A customer leaves you a bad review on Google or on Yelp, the review website. If it’s an honest complaint, answer it. Your reply sits right under the review, where any shopper in Farmington or Unionville sees it. On Google, it appears under your business name, with no personal name shown.
Google’s advice for writing one: be brief, say sorry where it’s warranted, and own a mistake that was yours without taking blame for what you couldn’t control. For anything tangled, Google suggests settling it privately by phone or email. Staff at the Federal Trade Commission, the agency that enforces the law against unfair or deceptive business practices, say its review rule (see No. 13) doesn’t stop you from contacting a reviewer to fix what went wrong.
How to reply on Google. Open your Business Profile, the listing that shows your business on Google, and choose Read reviews. Select Reply next to the review. To change it later, select Edit. Google checks each reply against its content policies before posting, usually within 10 minutes but sometimes up to 30 days. A rejected reply comes back to edit.
And on Yelp. You need an approved profile photo and an approved business account name to reply. In your business account, pick Reviews from the menu on the left (in the app, More, then Reviews). On the review, choose Respond for a public reply, Direct Message for a private one, or both. Yelp’s help article suggests starting with Respond. Its posting rules, though, call a direct message often the best way to settle a dispute.
What a reply may not do, and whose rule says so:
- No personal attacks or private details. Google and Yelp forbid attacks, Yelp even in private messages. Google also forbids posting a reviewer’s private information.
- No offer in exchange for a change. Google strictly prohibits payment, discounts or free goods or services offered to get a review changed or removed. Yelp forbids rewards to change or remove one. Yelp says it posts a pop-up alert on the business’s page when it learns of this. The federal rule is silent here, but FTC staff say paying to change or remove a truthful negative review “may violate the FTC Act as an unfair or deceptive act or practice.”
- No threats, no false accusations. The federal rule bans an “unfounded or groundless legal threat,” a physical threat, intimidation, or a public accusation you know is false (or make without caring whether it’s true), when used to stop a review or get one taken down.
- No sales pitch. Google asks that replies skip deals and promotions. Yelp says owner comments aren’t for advertising.
Our advice: no Google or Yelp page we read covers a refund or redo you would offer regardless of the review. Make any such offer by phone or private message, apart from the review; one that lands right after a harsh review may still look tied to it.
Watch for the review scam. Google warns of an extortion scam. It may start with a sudden burst of 1-star and 2-star reviews on your Business Profile, then a demand for money, goods or services to take them down. Google says don’t engage and don’t pay. Paying can invite more attempts and “doesn’t guarantee the removal of reviews.” Don’t try to fix it yourself with money or services. File Google’s merchant extortion report form, with screenshots of every demand.
The Standard: Answer what went wrong, not who wrote it, and offer nothing for a changed review.
Source: Google Business Profile Help, “Manage customer reviews,” “Tips to get more reviews” and “Report negative review extortion scams”; Google Maps content policy; Yelp Business Help Center, Content Guidelines and “Don’t Ask for Reviews”; FTC reviews rule (16 CFR 465.7) and staff Q&A. Read Sept. 25, 2026.
This coverage is supported by Farmington Storage, 155 Scott Swamp Road, the only storage facility in Connecticut with Museum air. A calm reply beats a heated one, and a climate-controlled unit beats a damp basement. 860.777.4001 📦
Jack Beckett has covered Farmington long enough to have drafted a few replies he was glad he never sent. He is on his second coffee, which helps. ☕
The Farmington Mercury covers the town: Town Council and the land use boards, the police log, the schools, elections, and the businesses in Farmington and Unionville. Our motto is “Always last to breaking news,” and nobody has ever accused us of breaking it. Find us at farmingtonmercury.com and tell a neighbor. 📰