As a 68 year old world traveller, an executive who has started more than 19 companies… I see many young Google reviewers (the public) write negative and discourteous reviews of some restaurant or hotel they have stayed at. I don’t find that helpful. I don’t think the owner of that establishment finds that helpful. I know customers don’t find it helpful. I have had a number of situations where I am about to write a good or great review for a place and look at the other reviews only to see another reviewer is bad-mouthing an establishment over some very petty things. I think this is just wrong.
What I try and do when I encounter a bad situation of service, quality of facility or staff dysfunction is I try to first engage with the owner or manager of the establishment. No, I do not identify myself as someone who is going to write a review, that would be wrong and boarder on intimidation or harassment. Instead, what I have found to be more helpful is to engage with that owner/manager, find out how much they care about the issues at hand. In most cases I find they are VERY interested in fixing a bad situation. Replacing the bad meal or removing a troublesome staff. Rarely do I find these managers not willing to fix the problems at hand. But, in the rare case that they do not or are not present I simply let it go. Often what I end up writing is not a negative review but an instructive review. A review that helps people to really get the flavor of a place. What is good about it, what are its challenges. This doesn’t mean everybody gets 5 stars but it does mean you have given the public a better understanding of what they might encounter.
So why do I do this? Good question. Google gives me nothing. I don’t ask for anything from the business and the people who I rate… I simply enjoy helping others and like it when I can see a review before I go into a place and have a good sense of what I am about to experience.
I know in the US people go out to eat some 40% of the time. Around the world that is more like 5 or 10%. I think this means that someone who is in Africa or Europe is more interested in a review and that there are fewer reviews. Especially the new places. They are dying for visibility and when you find a gem it is fun to help them gain visibility. Finding someone with a passion for what they do rather than another mid level person at a chain store is so much more fun in life…
What the world doesn’t need is another review of the Marriott’s Sunday Buffet.
Please revise the two links you added. They are both not working. The youtube video is marked private, you need to make it public. If the link is to an ip address, then you might need some dots in there.
Hi @torreyrussell not everyone has the confidence to confront a manager or owner when they have an issue. While it is important to not mark down on petty things and its important to leave a reasoned factual emotion free review, as a customer and as a Local Guide I find lower scoring reviews very helpful in knowing if I will use a business or visit a place.
If they have one or a few low scoring reviews out of many positive then I would be inclined to ignore those reviews and use the business, but if they had more than say 10% then I would know that perhaps they don’t serve everyone equally.
It looks like this is your application post for Connect Live 2020 , so I will move it to the Local Stories section which is the right place for this type of posts. Here you can find everything you need to know about writing a post for your Connect Live 2020 application. If you think you are missing some of the points mentioned, you can always edit the post and add them.
Please bear mind that I have redacted the link you shared, since we do not encourage promotion of any sort.
Frankly if someone is willing to take down a business and hide behind their pen I think they should have the courtesy of at least trying to reach out to whomever it was they feel didn’t do their job. This whole “Guide” thing is a way for Google to fight Yelp and others…I get it. I am trying to write honest reviews. That said, I at least give a business a chance to right that wrong… Reviews live for a long time out there. I am not sure guides realize how impactful their reviews can be on a small business. Fake or false reviews are even worse. These reviews, with no retribution, can really hurt a business.
As you know less than 50% of businesses haven’t even claimed their google my business page (https://localmarketinginstitute.com/44-percent-have-google-my-business/) Or is that called Google Plus… or … what is today’s name? Google has to stop messing around with this service. get it right and set it. Have people calling and helping businesses… at least have a phone number you can call? I can’t tell you the number of businesses I have worked with over the years that have given up. Google is just too hard to do business with. Reviews are part of that impossible puzzle.
Sorry, end of rant.
So I believe if you have the guts to cut some business to the bone you should at least have the guts to meet that owner/manager and stop hiding behind your pen. This is the problem with the Internet. You can be a flame thrower and not realize any consequences…Wonder what Google’s liability for this is?
How do you get a fair shake as a business if Google won’t even take down these bad or fake reviews?
Funny thing, I have noticed is that Google is now pulling in TripAdvisor (and booking.com) and pushing those to the top above the unwashed of the world. Interesting development don’t you think? Puts the liability on TripAdvisor instead of Google… typical, what was that ? “Do no evil”. Right.
I agree and this is what I tell the fellow community every time. We should write reviews (even our bad experiences) in a way that helps a place/business for improvement. This is the real effect of a Local Guide to help people for finding good places and help bad places to become good.
Apparently I have touched a nerve of many of our senior guides. What I think most people (those writing reviews who are just a member of the public) don’t get is that word of mouth is upwards of 90+% trusted. A review one finds about a business on a site like Google or TripAdvisor is right up there (85 percent of people trust those reviews as much as recommendations from friends and family. https://www.revlocal.com/blog/review-and-reputation-management/online-reviews-vs-word-of-mouth-which-one-is-more-important )
The point is that people who write reviews are so important to a buying decision. I don’t think they are aware of this? I think that many people are hiding behind their PCs and say things that ‘tommy p.’ would never say in person. I like what TripAdvisor is doing. You have to be logged into their site, and agree to their terms of service and then the review is reviewed (by a person?)… Google could learn a lot from this approach.
