you see fit.

Emphasize the Positive with Local Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a marketing tool used to help your business rank higher on Google and increase traffic to your web pages. It can also become an effective strategy to bring the positive and trustworthy information about your company upfront and centre. As a result, this will push everything else back, making it negligible and difficult find.

Encourage Your Clients to Leave You Reviews and Carefully Manage Them

Having good review management tactics in place can help you promote the reviews you actually want people to see all while properly dealing with the ones you don’t. Always encourage clients to leave you amazing reviews, especially if you’ve visibly impressed them. Before you know it, those negative, spammy-looking ones will seem irrelevant.

Create High-Quality, SEO-Optimized Content

One of the easiest ways to dramatically boost your online reputation is to have high-quality, professional content on your website. You can build amazing credibility like this in no time! Not only will people now find positive reviews when they search for you. They’ll also find engaging, well-written content from you that will overshadow any doubt that may have been cast by one measly bad review.

Hire a Trusted Online Reputation Management Service like LinkNow Media

In the end, it might not be the bad review that’s causing your reputation to suffer, but the lack of professional online presence. By enlisting a company like LinkNow Media to do the work for you, you’ll be allowing your business to flourish and keeping those untrustworthy reviews in the dark.

Do you need our help implementing online reputation management strategies? Want to learn more about Local SEO? For general inquiries, email website@linknowmedia.com. For more information on Local SEO, email mylocalseo@linknowmedia.com. Don’t forget to leave a comment!

3 Tricks to Improve the Online Presence of Your Business

By Eve Mendelovitch

On June 3, 2019

In Blog

The accessibility, precision, and sheer scope of the internet has forever changed the way businesses operate.

To say that everyone is online nowadays is neither stereotype nor hyperbole – that goes for clients and enterprises alike. A business’s online presence has become equal parts storefront and calling card, permitting degrees of promotion and engagement that yesterday’s proprietors could only have dreamt of.

With the right content and approach, you can advertise the very best of your products and engage with the people interested in acquiring them.

In other words, instead of staging a presentation, start a conversation.

Just to help you out, the SEO department at LinkNow Media has assembled a simple list of three steps businesses can take towards developing their online prowess. And don’t forget to let us know what you think in the comments!

1) Establish Your Presence and Maintain It

By now, you’re well aware of the power and potential of the online world. Websites, social media, and email lists are the norm among business owners.

But it doesn’t end there.

A website devoid of content, or a Facebook page without a single post, is the online equivalent of a new car without gas. It looks great—but won’t get you far. And while you’re lagging behind the competition, your clients are going to go elsewhere.

Update and maintain your website and social media profiles with the same care and regularity as you would a storefront. Give your customers a window into your best work by taking photos and posting them online! Write blog posts, social media posts, and continuously add new landing pages to your website. Don’t forget that content is king in 2019!

It can be internal, too – feature posts about additions to your inventory, changes to offered services, or even profiles on new employees! When you keep your customers abreast, you can forget the rest.

2) Be Receptive and Accessible to Your Clientele

One advantage small businesses have against corporations is a sense of intimacy. Your clients can put a face to your name. Seize this advantage and engage with everyone who’s following your business online!

Respond to good and bad reviews promptly and in detail. Answer inquiries you receive, on your pages or via email, in an equally timely manner. Acknowledge compliments and attempt to resolve complaints.

You’ll be amazed at what you can learn about your clientele—and about your business itself. Take the feedback to heart and listen attentively to what your customers have to say.

Above all, be consistent and maintain a constant and reliable presence. By showing customers that you care about what they think you’ll forge meaningful connections that can be turned into leads.

3) Reward Existing Customers and Incentivize New Ones

The importance of repeat business and customer loyalty depends on your industry.

For instance, showing up for a one-time lawn care appointment could lead to years of frequent lawn maintenance.

Regardless of where you find yourself, acknowledge the customers who have stuck by you since day one. Consider the VIP approach and offer exclusive referral bonuses, discounts, or even a newsletter for regular customers.

In the same vein, always be on the lookout for new clients. Consider untapped markets. And never sacrifice one for the other.

Maintain online engagement with your current customers, and you’ll be opening the door to new business!

5 Reasons Your Company Should Use Glassdoor

By Eve Mendelovitch

On May 3, 2019

In Blog

Usually, when businesses think of online review platforms, they think of the client-centric ones like Facebook, Google My Business, and Yelp. The whole idea is to give customers the ability to speak their mind about your products and services. Review platforms create a space of open communication and transparent dialogue that forces companies to be accountable to consumers.

But what about the employees who make it all possible? That’s where Glassdoor comes in. Glassdoor is a review platform that forces employers to be accountable to their employees. It helps create a culture of transparency, openness, and honesty. It builds your brand. And most importantly, it helps companies attract (and hold onto) the talent they need to thrive—and grow!

Join us as we explore why your company needs Glassdoor and how to make the most of Glassdoor.

1. Use Glassdoor to Communicate Your Company Culture

The first thing to know about Glassdoor is that everyone’s reading it. And not just the reviews, either. Glassdoor gives candidates the opportunity to read about your company’s workplace culture in a more transparent way than you might find on their own website.

Make the most of your profile by including a succinct mission statement, outlining objectives, and explaining exactly what you do. But be honest! In 2019, it’s not just millennials who are looking for employers that respect their values. Everyone is. And if your goal is to build a team that works well together and sticks around for the long-haul, you should be looking for candidates who align with your values too.

Glassdoor is the perfect way to make it happen.

2. Show Current Employees and Candidates that You Stand By Your Values

Employment in 2019 is all about authenticity. Do you hold true to your values? Do you stand by your policies? Do you treat your employees with respect?

Glassdoor makes it impossible to keep things ‘behind closed doors’. Not fulfilling your promises? The secret will get out! This is what makes Glassdoor such a trusted source for people on the job hunt. Anything false or misleading could end up getting you called out in the reviews located just below. Ideally, every review confirms what you say about yourself. Communicate a strong sense of identity and workplace culture through Glassdoor’s Overview section.

3. Post Jobs on Glassdoor and Make Them Searchable with SEO

About 89% of Glassdoor users use it to find jobs. Make sure you’re getting the best applicants by making your open positions accessible to job seekers. Best of all, posting jobs on Glassdoor is free!

Make sure that when you write your business descriptions, reply to comments, and post job descriptions that you’re optimizing everything with keywords that are relevant to job seekers. This will help them find your company and the jobs that you’re offering.

4. Don’t Get Stressed About Revealing Salary Information

You might want to keep salaries a secret. But everyone else is dying to know. Accept the fact that average salaries and salary expectations are already widely available online. People are talking. Plus, your candidates are going to find out eventually. Wouldn’t you rather weed out the disinterested parties before going through the entire interview process?

5. Take Feedback Seriously and Show that You Care About Growing

Sure, financial growth is important. But so is internal growth! At LinkNow Media, we want our employees to criticize us. We’ve made it a point to hire strong-minded, hardworking, critical employees who are not afraid to offer feedback. It’s not about negativity either. By opening our doors to constructive criticism, we’ve created a culture of communication.

The idea is to take criticisms and learn how to grow from them. Glassdoor is the perfect forum to show to future candidates and current employees that you take their feedback seriously. Don’t think of it like employees airing your dirty laundry. Think of it as an opportunity to show the world what kind of company you are!

Interested in working at LinkNow Media? Check out our Glassdoor profile! Join the conversation and apply now!

How Does Yelp’s Review Filter Work?

By Eve Mendelovitch

On April 16, 2019

In Blog

The best way to market your business is by managing your online reputation. It’s free. It’s easy. And all you have to do is provide high-value products and services.

For anyone who’s invested time and money into their online marketing, understanding the way review algorithms filter the trustworthy from the untrustworthy is crucial. And with the ever-increasing popularity of Yelp, it’s become more important than ever to understand how their review filter works.

With that in mind, we’re here to de-mystify the whole process and help you build your online reputation. Here’s what we currently know about Yelp’s review filter.

What Is Yelp’s Review Filter?

Yelp uses a set of criteria to weed out reviews that they deem untrustworthy. Yelp does not publish any details about their criteria, so what we do know is largely based on inference and third-party research. Nonetheless, we can be reasonably sure of the accuracy of this research.

According to Yelp, their algorithm is based on three principles: “Quality, Reliability, and User Activity.” Yelp also reports that they filter out roughly 25% of all reviews, though recent evidence suggests the figure could be considerably higher.

Why Does Yelp Filter Reviews?

Like other review-aggregating platforms like Google, Yelp uses its filter to improve the quality of its review system. By hiding untrustworthy or fake reviews, Yelp helps businesses manage their online reputations in a more effective way.

Ultimately, the goal is to make Yelp more trustworthy as a review platform. If it were filled with fake reviews no one would trust it. No one would use it. That would be the end of Yelp. Yelp doesn’t want that.

How Does Yelp’s Review Filter Work?

Yelp’s review filter divides reviews into two categories:

Recommended Reviews: are reviews that contribute to the overall rating of a business. They are also the most accessible as they’re shown on each business’s Yelp profile page.

Not Currently Recommended Reviews: are reviews that have been filtered out by the algorithm. They don’t contribute to the over all rating. However, it’s still possible to view the ‘Not Currently Recommended Reviews’ by scrolling to the bottom of the profile and clicking the link that reads “other reviews that are not currently recommended”.

One of the interesting parts of Yelp’s algorithm is that it hides reviews until it deems them to be trustworthy. And vice-versa. That means there’s always the possibility of improvement over time.

Yelp looks at each user’s activity and reviewing patterns to decide whether their reviews are trustworthy or not. The following are some of those considerations:

Has the reviewer’s profile been created recently?

Has the user written any past reviews?

What is the quality of the user’s past reviews?

Does the review contain any misinformation? Or hateful or bigoted language?

Is there evidence that the review was solicited?

By taking account of these criteria (and, undoubtedly, much more) Yelp determines the overall relevance of each review. The best case scenario would be if all of your best customers were also active, trusted Yelp users. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case.

What Can I Do to Improve My Yelp Reviews?

The best course of action is to provide amazing service and amazing products every time. That way, your clients will be inclined to leave amazing reviews without being asked.

After all, Yelp does not encourage you to solicit reviews. And while you can try work around their policy to generate reviews, you may find yourself in deep water if Yelp decides to punish you for it.

Another trick is to ask your clients to be more active on Yelp. Not by leaving reviews on your business, but by leaving reviews for other businesses. It may seem counter-intuitive but it will lend more clout to their reviews and make it less likely for Yelp to filter them out. That way, the reviews that best reflect your business will have a greater chance of landing on your page.

Do you have a story about your Yelp reviews or a fresh perspective on Yelp’s algorithm? Leave a comment below!

And if you need a hand with managing your online reputation, get LinkNow’s local SEO team on the job!

How To Encourage Employee Feedback Online

By Eve Mendelovitch

On January 18, 2019

In Blog

Creating a comfortable work environment for colleagues and employees is something that every company strives for. Some companies have a harder time achieving this than others. At LinkNow Media, on the other hand, we feel we’ve created the kind of environment that makes staff feel comfortable expressing their complaints and concerns.

What’s the secret formula behind a happy workplace? Unfortunately, there isn’t one. There’s no short-cut to cultivating a space where employees feel comfortable providing feedback. But that doesn’t mean it’s difficult either. A workplace with open dialogues and considerations given to every employee comment comes with patience, understanding, and mutual respect—just like in any relationship or team environment.

The Importance of Employee Feedback

When employees give feedback, it shows they have a more-than-active interest in the company. When their feedback is taken into consideration, they only feel more invested in the workplace. What employer would want to stifle that sense of dedication? Not us!

Employee feedback, whether within the office, or online via review/recruitment sites like Glassdoor, isn’t just great for morale—it’s great for your brand and future recruitment efforts. By promoting anonymous review platforms like Glassdoor, you give your employees the chance to make their opinions heard without fear of repercussions. It’s a great resource, not just for prospective employees, but also employers looking to improve their company culture and management style.

Here are some helpful tips courtesy of LinkNow Media.

Tips on How to Encourage Employee Feedback Online

There are few recruitment tools as valuable as Glassdoor. That’s because Glassdoor has the option to for employees to leave anonymous reviews. These reviews can be as detailed as one wishes, or brief and to-the-point. How can an employer or team manager persuade their teammates to leave reviews on these online review platforms like Glassdoor?

Fostering a workplace environment where employees feel comfortable speaking their mind is only half the battle. To get clients to take time out of their day to type out their feedback? How’s that supposed to happen?

Here’s a scenario: If your company is looking to fill a position in a certain department, having reviews and information on Glassdoor about the position is incredibly helpful, isn’t it? And having the right people apply for the job is especially important for employees, right? Regardless of qualifications, if someone doesn’t ‘gel’ with their employees, it can be a recipe for disaster.

How can you make sure potential applicants know whether they’d be a good fit with your team and vice versa? Ask your teammates to write up-to-date explanations of their job on Glassdoor! When
the goal is building the right team, every employee should feel invested enough to leave employee feedback and online reviews.

Online Employee Feedback and Reviews from Newcomers

Another great approach to getting employee feedback is by asking newcomers. New to the job, they’re likely energized and wowed by your company’s accommodating atmosphere. Asking them to write about their first day of work on Glassdoor should be no different than writing a customer review on Yelp.

These are but a few of the ways companies cultivate a workplace where employees feel comfortable—even eager—to leave online reviews. At the end of the day, it all comes down to having a work environment with a reliable Human Resources team to deal with confidential complaints, excellent team leaders, and an office that feels like more than just a workplace.

How to Get Positive Online Reviews from Your Clients on Boxing Day

By Eve Mendelovitch

On December 21, 2018

In Blog

There are few industries in the world that have an easy time getting positive reviews from their clients. Getting positive reviews during the busiest time of year is no exception either. Negative reviews? Sure. Some customers will leave negative reviews for the most minor of offenses—or for no offense at all. Those reviews, however, are not the kind we’re talking about.

We’re talking about honest, positive reviews. Thoughtful reviews, or just reviews that consist of the briefest of compliments. There are few companies that don’t struggle to get glowing (and unincentivized!) reviews. Even the companies who’ve never failed to provide with customers with complete satisfaction can’t seem to get a single 5-star review on their Yelp or Google listing!

At LinkNow Media, we talk with a lot of business owners. Most of them, at first, have this very same dilemma. They do great work day-in, day-out, and every customer always leaves their shop with a satisfied smile on their face—but alas, their Google and Yelp review sections are blank.

How do we help our clients get out of this slump? How can you get your clients to spread the good word about your high-quality customer service during the holiday season?

Here are a few of the suggestions LinkNow Media provides to our clients.

Ask Your Clients to Leave Reviews!

That’s right. Just ask them! Despite how hectic holiday shopping and Boxing Day sales may be, people are still imbued with the Christmas spirit. It’s the season of giving! They’re eager to reciprocate warm feelings and generosity. Any time you have a positive experience with a client in person this holiday season, just ask them to leave a little review!

You might be wondering, “Is it OK to ask for reviews?” For Google at least, the answer is 100%, “Yes!” Ask away!

Yelp, on the other hand, has made it explicitly clear that no company should incentivize clients and customers to leave reviews. What does that mean? In short, it means that your customers should be leaving reviews because they genuinely want to spread the word about the business or help you out. The same rule should apply to any other review platform as well. You should want EVERY review to be genuine and sincere, after all.

Asking in person might seem stressful or pushy, but it really isn’t. A good customer interaction should be professional, yes, but it should also be personable and good-natured. If you have a friendly rapport with your client, asking them for a review should not seem pushy.

There is no better time than the end of a sale to ask your client to leave a review. They’ll have just been helped out by you, so they’ll be eager to help your business out and spread the good word.

The “Buy Local” Campaign

Now more than ever, people love supporting local businesses. Small business owners are a valued part of any community. If your clients see your business as a community-oriented company that is “local” in spirit and practice, they’ll be more inclined to leave you a positive review.

The “Tip” Method

Another great approach for gathering more online reviews is the “tip” approach. After you’ve had a great Holiday interaction with a client let them know that if they leave a positive review mentioning the name of the person that helped them, the company will give them a tip or “holiday bonus” for their great service.

We’ve seen this method work time and time again. Many clients see it as a way of “giving back” to their service providers and local workers. And all that’s required of them is that they leave a genuine and honest review!

There are other ways to accumulate positive online reviews, but they all require one thing: Quality customer interactions! If you’re not providing your client warm, friendly, and first-rate customer service this holiday season, they’ll be more inclined to give you a lump of goal over a good review.

Next Up From LinkNow Media: Glassdoor Reviews to Improve Your Business

By Eve Mendelovitch

On May 21, 2018

In Blog

If there’s one thing you can count on LinkNow Media for, it’s our going on and on about how important reviews are to your business. When you’re trying to establish a digital footprint, nothing helps more than positive reviews from your customers, vouching that you did the job right and on time. In fact, even negative reviews are useful [EVE: LINK], and responding to them gives you an opportunity to reach out to right wrongs and to appear gracious in the eyes of potential clients.

So it’s only natural that this principle can extend to the reviews of your business on Glassdoor. Not sure what Glassdoor is? Well, it’s a site where employees can submit reviews about your company’s culture and hiring practices. It was designed as a space where job hunters could learn about prospective employers’ before signing onto a team.

Unfortunately, like so many things on the Internet, the effect wasn’t quite as its designers intended. Happy employees are too busy being happy at your workplace to spontaneously seek out Glassdoor and review your workplace culture. The most likely people to find and review you on the site? Disgruntled ex-employees with an axe to grind and a desire to make your business look bad in the public eye.

Improving Company Culture

As small business owners ourselves, management at our business is always looking for a way to improve the team experience at LinkNow Media. Glassdoor reviews, just like negative reviews on Google My Business, can seem scary at first, especially for new businesses. But when faced with negative Glassdoor reviews, LinkNow Media has some top tips for you: reach out to the ex-employee who posted the negative review and share your side of the story.

Act with compassion and you’ll show prospective employees you care about your employees, even if things didn’t work out as planned.

And, with a little humility, you can even learn something. Sure, you know everything about the finances and future of your business, but is it possible that there might be a grain of truth to the ex-employees gripes? There’s probably a lot of exaggeration in the Glassdoor review too, but maybe there’s an opportunity for you as a promoter of your company’s workplace culture [EVE: LINK TO SERIES ON COMPANY CULTURE].

What to Learn From Negative Glassdoor Reviews

If you’re the entrepreneurial sort, well, so are we. That’s why we started LinkNow Media. Glassdoor reviews that are negative, unflattering, or just plain untruthful? That’s a bitter pill to swallow. But if there’s any advice to take to heart, it’s the phrase: “You can’t please everyone all of the time. But you can please someone some of the time.”

Improving workplace and company culture is an admirable goal, and it’s one your employees will thank you for. But the super awesome team-building games you planned for next Monday will thrill the extroverts on your team and send shivers of dread through the spines of the workplace introverts. Just goes to show that company culture is often just a matter of perspective.

Indeed: More than Just a Job Hunting Site

By Eve Mendelovitch

On March 19, 2018

In Blog

Available in over 60 countries and in 28 languages, if you’ve searched for a job in the last 10 years you’ll know what Indeed is. Indeed makes it simple to upload your resume for ease of application for jobs you’re interested in, and makes it simple for employers to create their own page, post jobs, and find the ideal candidate. If an employee makes their resume public, employers can even do the legwork themselves and reach out to candidates they’re interested in.

But there’s something else featured on Indeed that not everyone notices, and that’s employer reviews. In 2014, the amount of reviews posted reached the four million mark and we can only imagine how many there are now!

In-Depth Reviewing Process

Indeed reviews dig a lot deeper than other review sites, giving Indeed the ability to compile information about national averages and much more.
When a client leaves a review for your company, they are asked for the following:

Five-star ratings of job work/life balance, salary benefits, job security/advancement, management, and job culture

A review title and review (150 characters minimum)

Pros and cons

Your job title and workplace location

Your start and end date

Your salary (listed confidentially as part of a statistics pool)

A CEO recommendation “yes or no”

How you dressed at your interview, and what benefits the company offers

Considering the majority of review sites such as Google and Facebook just offer a star rating and comment box this is quite a lot to consider!

Using Indeed Reviews

When people are looking for a job, they want the inside scoop. Indeed allows them to have this. In fact, in 2014, 83% of job hunters said that employer reviews influenced their decision when applying.

When gathering reviews it’s important to not always think about the client but to remember that your reviews are also going to affect your workforce. Your ideal employee could be out there right now and if you don’t have the right reviews they could slip right through your fingers.

Top companies on Indeed can make it to the Indeed blog pages and other listings, showing off to future employees all the great things they have to offer, and even ranking higher on Google searches.

Dealing With Negativity

Unfortunately, in this case, unlike Google, ex-employees can review your company. And those reviews may be negative. So, how do you deal with it? Well, you deal with it like any other review.

Acknowledge and thank reviewers for positive feedback, and empathize with those who left negative feedback. As always, if you present yourself professionally you could sway the opinion of that future employee or client reading through a negative review.

People know that there’s always two sides to a story, and expressing your side calmly and truthfully, can make a world of difference.

Make the Leader Board!

While it is most common for larger companies like RBC to make Indeed’s leader board, you can make it to the top in your own industry. This ranking is determined by having sufficient reviews for the relevant category as well as update frequency.

So, stay active on your Indeed page and see what it can do for you!

Ex-Employees Can No Longer Leave You Negative Reviews

By Eve Mendelovitch

On January 8, 2018

In Blog

Reviews are meant to be about customer experience, however many business owners experience the inevitable negative review coming through from an ex-employee. Employee turnover is tough enough without having to worry about what’s going to be said publicly after someone is let go or quits.

Many reviews are exaggerated or complete lies, and can bring up personal details about management and other employees which really should not be online.

But, at long last, Google has updated their policies to be more comprehensive and mark negative reviews from ex-employees as a conflict of interest.

Out With the Old

Google’s latest review update makes review guidelines more comprehensive. While the previous guidelines were vague when it came to discussing customer experience and conflict of interest, now it is quite clear.

The policies used to read:

Make sure that the reviews on your business listing, or those that you leave at a business you’ve visited, are honest representations of the customer experience. Those that aren’t may be removed.

Conflict of Interest: Reviews are most valuable when they are honest and unbiased. If you own or work at a place, please don’t review your own business or employer.

These don’t specifically say anything about ex-employees. All they state is that you must have visited the business, be stating an honest unbiased opinion, and not currently work there or own the business.

In With the New

Now, if you visit Google’s new guidelines found on Maps’ help center, you’ll find a comprehensive list of prohibited and restricted content under which “Conflict of Interest”now reads:

Maps users contributed content is most valuable when it is honest and unbiased. The following practices are not allowed:

Reviewing your own business

Posting negative content about a current or former employment experience

Posting negative content about a competitor to manipulate their ratings

There’s not much you can argue with that wording!

But What About Positive Reviews?

It’s clear in reading the updated content policy that this new rule only applies to negative reviews left by ex-employees. So, if you’ve received a few glowing positive reviews from employees who have since moved on to other workplaces or retired, it looks like you’re in the clear.

Ex-employees rarely feel the need to lie about a positive experience, so it’s to be assumed that Google agrees with this as an honest, unbiased experience.

Clean up That Reputation!

If your business currently has negative reviews from ex-employees sitting there tarnishing your reputation, now is the time to get in touch with Google My Business and ask that they remove the reviews.

This is a happy new year indeed!

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LinkNow Media | Customer Reviews

The Web is Waiting For You

Tag: Employee Reviews (Page 1 of 2)

How to Fix a Bad Online Reputation

Make an Assessment of the Damage to Your Reputation Online: Is It Even that Bad?

Emphasize the Positive with Local Search Engine Optimization

Encourage Your Clients to Leave You Reviews and Carefully Manage Them

Create High-Quality, SEO-Optimized Content

Hire a Trusted Online Reputation Management Service like LinkNow Media

3 Tricks to Improve the Online Presence of Your Business

1) Establish Your Presence and Maintain It

2) Be Receptive and Accessible to Your Clientele

3) Reward Existing Customers and Incentivize New Ones

How To Encourage Employee Feedback Online

The Importance of Employee Feedback

Tips on How to Encourage Employee Feedback Online

Online Employee Feedback and Reviews from Newcomers

Next Up From LinkNow Media: Glassdoor Reviews to Improve Your Business

Improving Company Culture

What to Learn From Negative Glassdoor Reviews

Indeed: More than Just a Job Hunting Site

In-Depth Reviewing Process

Using Indeed Reviews

Dealing With Negativity

Make the Leader Board!

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