Practitioner leaving practice---how to merge her reviews into the main (office) GBP listing

[Janell H]

Hi! One practitioner is leaving our client's office. She has a GBP and the main office also has a GBP. Is it possible to close her GBP listing, but merge her 46 reviews into the main office GBP reviews? How would I do that? I appreciate any help you can provide.

 

[Yeep]

Yes, as long as you own both listings, you can move the reviews. You will need to contact support and fill out their form for transferring reviews from one listing to another.

 

[Janell H]

Thanks. Do you have a link for the contact form please Yeep ?

 

[Professor M]

You can only merge if the business name, address, phone number match exactly.

Technically, this merging a practitioner profile with a clinic goes against Google’s guidelines, as the reviews are considered to belong to the individual practitioner and not the clinic

 

[fisicx]

Technically, this merging a practitioner profile with a clinic goes against Google’s guidelines, as the reviews are considered to belong to the individual practitioner and not the clinic

This is key. If the practitioner had the same phone number and address and it wasn't totally clear they were part of the main practice then you probably won't be able to move the reviews. As @Professor M said: the review were for the practitioner not the practice.

Image you were a successful plumber with hundreds of reviews. You want to retire so plan to give all your reviews to your plumbing mate down the road. It's just not going to happen.

 

[Janell H]

Thanks for all of your feedback. We decided to abide by Google's rules and forfeit the reviews. I suppose forfeiting reviews is the major drawback of creating practitioner GMB listings in addition to the main office GMB listing!

 

[keyserholiday]

Thanks for all of your feedback. We decided to abide by Google's rules and forfeit the reviews. I suppose forfeiting reviews is the major drawback of creating practitioner GMB listings in addition to the main office GMB listing!

Change the name of the practitioner GBP to match the business name. Copy the CID and remove everyone from the GBP to make it unverified—contact support to merge the two GBPs.

 

[RMortis]

If a practioner has the same address and phone number, and it's obvious they worked for the main practice ... are people saying Google is OK with you merging them?

I thought reviews always followed the practioner?

I mean if a doctor was someplace for 15 years and had all great reviews, why should the practice get to keep them if there is a falling out?

 

[keyserholiday]

If a practioner has the same address and phone number, and it's obvious they worked for the main practice ... are people saying Google is OK with you merging them?

I thought reviews always followed the practioner?

I mean if a doctor was someplace for 15 years and had all great reviews, why should the practice get to keep them if there is a falling out?

It’s a gray area. The practioner can move their GBP to the new location and keep the reviews or the practice can keep them. The reviews belong to the location and staff.

 

[RMortis]

It’s a gray area. The practioner can move their GBP to the new location and keep the reviews or the practice can keep them. The reviews belong to the location and staff.

Even if they mention the doctor?

I don't know if that's a gray area (other than people doing it) as it's against Google policy. We always tell the client the doctor reviews belong to the doctor and we have to release the profile to them when they leave. (Or just plain release it.)

We've had a few issues with this and Google scrubs the reviews. It was a mess.

Not arguing with you, this is certainly news to me, and from this thread sounds like news to others. Would love to continue this discussion!

 

[keyserholiday]

Even if they mention the doctor?

I don't know if that's a gray area (other than people doing it) as it's against Google policy. We always tell the client the doctor reviews belong to the doctor and we have to release the profile to them when they leave. (Or just plain release it.)

We've had a few issues with this and Google scrubs the reviews. It was a mess.

Not arguing with you, this is certainly news to me, and from this thread sounds like news to others. Would love to continue this discussion!

Since we don't know the status of the employee, it's hard to say. If they are moving to a different practice, they can take the GBP or leave it. If they are retiring, then I would update the name and get them merged. Google is not going to care if the person is mentioned in the reviews. Firms and medical practices have employees named in reviews all the time.

 

[RMortis]

Since we don't know the status of the employee, it's hard to say. If they are moving to a different practice, they can take the GBP or leave it. If they are retiring, then I would update the name and get them merged. Google is not going to care if the person is mentioned in the reviews. Firms and medical practices have employees named in reviews all the time.

Have you ever had a practitioner fight you to get them back?

That is what happened with us. Then Googled deleted ALL of the practice reviews and we had to work to claw back the ones that didn't mention the practitioner.

 

[keyserholiday]

Have you ever had a practitioner fight you to get them back?

That is what happened with us. Then Googled deleted ALL of the practice reviews and we had to work to claw back the ones that didn't mention the practitioner.

No, I have not. The practitioner willingly agreed to give it up and allow the merge. When I work with law firms, they struggle to get new reviews, so when they have practitioner GBPs, they'd rather kill them.

That sucks that Google would delete the reviews.

 

[RMortis]

@keyserholiday it was actually kind of the opposite now that I think about it.

It was a single practioner so all reviews to originally him and the practice went to him. Then they expanded to an additional location and added 3 more doctors, so when we came on we created new GBPs for the new docs and the locations.

Was working great, but after like 4 years, all of a sudden all reviews were gone. They said the practice had his reviews and deleted EVERYTHING. We were lucky we archived them, so we were able to present them, but they never gave back the ones that mentioned his name. And it took forever to get taken care of. Many, many support e-mails!!!

 

[keyserholiday]

I don’t create practitioner GPBs unless I have to. They often get neglected and don’t perform well. With the new video verification it’s a pain to get them verified. The last one I created hasn’t received any reviews. It was a wasted effort.

 

[keyserholiday]

I don’t see you as being argumentative. We are having a spirited conversation. I know when people are just trying to argue and when they aren’t. One person on Reddit told me to go test setting service areas to see how they impact rankings and to come back and apologize.

 

[RMortis]

I don’t see you as being argumentative. We are having a spirited conversation. I know when people are just trying to argue and when they aren’t. One person on Reddit told me to go test setting service areas to see how they impact rankings and to come back and apologize.

Haha ... I like to pre-tell that to serious people so they just say something stupid. Which 99 percent of the time they do anyway! (Per your example.)

Yeah, this is great. I wish all the threads on this forum has this kind of interaction.