Caption: A nice response from the owners of Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC), Melbourne
Don’t you just love it when you get a nice response from the POI’s owner for your review. Got this one today and I can really sense their appreciation and can even see the smiles on their faces. However, that’s not really what this post is about…Yes but wait, there’s more! You see,
I’m a little puzzled!
While Maps suggests that I added the review 2 days ago (see screenshot #2), it was actually almost 7 years ago (see screenshot #3) and I usually add the photos when I add the review. Besides, it’s unlikely that my photos could attract 15 thousand views in a couple of days (see screenshot #4)! I haven’t seen the review or photos, or edited these since when they were added 7 years ago!
Caption: Screenshot #4 showing the the views count of one of the photos I added with my review of this POI.
So I just can’t help and wonder why it’s taken the Owner’s so long to see my review or has Google decided to bring my review and photos forward in time and this is why the Owner’s have just noticed it?
Like my curiosity back in January 2020 when I said "hang on a minute, what’s this over 1 million views about this nothing special photo, I’m just curious about this review.
I just have to ask, have you seen this happen to any of your reviews?
Yes Adam, but unfortunately I didn’t record the details. I’ve had a few instances recently where I’ve suddenly had a response to an old review I’d posted. I will take careful note next time it happens.
Seems like there is a new emphasis on reviews. I got a surprise notification yesterday that “401,135 persons saw your reviews”. I don’t do many, and wasn’t even keeping track of if they were being viewed or not.
Those smiles are priceless indeed @AdamGT . I also love to have feedbacks from the owner or management team of the place I have reviewed. Glad to know they respond to it, although some sound like a template reply hehe.
I also note that some responses were given regarding the old review that I have. Another glitch?
Exactly @tony_b. It’s that out of the blue response to some old review. Maybe you’re right, there might just be a new emphasis being placed on reviews but how is it that the suggested review date is changed and in this instance from some 7 years ago to just a few days ago?
I too had got responses like this, but a little bit late. Not like this one @AdamGT . Always felt happy when we see replies from the owners. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I totally agree @indahnuria the feedback makes you realize that what us Local Guides are doing is appreciated by the owners. Yes I too have seen some canned responses. It’s the unique, purpose written ones that are really special.
I’m not at all sure sure if this sudden replies to quite old reviews is another glitch or not but it’s the change in dates suggesting that I’d only added the review in the last couple of days that I’m really curious about! I’ve seen it before but thought to post about it now.
No not at all @Kumaarsantosh. As I mentioned in the post, I haven’t seen the review or photos, or edited these since when they were added some 7 years ago!
Yes replies are nice @Gurukrishnapriya but as I mentioned, this really wasn’t the reason behind my post. It’s more about what’s implied by the change in date of the review! To me, it’s very interesting!!
I could see more than 15 reviews newly posted in last couple of days (as shown in Google Maps) by you which are surely as you have mentioned were published 7 to 8 years back. The associated photos with those reviews also confirm that those were posted by you 7 to 8 years back as you have mentioned here
The possibility of these reviews showing as if posted in last 2 to 3 days is the periodic moderation of UGC by Google. These might have been hidden for some time earlier and now again these are made public.
This also happens, when we delete/add photo to our already posted review, which is not true in your case. (You confirmed above).
Thanks @Kumaarsantosh for your deeper thoughts on this subject. From the nature of the review and photos, and in particular the view count on the photos, and by the way, not just the one I included in my post, I very much doubt that the review was ever hidden but of course we may never know!
The fact, we don’t know in most cases when a post became hidden disturbs me a lot!
I also saw cases when an old review appears as most recently and I couldn’t figure out why - I neither did change the text nor added or removed photos.
The fact the owner responded now and not seven years ago, confirms my observation that many owners became more sensitive to reviews and watch them frequently now.
Sounds like you also have experienced what my post is about @WilfriedB.
It is possible that the owner responded now and not seven years ago and that would explain Given the time shown for owner’s the response which at the time of writing my post was 3 hours ago and now at the time of this comment it’s 13 hours ago (see screenshot below) which is still well after the suggested date of my review of 2 days ago so I don’t believe it’s the owner’s response that has triggered this new review date!
Caption: Screenshot showing that at the time of this comment, the owner responded 13 hours ago!
But check this out, as I think it was @Kumaarsantosh who commented, I just had a look at my list of reviews and I see loads of reviews suggesting that I wrote these 2 or 3 days ago when in fact they were written several years ago! I must have unknowingly (perhaps in my dreams) travelled around the world in the last 3 days or must have done something to trigger this!!!
Hey @AdamGT
I am so glad to see and receive such review and it happens with almost everyone that review was posted long back and the owner wasn’t active enough to reply to reviews at that time. There maybe en number of reasons. I do one thing most of the time whenever I review the place I tell the owner to reply to any reviews he gets on Google maps so that he is connected to the people taking out time to review there establishment.
I write the review while I am at the location most of the time and while conversing with the owner about connect I tell them to reply to every review they get. That is what I meant @WilfriedB
You should try it @AdamGT you will be amazed to see people don’t actually know they are getting reviews, they just have Google My Business and maps updating their business on listing. I had checked it out several times, I had to share an example with one of the owners as his father wasn’t aware reviews also mean so much.
Regards,
Those smiles are priceless indeed @AdamGT . I also love to have feedbacks from the owner or management team regarding our contribution. At this point, most of the responses I got are the templates one hehe
