Irvine, CA based GetDandy would like to help their community deal with negative comments on TripAdvisor. A reputation management specialist with a proprietary technology to identify and dispute illegitimate online reviews, GetDandy’s team has worked tirelessly since the company’s inception to ensure their clients are not unfairly targeted by malicious parties or even customers who have mistaken one business for another. Businesses live and die by their reputation, and GetDandy is here to help them sustain the reputation they deserve. See more here: www.getdandy.com.
“Bad reviews can greatly impact a business,” the company says in a recent blog post on the subject, “especially on a leading platform like TripAdvisor. In most cases, TripAdvisor will not remove bad reviews for a variety of reasons. However, there are a few scenarios in which you can try to get a bad review you see on TripAdvisor removed. For instance, a negative might not always reflect what is accurate or truthful about a business, which can make it eligible for removal.”
The first tip they share concerns businesses that are about to undergo or have had a major renovation. TripAdvisor takes proof of major structural changes or alterations to a property into account when determining whether a review should be taken down. For instance, it may refer to issues that the renovation fixed, making it unhelpful for new customers who wish to gain an idea of the business’ present condition. GetDandy says the changes do have to pass a certain threshold for TripAdvisor to take them seriously, such as the installation of new guest rooms or bathrooms. Cosmetic changes will not be accepted, including repainting the walls, adding or moving furniture and so on.
GetDandy also acknowledges that businesses are always on the lookout for fake reviews. While some platforms only allow the business to respond to the review, TripAdvisor gives businesses the option to report reviews that do not meet its standards or expectations for review content. GetDandy says reviews have to abide by the platform’s guidelines for posting, so the reviewer has to be an actual customer who has traveled to the business or received a service and so on. Furthermore, any review that does not describe the business accurately or is too indirect in its content (such as by discussing a more general topic that the business is only tangentially related to) can also be removed. Once reported, the platform will consider them for removal.
On this note, GetDandy says some reviews can actually contain information that does not have anything to do with the business. This may refer to customers who have the wrong business and are critiquing a product or service they do not even provide, but it is also about reviews with information that would be considered irrelevant (comments on the weather, the customer’s personal struggles on that day and other issues outside the business’ control, for instance).
On the subject of TripAdvisor’s guidelines, GetDandy says, “Have you received reviews that contain hateful language? What about content that is insulting and biased? These violate TripAdvisor guidelines, so you can report them and have them deleted off the page.” These are relatively straightforward to get rid of, and GetDandy advises businesses not to waste time reporting them to the platform. While they are obviously poor reviews, even to a customer, the mere association can sometimes cause those reading such content to avoid the business altogether, even if they understand it is not the business’ fault.
The last tip the company shares has to do with the rare cases where customers will attempt to work out an ‘agreement’ in exchange for not posting a negative review. They may be after special treatment or a discount or some other benefit from the business, especially if they know what kind of impact a bad review can have in certain situations. Here, the business has options, especially if they have proof of the blackmail. The TripAdvisor support team may investigate each business’ concerns on a case-by-case basis, and GetDandy shares that they are generally quite responsive if there is proof. Many businesses have had the blackmail review taken down within a day of reporting if they had proof to back up their claims.
These are all options that a business can explore by themselves, but there is sometimes no substitute for the work of a professional. As a reputation management firm, GetDandy offers review deletion services to clients in need, and they welcome the opportunity to help the business community thrive without the anchor of negative reviews. Interested parties may contact GetDandy to learn more.
SOURCE: Press Advantage