Reviews tanking after a botched water heater install in Chicago

Just finished a Rheem water heater swap in the Chicago area, quoted them $1800 flat rate thinking it was straightforward. Homeowner left a 1-star on Google ripping me for a small leak I fixed same day, now my rating's dipping below 4.5. Anyone else dealing with this crap from one bad review killing your rep?

man that sucks, one pissed off customer can screw your whole google profile for months.

respond publicly on google, keep it professional and say you fixed it free.

i always ask for the review after the job's done and everyone's happy, avoids this bs.

chicago winters make everyone grumpy, had a similar thing with a frozen pipe call.

sucks but happens, focus on getting more 5-stars to bury it.

damn, $1800 is fair for rheem in this market, theyre just cheap.

ive lost jobs cuz of one bad review from years ago, its brutal.

offer a discount on next service to flip the review, worked for me once.

frustrating as hell, especially when you bend over backwards.

use it as a lesson, document everything with pics before and after.

big corps buy good reviews, us small guys get screwed by the system.

those google algorithms hate us independents, pure bs.

watched a tommy mello vid on handling bad reviews, he says respond fast and own it.

homeowners think theyre experts after one youtube video, pisses me off.

yeah screw the entitled ones, but it hurts the wallet.

ive been there, just keep grinding and the good ones will outweigh it eventually.