Honestly, you can’t make bad-hearted customers, past employees or competitors looking to slander your reputation take down these reviews. But you can fight back! False negative reviews and comments can really hurt your business and result in losing potential customers.

Sadly, intense rival competition from other businesses may result in them leaving false negative comments about your business; the goal is usually to steer potential customers away from your business and into theirs.

If you are confident that a negative review has been falsely written by a business competitor, you are well within your rights to flag the comment or contact the review site’s administrator and ask for it to be removed, provided you can prove it is a false review. Again, you can try this but there is no guarantee that it will be taken down.

Regardless, whether the negative review was from a past customer or from a rival business, it is all about how you act in the face of negative comments that matters. Often, it is useful to potential customers if you leave feedback for a negative review. This shows that you’re involved and attentive to the customer experience. It lets the potential customer see a balanced perspective from both sides.

In other words, it’s your chance to stand trial for your “wrongdoings”. You may be very hurt or disgruntled about a negative review or a disparaging comment left online about your company but it’s how you react (or don’t) to the negativity that matters. Sometimes a reaction or reply to such comments isn’t really necessary and would only result in more negative feelings towards your company.

If there are several reviews complaining about the same thing, then it would be wise to address the issues. It can be difficult knowing when and how to react, but whatever you do, do not take things personally; always remain professional at all time. While a negative comment can hurt you or upset you. It’s the way you answer to it that matters the most.