How useful is Google Plus to a business?

[CostumeD]

Is Google Plus really very beneficial to a business, as our experience is that this is where difficult customers or even competitors can write bad reviews?

[RyanScollon]

Hey,

I assume this is why you don't want to show the reviews feature? Google+ is a great tool if you are a local business. Being in the UK, we tend to find that not a lot of people use it as a social platform and is solely used to help businesses get found in the local pack in search results.

There are several things you can do to sort review issues such as the ones you mentioned. With difficult customers, I would recommend implementing a feedback process that allows customers to express their thoughts but 'behind closed doors'. Try and resolve the issue via a phone call or email before they decide to leave a bad review.

My other recommendation would be to implement a review strategy, so if someone does leave a bad review on your Google+ page, you will have plenty of other good reviews to balance it out.

To deal with competitors leaving fake reviews, I would suggest you read this post: https://www.bowlerhat.co.uk/how-to-remove-fake-reviews-on-google/

I hope this helps

https://www.bowlerhat.co.uk/how-to-remove-fake-reviews-on-google/

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Li,

Google+ Local is pretty much essential for any local business. These days, direct links to the Google+ Local page are very hard to find due to cosmetic changes Google has been making to the way they present data, but, the information you provide in the Google My Business dashboard is what will then be displayed in the local packs of results, the local finder view, Google Maps and any Knowledge Panel results you have. So, yes, it's really important.

While it's true that customers now have the freedom to leave reviews whenever and wherever they wish to, there are 3 very important things to consider regarding this.

1. All of your competitors are in the same boat. They face the reality of both positive and negative reviews, and to fail to join in is likely going to cost you business.

2. The best insurance against earning too many negative reviews is awesome customer service. Do your best job in training your staff to treat customers excellently and you should mainly earn positive reviews.

3. And here's something quite fascinating. Surveys like this one from GetFiveStars indicate that a core motivation for consumers is to reward excellent service. While it's true that some consumers are also motivated to leave reviews when service was really negative, it can lessen concern to realize that the business owner is actually in a position of great control if the excellent service he provides can generate the positive reviews he wants to earn.

Hope this helps!

[rblvoczkvwbc]

Although Google is not so famous, I found it to be helpful in 2 ways personally.

Some groups also regularly publish content unique to a company niche, of course. If you'd like to join these groups, then you're still under the same group.

A Google+ page is much more powerful to have for my company  (business Coaching in Pakistan) than it has a personal profile. In particular it will only work for you if you're a local company and have a checked position on Google Post Card.