So I'm in a bit of a mess right now and could honestly use some advice. My shop has a Google listing that I set up forever ago without thinking twice about it, and I genuinely had no idea customers could leave reviews on there. Didn't even cross my mind to check it. A friend mentioned something the other day and told me to go look at my page, and when I finally did, there was a pile of negative reviews sitting on it. Some of them are over a year old, just been there this whole time. So now I'm trying to figure out how to delete Google reviews before more damage gets done. My rating's pretty rough at this point, and the second someone searches for my shop, that's the first thing they see, and I doubt anyone's walking in after that.
What I'm stuck on is whether I should report them through Google myself or if paying to delete a Google review is actually the safer way to handle it. Really don't want to mess this up and end up losing my whole listing over it. Foot traffic's been slipping for months now and I'm pretty sure this is what's behind it. If anyone here has dealt with something similar and found a way to delete Google reviews that didn't blow back on them, would genuinely appreciate hearing how it played out for you. Pretty much open to anything at this point, mostly just want to know what to stay clear of.