Love ’em or hate ’em, those online review sites can have a big impact on the reputation and public perception of a practice. Any negative reviews could be influencing potential clients years after it was posted, potentially for as long as the forum exists.

 

Sites such as Google Review and Yelp offer consumers a genuine opportunity to post their personal experiences of service providers, so others can consider whether or not to use them. They are however, subject to little scrutiny by the site administrators.

 

So what should you do if someone posts a review that may be questionable in accuracy or intent?

“Suffer the slings and arrows or take arms against a sea of troubles”? (Apologies to Mr Shakespeare).

 

Sites have rules that govern how and what can be posted. These are sometimes referred to as “Terms of Use” or “Content Guidelines”.      A review post which breaches those rules can be deleted, but it’s up to the business in question to request this.

 

You’ll need to know what the site rules are and show why the post contravenes them or evidence that the information is inaccurate or spurious. It can be difficult and time consuming but it can be done; as shown in this example:

 

We’re writing to let you know that we’ve evaluated _________________ review of _________Plastic Surgery that you recently reported. After assessing the review carefully against our Content Guidelines, we agree that this review should be removed.

We rely on community engagement to help keep Yelp useful. Thanks so much for taking the time to bring this matter to our attention!

 – The Yelp Support Team

 

The reputation of your practice is a critical business asset.

Be proactive and don’t be afraid to defend it, if necessary.