Many businesses and consumers treat their reviews as a one-and-done affair, but Google is pushing to make the process more substantive. Google has allowed the editing and deletion of reviews for some time now, but a recent update puts this capability front and center, adding a new “Edit/Delete” button on the same line as the review’s star rating and date. The goal is to encourage addendums and revisions to reviews, something that users do not often do but are being pushed toward more and more by businesses engaging with those reviews after they are written.

This benefit is directly tied to Google’s new addition of an edit button. When a customer has a negative experience, it is most important to respond to the review. A business should always have the last word, either to clarify any misconceptions the negative review may have about the business or to show that efforts will be made to rectify the issue. There is more lifetime value in a customer than just their one purchase that led to the review, and maintaining that relationship is crucial to a business’s health. Compensating customers who have had a bad experience or otherwise finding ways to convert the detractor into a proponent is a vital skill for reputation managers. This means that if a business engages with negative feedback rather than simply accepting the loss, they can have the negative feedback changed to positive, something now much more encouraged with the review edit functionality being prominently featured by Google.