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Fake on the Internet is nothing new or unusual. It happens all the time from fake photos on dating profiles to fake selfies with celebrities. It gets scary when the fake posts start to affect your reputation and business. With food trucks, fake online reviews can mean the difference between staying out of the red and having to close shop.
Who Would Write Fake Reviews on Food Trucks?
You would be surprised at just how many there are who would write a fake review just for the heck of it. The Internet empowers people and gives them a voice. If a person happens to be in a rotten mood and doesn’t like the size of the sandwich he bought from you – he could vent his anger on your food truck by writing something that is negative and destructive. Others write because it gives them a sense of entitlement to do so while others really want to close down your business for whatever reason.
What Can You Do?
Fortunately, you don’t have to play dirty with fake reviews. You can do any of the following:
- Ride it out but make sure you provide a tool for your satisfied customers to write great reviews about your business. You could even post selfies with willing customers or have an app that would be easy for a happy customer to rate your business on the spot.
- Hire an online reputation manager who can track and bury negative reviews.
- Report the reviews to the search engine or website although you will have to present proof that it is fake which is hard to do.
- Instead of reporting the reviews as fake, you could demand that the website authenticate the review as truthful or demand that it be taken it down.
- You can talk to a lawyer about suing the person if you can identity that person and the reviews are persistent and getting worse every time.
- Report them to the Federal Trade Commission which has become the cyber police on fake reviews.
Finally, pay attention to your food truck’s online reputation. There are patterns that can be monitored so you can flag the review. Some of these patterns are misspelled words, anonymous writers, and repetitious reviews from the same person. Also, investigate to find out if there is any truth to the feedback. Thus aside from monitoring the Internet, keep a vigilant eye on your daily operations and staff. There could be some mismanagement going on that you aren’t aware of.