Voicing one’s opinion online can become a bloodsport from time to time and nowhere is this truer than in the realm of online reviews. Opinions matter, at least insofar as they affect your business, and making sure you manage your online reputation is more important than ever. Bad reviews are going to appear. You can’t please everyone all the time. What’s important however is making sure that they do not influence a lot of your audience, and that your brand is seen as one which cares and addresses problems that happen, not contests, refutes or hides from them.
What to do with a negative review
Follow these 3 steps and develop your very own system for taking care of a negative review when it does show up.
- Customer service ought to be a high priority – Often times the reason companies are in the position of dealing with a particularly nasty online review is that they failed to take care of business as soon as the problem first surfaced. Very often the customer will have tried to reach out, but received no response, and felt as if they had no option but to air their frustrations online at a review site. A lot of this can be avoided by having a proactive process when it comes to monitoring your onsite and social media channels, so you’ll be aware when a problem arises.
- Deal professionally with people – No matter what you do, don’t inflame the problem by resorting to vitriolic he said, she said types of encounters online. It will NEVER work in your favor, even when you are right. Remain professional, generous, and remember you are aiming to keep a customer, or at least not lose more of them! The real problem customers are few, and not worth the potential damage they can do should you get in it with them!
- Encourage good reviews – One of the best ways you can actively really make a difference is by encouraging and even rewarding positive reviews of your products or services. Get enough of these on a regular basis, and the occasional negative review won’t stand a very good chance of remaining high in the search results. To the contrary, they will in all likelihood bring you even more customers!
Handling negative reviews isn’t rocket science, but it does need to have persistence and professionalism. Nowadays with the speed of communication online, you really haven’t any other choice!