How to deal with 1-star reviews on Google Business Profile
To handle a one-star review on your Google Business Profile, you should respond publicly and professionally within 24 hours to show potential customers you value feedback. If the review is spam or malicious, the most effective strategy is to dilute the negative impact by proactively asking loyal clients for fresh, five-star ratings.
Simon wearing a cream polo shirt on his laptop
How to manage negative feedback on your Google Business Profile
What to do when you get a one-star review on your Google Business profile? This is a tricky scenario! Someone has just left you a one-star review on your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business - see below) listing. It’s visible to the whole world in Google search results or on Maps, including your potential customers. As you can imagine, it’s not a good look and could well damage your brand! Apart from scream at the screen, what do you do?
If you’re reading this, it’s safe to say that you’ve set up your business on Google Business Profile, which is a good thing, as there are a surprising number of businesses that still don’t have a profile up and running. Why is this important? Because your Google Business Profile appears next to the search result for your business, so is highly visible. Any negative Google reviews for your business will stick out like a sore thumb to anyone who finds your business subsequently.
This is our take on how to deal with when you get a kicking with a negative or one-star review on Google Business Profile. It’s based on what we have done and what has worked for us when we received (unwarranted) one-star reviews in the past.
Also, as with all advice you read on the internet, please reflect on it and apply it to your situation; what works for one individual or business, won’t necessarily work out of the box for another!
Top takeaways for managing negative Google Business reviews
Respond to every review quickly to show you are attentive and professional
Keep your public tone polite and professional even if the reviewer is being unfair
Take specific grievances offline by offering a phone call or an in-person meeting
Dilute one-star ratings by asking happy, long-term clients for new feedback
Use personal phone calls rather than automated emails when requesting reviews
Always use the most up-to-date "Share review" link from your Google dashboard
Treat genuine criticism as a "road-test" to help improve your internal processes
Flag reviews that violate Google’s spam policy, but don't count on them being removed
Edit your owner response later if the situation changes or is resolved
Cultivate a robust mental attitude and don't let a single troll stall your progress
1. What is Google Business Profile?
Here’s what Google itself says about Google Business Profile to get us going:
“Google Business Profile is an easy-to-use tool for businesses and organisations to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps. To help customers find your business, and to tell them your story, you can verify your business and edit your business information.”
We don’t cover what Google Business Profile is in this blog or how you can use it; we’re assuming that you’ve already got a working understanding of it.
If you want a bit of background reading, we recommend reading The New Google Business Profile: A Complete Guide for Local SEO from the Search Engine Journal.
Anyway, when it comes to online reviews, no matter how much you surround yourself with friends and supporters - nurturing crucial relationships with clients - before long you'll get that gut-wrenching moment:
A one-star review.
You can see ours here - it's no secret and you can't hide it from anyone; that's why it hurts.
A real-life example of a spam one-star review from our Google Business Profile
So, what are the tactics for dealing with a one-star review on your Google Business Profile?
Here's our workflow:
Leave a positive owner's response as soon as possible
If known, contact the reviewer to find a solution
Generate reviews from previous clients' projects not yet reviewed
Edit your owner's response as necessary
Evaluate where you can improve and implement solutions in your processes
Don't take it to heart; move on quickly
Do all you can, but don’t expect a spam review to be removed
Key ideas:
Google Business Profile is a free tool used to manage how your business appears across Google Search and Maps
Verifying your profile allows you to help local customers find you
The platform is a primary hub for client reviews which are visible to everyone searching for your services
2. Respond to Google Business Profile quickly & positively
Respond as soon as possible, directly and in a positive way!
Reviews and feedback are on full display these days, and the public knows it
Review platforms (like Google Business Profile, Trustpilot, Facebook) are ways to get the attention of business owners, or attack them, so be attentive
Context is key, so you need to get across your message as quickly as possible to provide balance to the issue
Offer an olive branch and demonstrate your willingness to make things right
If you know the reviewer personally, take the issue offline, ideally through a phone call; even better, in person
Whatever you do, be polite and professional, as your character and company are in the firing line
There is nothing you can do about anonymous reviews or trolls; see above and don't get into a flame war
Key ideas:
Provide context immediately to balance out the negative claims made by the reviewer
Demonstrate a willingness to make things right by offering an olive branch publicly
Avoid getting into "flame wars" with anonymous trolls and maintain your professionalism
Refining your brand’s digital presence
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3. Ask previous clients for a review for your Google Business Profile
Go to previous clients to generate positive reviews for your Google Business Profile
Try to dilute and mitigate the negative affect of your one star review with positive ones - ideally as quickly as possible to limit the damage to your brand reputation
Make a list of previous clients for whom you have completed projects recently, and if possible, where things went well and you have good relational capital
If there are some who have not yet reviewed your work, get in contact, ideally by phone
Why? Automated review systems are not as effective, simply because they are not personal and can feel spammy. A call acts like a tap on the shoulder, so is more likely to elicit a response.
How to generate quality reviews on Google Business Profile from previous clients
In your call, say that you are following up some jobs; ask whether your client would like to leave you some feedback
Don’t make it all about you - ask how things are going with your client’s business and how they are getting on
Make it short and sweet so that you get to the point and show that you respect their time and they might have lots to be getting on with
Follow up by e-mail with a pre-made template that has a very clear link to your review area; we use Google Business Profile for all our reviews
We use the direct link from Google Business Profile that opens up a browser window with the review form all ready to go, specifically relating to Wildings Studio
Again, make it quick and easy for your previous clients to do you a favour - it takes much more time and effort to build relational capital with clients, so try not to fritter it away with annoying requests!
Here's what the direct link to your Google Business Profile review area looks like: https://g.page/r/CbIiZm6uwmw3EAE/review.
You can copy and paste this from the home page of your Google Business Profile Manager under the section ‘Get more reviews’ - click the button that says ‘Share review form’.
Side note: since using Google Business Profile to generate reviews from previous clients, we’ve noticed that it regularly regenerates the review link. In the past we found that reviews of our Google Business Profile would sometimes go awary, even if clients successfully used the form.
Our guess is that if you reuse on the same, historical link from your Google Business Profile, there might be a higher likelihood that Google holds pending reviews for moderation (potentially indefinitely until you notice and do something about it).
As such, we recommend copying and pasting the latest review link from your Google Business Profile each time you want to ask a client for a reivew.
Key ideas:
Counteract a low rating by gathering positive testimonials from clients you have a good relationship with
Favour personal phone calls over automated systems to increase the likelihood of a response
Check your Google Business Profile Manager regularly for the latest direct review link to avoid moderation delays
4. Take the opportunity to evaluate and improve beyond Google Business Profile
The natural thing to do is to take criticism personally, but the trick with business is to ask every time:
What can I do better? Was there some thing I did, said or one of my processes that caused this?
Despite our best efforts, we always miss things, and until you road-test products or service with living, breathing people, you simply can't predict outcomes
Therefore, criticism is the perfect opportunity to fix things and improve
Also, be magnanimous and own your mistakes
Even better, tell your clients how they are helping you improve; it builds trust, credibility and mileage
Whatever you identify, weave it back into your work; preferably quickly
Also, if things change and you are using Google Business Profile, you can always edit your owner comment and republish it
Key ideas:
Ask yourself if a breakdown in your processes contributed to the negative experience
Being magnanimous about mistakes can actually build more trust and credibility with future clients
Weave any lessons learned back into your workflow to prevent similar issues from arising
5. Don't take to heart what happens on Google Business Profile
A good friend of mine said to me that you need to be cultivate a robust mental attitude; be mentally robust
There is another saying: shut up and move on
The point is that you can't afford to stop and feel sorry for yourself, as life marches on
Also, you probably can't do much about the issue once it's done and you've done your firefighting
Key ideas:
Develop a robust mental attitude to prevent online negativity from affecting your daily work
Accept that once you have responded and done your firefighting, it is time to move on
Recognise that life marches on regardless of a single digital comment
6. Don’t expect to get negative reviews on Google Business Profile removed
Even if the one-star review you receive on Google Business Profile is blatantly spammy or malicious, it is unlikely that you will get it taken down
You can of course use the ‘Flag as inappropriate’ button in your reviews area in your Google Business Profile Manager
You can then choose from a list of reasons for reporting it, such as off topic, spam, conflict of interest and four other categories currently
Google will review it as a policy violation and take up to three working days to process your request
However, based on our experience and the advice in Google’s help on 'How to remove reviews from your Business Profile on Google’, it may well have no effect
Our approach has been to flag malicious reviews and then quote the Google Reviews Policy and leave any readers to make up their own mind
The Spam and fake content section says the following:
Your content should reflect your genuine experience at the location and shouldn't be posted just to manipulate a place’s ratings. Don’t post fake content, don’t post the same content multiple times and don't post content for the same place from multiple accounts.
Sadly, there’s not much more you can do at that point
Key ideas:
Google rarely removes reviews unless they clearly violate specific policies like spam or fake content
You can use the "Flag as inappropriate" button, but the success rate for removal is generally low
The best strategy is to state your case clearly and let other readers judge the situation for themselves
Frequently Asked Questions
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You cannot directly delete a review left by someone else. You can flag the review to Google if it violates their policies—such as containing spam, hate speech or fake content—but Google is often hesitant to remove feedback unless the violation is blatant.
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Google typically takes up to three working days to assess a flagged review. During this time, they will determine if the post violates their specific content policies, though they often leave reviews standing if there is any doubt about the authenticity of the claim.
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The most effective method is a personal phone call followed by an email containing a direct link to your review form. Avoid using automated or spammy templates; instead, explain that you are following up on their project and would value their honest feedback to help your business grow.
Read more about [topic]:
In case you were wondering, Google Business Profile used to be called Google My Business up until November 2021, when Google announced the name change in its Ads & Commerce Blog. Similarly, the area for managing your business is now called Google Business Profile Manager.
Further reading: you can read more about the details and impact in ‘Google My Business: What’s Changing (And What’s Not)‘ from Forbes.
About the author:
Simon Cox is the co-founding director (along with his wife, Rachael Cox) at Wildings Studio, a branding, website design and content marketing studio in Torquay, UK. He’s the writer and editor of the Wildings Studio blog which you’re currently reading. Simon is also responsible for the Wildings Studio content marketing services. Simon blogs regularly on topics to do with the core Wildings Studio services on branding, website design and content marketing (blogging). He’s passionate about helping small business develop great content that answers the questions people type in Google in order to get found online (SEO).
In this article:
How to manage negative feedback on your Google Business Profile
About Wildings Studio
Thoughtful, beautiful branding and websites for design-led businesses
Wildings is a website designer for small businesses offering website design. Based in South Devon, UK, we deliver small business website design for design-conscious brands like garden designers, interior designers, architects, circular ethos restaurants, speciality coffee shops, organic cafés and boutique hotels.
