Case Study: Fixing Online Reviews
Challenge
In early 2024, a regional home builder operating throughout the West Coast approached Review Rescue with a serious and multifaceted reputation issue. The company, though respected for its construction quality and customer service, had accumulated years of negative online reviews that did not reflect the current state of its operations.
The company maintained 19 Google Business Profiles for its various offices and job sites. Across these locations, the average star rating was 3.5, with approximately 30 reviews per profile. Notably, two locations had ratings below 2.0 stars, which was particularly damaging, as prospective clients and subcontractors often researched these listings before initiating contact.
The problem extended beyond customer-facing channels. On employment platforms, the builder had a 3.0 rating on Indeed based on 10 reviews and a 2.5 rating on Glassdoor from 2 former employees. These ratings were negatively impacting the company’s ability to attract qualified talent—especially in a competitive labor market. Their internal HR team noted that job application volume was down, and time-to-hire was increasing steadily.
The executive team recognized that if left unchecked, this online reputation gap would continue to erode customer trust, delay hiring, and ultimately affect revenue.
They partnered with Review Rescue to execute a strategic review management campaign that addressed negative reviews across all major platforms while laying the groundwork for future growth and stability.
What Was Done
Review Audit
The campaign began with a comprehensive audit of the company’s online reputation footprint. Review Rescue performed a manual and automated scan of all 19 Google Business Profiles, as well as their Indeed and Glassdoor company pages.
The audit assessed:
Volume and star rating of reviews
Common themes in negative feedback
Platform-specific policy violations
Potential risks from outdated or duplicate business profiles
Gaps in review response activity
Opportunities for positive review generation
Key insights included:
A significant portion of negative reviews contained vague language or violated platform terms (e.g., impersonation, irrelevant content).
Many of the positive customer experiences were undocumented online due to a lack of proactive review generation.
Review replies were inconsistent or entirely absent, especially on Google and Indeed.
This initial diagnostic phase shaped the tactical roadmap for the next six months.
Google Profile Resets
Two of the 19 Google Business Profiles were rated below 2.0 stars. Upon closer inspection, these profiles had accumulated outdated, duplicate, and sometimes policy-violating reviews. Rather than attempting to remove each individual negative review—which would have been both time-consuming and only partially effective—Review Rescue recommended a complete Google Profile Reset.
This approach involved:
Requesting full removal of the existing Google Business Profile
Reclaiming the same business address under a new profile
Ensuring the new listing met Google’s guidelines to appear in search and maps without inheriting the negative review history
Once reset, the two locations re-entered the local search ecosystem with 0 total reviews, allowing Review Rescue to rebuild each from a clean slate. This strategy is rarely deployed but highly effective when specific conditions are met.
Review Removal
Across all 19 Google profiles, Review Rescue targeted reviews that clearly violated platform content policies, such as:
Reviews from non-customers
Irrelevant or spammy content
Competitor manipulation or impersonation
Using Review Rescue’s proprietary removal process—combined with policy appeals and documentation—the campaign successfully removed 35% of the negative Google reviews.
On Indeed, where employer reviews are regulated under a stricter framework, Review Rescue achieved an 85% removal rate, focusing on outdated or non-compliant feedback. However, Glassdoor proved impervious, with no reviews qualifying for removal under the platform’s current enforcement policies.
All removal efforts were executed on a success-based billing model—clients only pay when a review is successfully taken down—creating full alignment with the builder’s performance expectations and budget control.
Review Generation
With negative reviews removed and problematic profiles reset, Review Rescue moved into the proactive phase of the campaign: Review Generation.
Leveraging client databases and internal CRM tools, the company launched coordinated email and SMS outreach campaigns to satisfied customers, trade partners, and vendors. All outreach complied with applicable privacy and communication laws, and included links to leave reviews on designated Google profiles.
Review Rescue provided copywriting, message sequencing, and engagement tracking throughout the campaign.
Over six months, the company:
Gained an average of 25 new positive reviews per location
Saw overall star ratings climb across all profiles
Experienced significantly more engagement from recent customers
This surge in authentic, first-party reviews not only improved ratings but also helped improve the credibility and freshness of each listing—two signals that influence local search visibility.
Review Monitoring and Replies
To maintain the progress made, Review Rescue also implemented a review monitoring protocol and trained internal staff on best practices for timely and professional responses.
Key elements included:
Alerts for new reviews across all 19 Google profiles and job platforms
Weekly sentiment analysis reports
Templates and tone guides for responding to both positive and negative reviews
Strategic guidance on when to escalate negative feedback for potential removal
This ongoing discipline ensured that future feedback—whether critical or complimentary—would be handled professionally, preserving the company’s brand and improving public perception.
Results
By the end of the 6-month campaign, the transformation was significant and measurable:
Google Business Profile Improvements:
- 35% of negative Google reviews removed
- Two lowest-rated profiles reset to 0 reviews, eliminating harmful first impressions
- Average of 25 new positive reviews added per profile
- Average rating across all 19 profiles increased, with several moving from under 3.5 to above 4.2
Indeed & Glassdoor:
- 85% of negative Indeed reviews removed, restoring employer reputation and improving brand visibility to job seekers
- No change on Glassdoor, but monitoring continued to ensure no future violations went unchallenged
Operational Outcomes:
- Click-through rate (CTR) on Google Business Profiles increased significantly, driving higher website traffic and customer inquiries
- Phone call volume from Google local listings increased according to internal tracking
- Open job positions reduced by 50%, a reflection of improved employer perception
- Average time to hire dropped by 20 days, giving HR a measurable efficiency boost
Conclusion
This case study underscores the impact that a strategic, full-spectrum review management approach can have on both a company’s public image and its internal performance metrics.
What began as a fragmented and poorly maintained review presence—across multiple locations and platforms—was transformed into a streamlined, high-performing asset for both marketing and recruiting.
Review Rescue’s unique combination of review audits, policy-compliant removals, review generation, and monitoring produced real business results for this West Coast home builder. And because all removal efforts are executed on a pay-per-success basis, clients face no financial risk in pursuing reputation recovery.
In an era where customer and employee reviews increasingly define brand trust, businesses cannot afford to ignore what’s being said online—or leave it unmanaged.
