Guest Contributor: Rusty Sutton
Stop Trying to Make Bad Reviews Disappear
When a bad Google review pops up, the instinct is immediate: My business is doomed. How do I make it go away?
I was scrolling LinkedIn last week and saw an ad that made me stop: "Pay $795 to have a bad review removed."
Look, I'm not here to tell anyone how to spend their money. But here's what twelve years of running a business in downtown Raleigh taught me: if you're paying $795 to hide a review, you're solving the wrong problem.
The review isn't the problem. The review is the information.
Google reviews aren't just a scorecard. They're a signal. And when you learn to read them, they become one of the strongest tools you have.
Good Reviews and Bad Reviews: Both Are Telling You Something
When someone leaves you a one-star review, your first instinct is probably the same as mine used to be: damage control. Make it go away. Explain it away. Hope nobody sees it.
But here's what I started noticing: the bad reviews that stung the worst were usually the ones pointing at something real. Slow service on a Saturday night. Confusing menu. Staff who seemed checked out. I didn't want to hear it, but I needed to.
Good reviews do the same thing in reverse. When three people in a month mention your "friendly staff" or "cozy atmosphere," they're telling you what's working. That's not just feel-good feedback; that's your competitive advantage, spelled out for you by the people who matter most.
When you respond to reviews as the business owner, it isn't just customer service. It's a direct connection to your customer and a signal to everyone else that you're paying attention, not hiding, and that you care enough to engage.
I made it a point to respond to every review we got. Not because I had some grand strategy. I wanted to stay on top of what customers were actually saying, and what they weren't saying. I wanted to build a connection.
A response does something simple: it makes you human. Even a short, respectful reply changes how people read that review. Your response reframes the story from 'what happened' to 'how you handled it.' And that reassures future customers far more than deleting criticism ever could.
Here's a real-world example. A customer left us a poor review on Yelp. She stated that she felt invisible and that we cared more about our "regulars" than our visitors. I knew this was not our intended outcome. I reached out publicly and privately to discuss her experience. Fortunately, our review history showed this wasn't typical; dozens of reviews said the opposite. I invited her back to our shop to give us another try.
She immediately upgraded our one-star review to 3 stars after I reached out to her. She made our conversation public. She visited again. And, eventually, she gave us a five-star review.
I wasn't "a marketing team" responding. I was Rusty. I was probably the guy who was behind the counter when she came in. A corporate PR department can't do this. As a small business owner downtown, that's one of the biggest advantages you have. Your voice is your own. It's your connection to your customer. And the customer feels it.
You don't need a marketing team for this. You just need to be human. Thank people when they say something nice. Acknowledge it when something went wrong and explain what you're doing about it. That's it.
When you see a bad review, two things will happen: your stomach will drop, or you will get angry. Take a deep breath. Count to ten before you do anything. Then remember: someone cared enough to take the time to leave it. It opens the door for you to connect with them and continue the conversation. That conversation is free. It is the most powerful strategy a small business has. And it does far more for your business than paying to hide the conversation ever could.
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About the Author
Rusty Sutton spent twelve years running a brick-and-mortar business in downtown Raleigh. He now runs a digital marketing agency, MonkeyFans Creative, working with local businesses and organizations to help them communicate more clearly, build trust, and focus on strategies that work in the real world—not just on paper.