Remington Begg
Online review platforms are everywhere across the web and consumers are trusting them more and more in their decision-making process. From Angie’s List and Yelp to Tripadvisor to even Google’s own My Business, there are dozens of ways for your current customers to tell others about their experience with you. At this point you are hopefully thinking “Good! My business provides a great service, let them tell others!” After all, word-of-mouth marketing from evangelists is one of the best ways to bring new people in, right? The unfortunate fact remains that no business will have 100% good reviews, no matter how customer-focused and affordable you are. Whether you like it or not, bad reviews will always come up. They happen to everyone! Instead of thinking you’re immune to this, prepare for the inevitable so you can act accordingly when they happen:
Reply Quickly
First things first, don’t ignore a bad review on your business's account. You want to respond promptly, but not so hastily that you are still angry or upset. Most platforms allow you to reply to the negative review directly. Write a clear response to the upset party, an explanation of what exactly happened or a sincere apology if the fault falls on your business.
Repair the Situation
Just like if someone complains in person, do what you can do repair the situation. Online, get details as to what happened and try to resolve it, either by a refund or a discount on their next purchase. If you’re successful in changing their feelings toward your brand, you can even ask them to remove or update their bad review. This is really the best possible outcome for dealing with a bad review. Many times, we’ve seen where our clients have received a negative review and turned around the situation so much that the reviewer actually becomes a great evangelist.
Ask for More Reviews
There’s usually nothing wrong with point-blank asking for reviews with a sign saying something like “Enjoy your meal today? Rate us on Tripadvisor!” If you’re putting the review of your place of business at the forefront of customers’ minds, plenty of new reviews will come in and eventually bury that bad one under a heap of positive messages.
Some platforms, like Yelp, do not want you to specifically ask for reviews and you can only go so far as to say you have a page on the website. Whatever you do, make sure you’re following the guidelines of the given site.
Promote Platforms with Better Reviews
It’s possible that several of your bad reviews could collect on one reviewing platform, making it too difficult to remove or push down all of them. Luckily, there are many other reviewing sites you could promote instead. Direct your customers and potential customers to the listing of your choosing by using your website and social profiles to do so.
Change Unpopular Systems Moving Forward
Instead of immediately being defensive and trying to get the review removed, take them as an opportunity to improve your product/service. If there are quite a few reviews complaining about the same issue, you may have a genuine problem. If more than one complaint about the same staff member comes up, it’s time to have a talk with them. If several people are inconvenienced by your store hours, it’s time to rethink them. After all, reviews both good or bad leave you with insights for your business. Take advantage of them to improve the areas of your business that need to be taken care of or get new ideas to make your customers happier.
A newly-hired staff member, a misunderstanding, an honest mistake or just a moody client having a bad day. The reasons behind a user leaving a bad review would make a never-ending list, even for good business with the best intentions in mind. You won’t be able to avoid the occasional bad review here and there, so it’s important to know what to do once you’re hit with one.
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