Single 1 Star Rating on GMB

[ViviCa1]

Hi all, We recently received a 1 star rating on GMB. It's just the rating, no review/comment with it. We don't recognise the name so we think it must have been made in error or is spam.

We discussed this internally, and it was decided that we should try to have it removed, although I personally didn't think our chances of getting it removed would be very good (because we wouldn't be able to prove it was spam). I flagged it as spam but didn't get a reply (would you even expect to get one?). I also sent GMB a DM on Twitter a couple of days ago, and again no reply.

Edit: Google have now replied as I tweeted them again and as expected they won't remove the rating as it doesn't violate their policies.

Normally, I wouldn't be so concerned about one individual poor rating (especially as it is just a rating), but we haven't had any reviews on Google before, so now our average is one star which just looks bad when someone googles our company. We use an external review provider for getting reviews from customers, so we don't actively encourage our customers to rate us on Google.

I was thinking we should reply to the rating, with a message saying something along the lines of "We can't find your name in our accounts, but if you get in touch with our customer service, we are confident they will be able to help you."

It would also help to get more ratings or reviews to even out the one bad one and improve our average.

Is there anything else we could do? How would you handle this? Thanks!

[RayflexGroup]

I think the best option is to respond to the rating, just to give the chance to change that 1* to 5* if it was a genuine rating. the response you have mentioned is straightforward enough, but I think you should definitely encourage other customers to review on GMB - just to even out the one star if your anonymous reviewer isn't willing to rectify the rating. In our case, it's definitely helped us stand out against our competitors on maps listings so maybe it can do the same for you?

I think the way you are handling it is fine - other than speaking to Google, I don't think there isn't really much else to do but try to rectify the issue with the customer (if genuine) and build ratings to receive 5* on GMB.

[ViviCa1]

Thanks! I did respond to it (slightly different wording though), so we will see what happens.

I agree we should get some more reviews to improve our average but will have to see how we can encourage customers to rate us on Google as well as the other platform we use.

[RayflexGroup]

What generally works for us is we send an email with the direct link to the review box:
https://support.google.com/business/answer/7035772?hl=en-GB

The link takes them straight to the comment box, all they need to do is rate and write then press enter - we express that it only takes a minute to send a review but helps us out a lot, however, we find it easier if the sales team drop the link into an email after checking the product is received and installed!

Just a few tips from our experience with GMB reviews - hope it all goes well for you!

[ViviCa1]

Thanks, that's a great tip! I've bookmarked that page, very handy to have that link. I'll bring it up with the team. I agree, it might be easiest for the sales team to share the link.