Merging GMB Location With Bad Reviews

[Brittany Barkes]

Hi Everyone,

I'm working with some dental practices in Colorado, and I could use some thoughts on the current situation. This is a 4 location dental practice that is closing one location in a month or so. In the past, I've worked with Google to merge closed locations into open locations, since it's the same business/brand. This has always been great because the reviews combine. In this current situation though, the location that is closing doesn't have a great reviews profile. Here's a look at the GMB rating and # of reviews:

Closing Location (Total/Rating) 27/3.9
Location #1 (Total/Rating) 16/4.8
Location #2 (Total/Rating) 9/4.1
Location #3 (Total/Rating) 30/3.9

The location that is closing is closest to Location #2, but I worry if we combine these it will hurt Location #2's ability to make up for these reviews. We could also just mark the location as permanently closed, but I don't want to hurt the brand at all by having the location appear as closed when all other locations are open (and doctors are transferred to the other locations).

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Rich Owings]

That's a tough call. Do they have a review solicitation program in place, asking all patients for a review? If not, I'd try to get that in place and merge them on the assumption that their average would steadily improve. Unless of course they are really bad!

 

[Brittany Barkes]

That's a tough call. Do they have a review solicitation program in place, asking all patients for a review? If not, I'd try to get that in place and merge them on the assumption that their average would steadily improve. Unless of course they are really bad!

Thanks for the feedback! They use Podium, but unfortunately, they don't have as much volume as a normal dental practice since they focus on bigger cosmetic cases. I'll talk to them about making this a priority though if we do move forward with the merge.