Advice on a Google review

[911 Rod]

I had an encounter with a walk in customer at my print shop and he left a damaging review on Google. I've tried to contact Google, but they make it so you can't. I thought about replying to the review, but I really don't know what to say.

Here is the review. I'll explain what happened after you read it.

"On two occasions my son not only experienced unprofessional, disrespectful behaviour from two employees, but one of said employees is the actual owner!

Says a whole lot about a business overall when the owner is disrespectful, shows the middle finger to a customer, and calls the police (because customer is "rude" for being politely assertive), but then hangs up when realizing the customer was recording the entire interaction. That man was prepared to lie to police!

There sincerely was no reason for this kind of mistreatment, and the only time my family or I have experienced such immediate, overt hostility, disrespect and mistreatment was because the person was racist and didn't care about making that known to us. This owner didn't say it in so many words, except to hint at his racist mindset by telling my son to go to the UPS in the 404 Plaza across the street, where my son would be more comfortable! (The people at UPS are ethnic).

Tbh, I use the UPS location regularly because they're professional, respectful to customers, and helpful. However, I'd stop taking my business there if they ever behaved in like manner as eCopy n Print.

Other than going to eCopy n Print to express my disappointment, this is a business I won't be using, and it is one cannot I recommend, especially for visible minorities."

The gentleman (he is a big man in his 30's and is white), came into my business looking to get some documents printed from an email that he sent to us while standing at the counter. I opened the 1st document to print it and he becomes very agitated that I did so. He keeps asking what gave me the right to open his personal information. I explain to him I need to open the document to be able to print it. He gets madder and I ask him to leave. He keeps going on about I don’t have the right to look at his documents and will not leave. I tell him to go to the UPS store to get it printing as I will not deal with him when he acts like this. At this point I’m worried he is going to come over the counter and become violent. I grab my phone and call 911 on my speaker phone. He still won’t leave even though I have the police on the line saying I worried about an irate customer that won’t leave. They are taking it very seriously. Now he’s going on about he’s leaving me a Google review. He pulls out his phone to take a picture of me and yes I gave him the finger for his photo. He storms out. His rant lasted about 5 minutes and yes I was scared. You never know if this is the day you die. I locked the front door for the rest of the day for fear of him coming back both for myself and my single female employee. Over the next couple of days he phones me telling me to check my Google reviews. There is nothing there so I assume Google rejected his reviews until he pretends to be his fatter leaving this review.
I don’t know how to respond. As crazy as this is, I really don’t want this out there. So many lies in his review.
I did open and read his documents after and this person has mental issues and a court order against him. I thought about emailing him before seeing the review and trying to help him with his problems as I have a relative that has mental illness as well, but I though better stay out of it.

Sorry for the long rant.

[Sooner or later]

Probably not much you can do.

I might post a reply and state the many other excellent reviews are a better example of the business.

[Seahawk]

Your protagonist dropped a number ethnic references in his review, which means one thing: Walk away.

I am not asserting he is right, just pointing out the person your are dealing with knows what heart strings to pull in a manner you will not be able to counter.

Because. Just because.

[herr_oberst]

Ask your best customers to flood Google with positive reviews.

[fastfredracing]

You should have helped him to make his next review of the local dentist office .

[Dantilla]

Reading his review makes it obvious he is not a normal person.
If I was looking up your business, I'd laugh at the idiot and ignore the negativity.

A couple years ago a business renting space from me asked if I would buy it, as the owners were approaching 80 years old (still full of energy. Fantastic people).
In my due diligence, searched reviews, and only one was negative, but obviously written by a scatter-brained, over emotional whiner. Long-winded whining, with no specifics of how the business wronged them.
I mentioned this to the owner, and got a big eye roll. "I know who that was, there was no satisfying her."

Maybe respond with: "We are glad this "customer" will not return, as we both felt threatened."

[911 Rod]

Originally Posted by Sooner or later

Probably not much you can do.

I might post a reply and state the many other excellent reviews are a better example of the business.

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Ask your best customers to flood Google with positive reviews.

Originally Posted by Dantilla

Maybe respond with: "We are glad this "customer" will not return, as we both felt threatened."

All good advice. Thank you.

[Tobra]

If you pay google, you donot get bad reviews online

[Dixie]

I believe you need to respond in order to mitigate any loss of your current, and future, customer base. I'd do this by responding in some heartfelt, yet non specific manner. Something like, "We at xxx printing are sorry to hear of your unfortunate experience. Rest assured, xxx printing is currently investigating this matter. Once completed, our company will address this incident in an appropriate manner."

Notice there's no admission the incident happened, who's at fault, or what exactly will be done.

PS: I'd make it a new store policy to ask if emails can be opened. If the answer is no, kindly inform the customer you can't complete the service, and show them the door.

[oldE]

On the review page, I would post something like: Wow! Sounds terrible, doesn't it? For the rest of the story, come on in.

Best
Les

[Baz]

I would reply with:

"We are sorry for your negative experience with us and wish you all the best going forward."

[911 Rod]

My company is myself and one employee.
I won't make a false claim saying we are looking into it or saying sorry in anyway.

[911 Rod]

Wait! There's more!
This person also left a pocket dial voice mail.
For a couple of minutes he is yelling at a woman who is crying as he calls her every curse word in the book because she had a problem with emailing the files to us.
I saved it. Very disturbing to listen to.

[shinrai]

This person is clearly unhinged. Don't reply. Just ignore it and don't lose sleep over it. It's easy for potential customers to see that this reviewer is not normal. The review will eventually disappear. We had bad reviews for our company and the people who provided them only gave bad reviews. They eventually disappeared.

[Dixie]

Originally Posted by 911 Rod

My company is myself and one employee.
I won't make a false claim saying we are looking into it or saying sorry in anyway.

There's no false claim. You are looking into it you're asking how to best handle the situation right here on this forum.

[911 Rod]

The part that bother's me most is being called a racist.

[MBAtarga]

I'd love to give your company a great review! - You know - that time I came in recently and you were so considerate and assisted me?

PM me your company info if you don't want to make it public here.

[Chocaholic]

I would definitely respond. Reference that there are two sides to every story and there is much in the review that simply isn't reflective of reality. We pride ourselves on taking great care of our customers. An irrational reaction by a customer is often difficult to manage and even so, we strive to understand that there can be many reasons for the things people say and do.

Or something like that. Whenever I read a negative review, I always look for the vendor's response. If it's simply not there, it's easy to assume the review is accurate.

[rfuerst911sc]

Do you keep a loaded pistol at the shop ? Or a baseball bat ? Or mace ? If that nut job comes back be prepared to take him down .

Unfortunately he's not the only nut job out there , always be prepared to defend yourself and your employee .

I agree you need to post a rebuttal , some great suggestions have already been given . Good luck .

[LWJ]

The prior answers do a great job of framing the incident as a crazy person's response.

And that is how you frame it. Calmly. Rationally. Concerned.

As you know, you are in a lose-lose situation. You have been called a racist. You have a pic with your middle finger up. You look bad.

You need to show the context from which your actions are rational, fair, and reasonable.

You can do this. I know you have lost sleep over this and it is consuming you. Don't let it. What if you write a rough draft response or two here and we critique it?

Good luck! You got this.