Responding to reviews on Google My Business

Reviews from your customers can provide valuable feedback for your business, and replying to reviews can help build your customers' trust.
When you reply to a review, your response will appear below your customer's review on Google Search and Maps under the label "Response from the owner". People on Google will see both the customer review and your response when they look at your Google reviews.

How to respond to reviews left by Google users:

1. Click Reviews in left hand side navigation.

1. You will find three tabs in the main pane - click on "Haven't replied" :

1. Click Reply to respond to a customer review.

1. Write a response and click Post Reply.

Tips for responding to good/bad reviews

Business owner responses allow you to build relationships with customers, but they're also public. When replying to your customers, keep the following Google guidelines in mind:

1. Be nice and don't get personal. This isn't just a guideline—it's also a good idea as a business owner. It's difficult to win an argument with a frustrated customer, and you want to avoid burning bridges. Keep your responses useful, readable, and courteous. In addition, responses should comply with our local content policy.
2. Keep it short and sweet. Users are looking for useful and genuine responses, but they can easily be overwhelmed by a long response.
3. Thank your reviewers. Respond to happy reviewers when you have new or relevant information to share. You don't need to thank every reviewer publicly, since each response reaches lots of customers.
4. Be a friend, not a salesperson. Your reviewers are already customers, so there's no need to offer incentives or advertisements. Tell reviewers something new about your business, or share something they might not have learned from their first visit.

Flag Inappropriate Reviews

If you believe that a Google review violates the posting guidelines, you can flag it as inappropriate by following these steps:

1. Click Reviews from the menu.
2. Find the review you'd like to flag and click the three dot menu beside it 

1. Click Flag as inappropriate.
2. A pop up will appear - click Continue. 

1. A new tab will be open with this Google Form: Report a policy violation, add your email address, choose the Violation Type and click Submit

Q&A on Google Knowledge Graph

Google rolled out their "Question and Answer" feature on the Knowledge Graph in mid 2017, allowing users to ask and respond to questions about your business and services.
It's important for the hotel to take ownership of answering these questions.

• Use an official hotel email id (Gmail or Google account)
• Answer all the questions
• Supply useful details in your answer.
• Brand your answer so users know it's legitimate information.
• Try to answer before any other Local guides answer the questions.
• Monitor the Q&A for your hotel regularly.
• Add important questions to your website's FAQ page.

Answering Questions.
1. Log on to the Google Search Engine Results Page and search for your hotel brand. (You should be signed in through your Google/Gmail account to make any edits)
2. Your hotel's Knowledge graph should appear on the right hand side of page as in the below example:

3. If users have asked questions you should be able to see similar to below.

4. Click on See all Questions, and it should open up any Questions posted by users.

5. Click on the answer icon, respond to the user, and click Post.

Flag or Report Questions or Answers.
If you feel that a question or answer is inappropriate, there is an option to report this to Google for review.
1. Go to the Question or Answer you want to report and click on the flag Icon.

2. Choose the Options from the dropdown and click Done.