How to Combat Bad Reviews
Voicing one’s opinion online can become a bloodsport on occasion and nowhere is this more true than in the realm of online reviews. Opinions matter, at the very least insofar as they affect your business, and ensuring that you manage your online reputation is more important than ever before. Negative reviews are going to happen. You can’t please all the people all of the time. What’s key however is making sure that they do not influence a lot of your audience, and that your brand is viewed as one which cares and addresses problems that surface, not contests, refutes or hides from them.
How to manage a negative review
Here are three steps to proactively overcome the occasional negative review.
- Customer service ought to be a top priority - Often times the reason why companies are in the position of dealing with a especially nasty online review is that they failed to attend to business when the problem first appeared. Often times the customer will have tried to reach out, but got no response, and felt as if they had no choice but to air their problems online at a review site. A lot of this can be avoided by having a proactive stance with respect to monitoring your onsite and social media channels, so you’ll be aware when a problem starts.
- 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 your aim is to keep a customer, or at a minimum not lose more of them! The real problem customers are few, and not worth the possible damage they could do if you get into it with them!
- Foster positive reviews - A proven way you can actively help your online reputation is encouraging positive reviews of your product or service form your happy customers. Most are glad to help, and if these appear regularly, the chances that the occasional negative review will stand a chance of remaining high in the search results are slim. View it as not just as managing your online reputation, but as another way of promoting your business, for nothing!
Handling negative reviews isn’t nuclear physics, but it does require diligence and professionalism. Nowadays with the speed of communication online, you have no other options!
