One bad review. Harmful? You bet!

A negative review is never a good thing; a negative review combined with social media (Twitter in this case) can cause massive damage.

Here's the post on TripAdvisor. It currently has more than 1100 'helpful' votes.

The solution: respond to the reviewer explaining the circumstances - do not start a fight with them.

Denial

We occasionally meet a business that does not fully understand the implications of a single negative review. So here's a real life example:

This is the full text of the review, but someone - a potential client - would need to click through to read it. So no major harm done then? Wrong! Below are the rich snippets that are fully visible for every search on the business's name.

These rich snippets - all three of them - are from one single review, the only Google review that business has, and they are being displayed in every single search. 

So, some rules:

1. Even a single negative review can (and will) do damage to your business
2. You cannot know how much damage (people are most unlikely to ring you and say 'I was going to use your business, but I have been put off by what I read on Google')
3. If at all possible you need to engage with review management before you begin to get reviews on Google
4. If you already have a negative review on Google, you need to engage now; every day that goes past means more lost business