Last Updated on 2023-02-21 by Tom
No, it is not a mistake. No one screwed up, either. And no, it is not a hacking issue either.
And yes, after some serious thinking, we have made the move to “permanently closed on Google.”
Here is why – if you would like to know.
Time is the only asset that is invaluable for all of us. We found that instead of spending time dealing with a few who enjoy bad-mouthing others when their entitlement mindset is being disturbed, we decided to focus our effort on providing the best service to those who are right for our service.
So we went to Google and asked how we could turn off the review function. It should have been a simple matter of a keystroke. But it was not that simple. Instead, Google’s standard is putting you on what looks like the modern version of “Procrustes bed.” (To those who are unfamiliar with this term, check out a good book with the same title by a renowned author Nassim Nicholas Taleb) Simply put, the only way you can stop the review is to claim your business is permanently closed.
But we are not. All we want is to get rid of the noise from the reviews by the whiners and focus on what matters – providing A+ service to A+ clients.
In the end, we learned there is no other way to make this work. So what should we do?
I did a quick search. First, I put the word “Google” into the Google search bar and found the only description of the company, which had no reviews at all. Interesting…
Then I put the word “Apple” in, and again, same thing – there were no reviews.
This simple exercise suddenly made me realize what was really going on.
Google, along with Apple and other big shots, know perfectly well what the so-called “customer review” really is – nothing more than noise. Therefore, they simply mute it.
But because our “small business,” along with all the other millions of small businesses, has no such privilege to do so but go to the “Procrustean bed” to accept our fates – either to be continually distracted by the noise or to be cut off.
So that is why we simply told Google, “All the best,” and “permanently closed” our business on Google to turn off the noise.
Now we can really save some time to build something that we can be proud of – regardless of what Google says.
=== Latest Update: Dated February 21, 2023 ===
In the process of dealing with the Google review above, we learned some good tricks too. Again, the best strategy we figured out is to focus on the ones who truly matter, which are the great members of tenants and landlords in our community. Let the truth speak instead of spending time dealing with the monopoly of Google. Additionally, the world is changing, and ChatGPT has come along. It is about time for Google to do something a bit more decent, I hope. We will see…