The Agency You Hired Is Holding Your Google Reviews & Google My Business Hostage
I recently spoke with a lawyer who was having issues with a reputation management company. He had originally hired them to help him get more positive reviews on his Google My Business page. It's a typical service provided by reputation management companies to help drown out any negative reviews a business may have.The problem arose when one day the lawyer decided he wasn't getting enough for his $300 he was paying to this company every month and wanted to leave.The agency told him that he would lose out on all of his positive reviews if he left.
A typical scare tactic, but then the lawyer told me he didn't have access to the Google My Business account. While I don't run across this very often, I can't say I was very surprised. A surprising amount of small business owners are careless when it comes to who owns what accounts and has access to what.You'd think the process of gaining access to your own Google My Business account would be simple, you're the business owner after all right? Unfortunately, once a Google My Business account has been 'claimed' by a persons or party that isn't you then you will have to request them to switch ownership of the Google My Business to you.
Google will give them 7 days to respond. If they deny your request, you should receive an email notification which will include an option to appeal the rejection:
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I recently spoke with a lawyer who was having issues with a reputation management company. He had originally hired them to help him get more positive reviews on his Google My Business page. It's a typical service provided by reputation management companies to help drown out any negative reviews a business may have.The problem arose when one day the lawyer decided he wasn't getting enough for his $300 he was paying to this company every month and wanted to leave.The agency told him that he would lose out on all of his positive reviews if he left.
A typical scare tactic, but then the lawyer told me he didn't have access to the Google My Business account. While I don't run across this very often, I can't say I was very surprised. A surprising amount of small business owners are careless when it comes to who owns what accounts and has access to what.You'd think the process of gaining access to your own Google My Business account would be simple, you're the business owner after all right? Unfortunately, once a Google My Business account has been 'claimed' by a persons or party that isn't you then you will have to request them to switch ownership of the Google My Business to you.
Google will give them 7 days to respond. If they deny your request, you should receive an email notification which will include an option to appeal the rejection:
"If you would like to appeal the rejection, you may verify your affiliation with the business to gain action. Appeal Now"
You should then be able to verify you're the owner going through the verification steps again.If they don't respond to the request within 7 days, you may be able to claim ownership of the Google My Business page. Simply log back into your Google My Business account and try to claim or verify the Google My Business page.
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