How Fake Reviews Can Impact Your Business?
In the world of online business, reviews and testimonials prove determinants in the business’s success. These testimonials are considered a direct reflection of a business or brand, thus amplifying its importance. According to a survey, around 88% of consumers trust consumer ratings to make purchases.
However, the number of fake reviews has been a menace recently. From bots to employing people to post reviews, businesses are using various techniques to get fake reviews thinking that it’ll help them grow.
What are the implications of posting fake positive reviews about your own business?
When the consumers recognize the fake positive reviews, they change their decisions that directly reflect in your revenue. Most of the fake reviews are easily recognizable based on the following factors.
- Duplicate Reviews: These reviews sound like a copy of each other.
- Irrelevant Reviews: Reviews with wrong information about the products.
- Reviews That Are Too Good To Be True: All 5-star ratings and positive comments sound suspicious.
- Reviews With Bad Grammar And Broken Language: Many reviews with terrible grammar and broken language look suspicious too.
- Reviews By A Profile Without Details And Pictures: Such profiles without details and pictures reflect bots.
What Are The Implications Of Fake Positive Reviews That You Post About Your Brand?
Fake reviews undoubtedly do more harm than good. It’s noted that around 97% of consumers lose their trust in a brand once they spot fake testimonials, which is just the tip of the iceberg.
When consumers find fake reviews, they’re more likely to take further actions which will impact your overall reputation. Here are some actions that a consumer is likely to take after noticing fake reviews.
- Skip the products and the brand altogether.
- Leave negative reviews mentioning the fake reviews.
- Leave remarks on their social media accounts which can gain mass traction quickly.
- They earn you negative promotion through word of mouth between their network.
The bottom line is, the negative impact of fake reviews is more than the positive impact. Moreover, it also increases the chances of a long-run negative reputation which can kill your brand.
How Can Fake Negative Reviews Impact Your Business?
Many businesses use underhand practices to kill their competitors. They start posting negative take reviews about your business, which can impact your overall reputation. From bad-mouthing your products to personal attacks, many businesses don’t shy away from using whatever tools available at their disposal.
When a potential consumer spots these reviews, they’re most likely to take their business elsewhere, costing you revenue.
How To Tackle These Fake Reviews?
While you can simply stop purchasing fake reviews for your business, tackling negative reviews from your competition can be trickier.
There are so many online platforms for posting testimonials that it’s virtually impossible to track everything manually. Here’s how you can best track and take down the negative fake reviews
- Locate the reviews
This is the most challenging task when it comes down to negative reviews. You can ask your employee to do manual research, but it won’t be as effective. The chances of misses are really high. So, you can hire a third party equipped with AI-powered tools and internet crawlers that’ll track all content posted about you on a real-time basis.
- Report these reviews
Most of the websites are strictly cracking down on fake reviews. They’re banning fake profiles and trying to stop the menace of bots. However, if you still find fake reviews, you can report these reviews on most websites. But when you do report these reviews, ensure that you’re giving proper reasons to increase the probability of desirable results.
- Take legal action if needed
When you’re unable to get down the fake review through the website, you can always seek legal recourse. You can be awarded damages in addition to getting the fake review down.
Conclusion
Fake reviews are a menace, whether positive or negative. It’s important that you don’t post any fake positive reviews and take down the negative ones to ensure that your business is not impacted.