Google / Yelp News……
Google is temporarily disabling new reviews, review replies, and new Q&A for all businesses until further notice. There have been significant numbers of reviews posted for 1-star reviews because business was closed or others complaining that the business was spreading the virus. This is a crisis we are all facing it’s unfair to these businesses and nobody would like to see their reputations tarnished due to this unforeseen issue. In order to protect the reputation of millions of businesses across the country, Google has made the decision to suspend reviews, review responses and Q&A until further notice. Our Reputation Management customers can rest assured knowing all their reviews and responses will be stored on our platform until Google restores this function.
Because of these changes, when you respond to a Google review within our dashboard, all responses will be saved and resubmitted once Google enables review responding again.
Yelp’s stance is a little more conservative as they announced a zero-tolerance policy against “any claims in reviews of contracting COVID-19 from a business or its employees, or negative reviews about a business being closed during what would be their regular open hours in normal circumstances”.
Any flagged reviews during this time will be manually reviewed by Yelp staff and if they don’t comply with the guidelines they will be removed. These reviews will not be counted against a business’s star rating.
If your reputation management platform isn’t working for you we can help. Call our toll free number 888-300-8292 or email Carl at carl@mysteryshopperservices.com.
