Dealing with fraudulent reviews

Question:
Someone wrote a review about my property and I’ve checked to see if the incident occurred. It didn’t. Now what do I do? It’s the most recent review and it’s impacting my business..

-DOSM attending a conference in London

Our Answer:

If you think you’ve been subject to fraudulent review(s) being posted about you, then you should contact the review site administrator to contest the review. However, ever heard of the boy who cried “wolf?” Don’t do this just to get rid of a legitimate bad review because review site administrators are not stupid and they eventually catch on.

The better strategy is to provide such great service that other people will write glowing reviews about your property frequently, pushing the negative ones down the queue. Finally, have faith in the consumer. S/he is likely to form an opinion based on an average of reviews read as opposed to just the latest one, particularly if it’s in stark contrast to everything else that’s been written about your property on the same site.