You may well have opinions on whether or not “reviews” of your company in the Google results are appropriate, but the fact is, they probably exist, and they probably jump out of the results page when anyone searches for your company by name. So encouraging good ones is always a good idea.
What about the bad ones though? Sadly, there’s not much you can do about them, especially if they are genuine. However, if they’re not – and it’s possible – then at least Google has now made it possible to put in a complaint. According to the help document which explains the feature, “Profiles of users who are contributing false information, uploading offensive content or taking other abusive actions that violate Google Maps user contributed policy can be flagged for review.”
What they won’t do is get involved in “content that you don’t like but is still factually accurate and relevant.” This is because “there’s no reliable way to discern who’s right about a particular customer experience.”
Complaints have to be entered via Google Maps. The instructions are here.