You know your business offers honest, high-quality service
and products and you have loyal customers who agree with you. Recently, you
decided to Google your company name and check out what review sites such as
Yelp had to say about you. At first, you were pleased to see some positive
comments. But then you scrolled down and found a few negative reviews and they
didn’t sugarcoat anything. How did this happen? You don’t even remember the
experience the customer is talking about. This can’t be good. So what do you
do?
First of all, don’t post fake positive reviews. Fake reviews
are everywhere, and if Yelp finds it suspicious, it will not publish it. Fake
reviews can also get you in trouble with the law, in which you buy reviews
which are dishonest and inaccurate. You are doing a disservice to your
customers and business by posting fake positive reviews.
Second, address negative feedback personally, but with
care. Connect with negative reviewers
personally through a phone call or email. Ask questions, let them vent, and
offer a discount or refund if warranted. Then prioritize each future customer
service interaction. Act as if they will post a review about you. Practice self
restraint when responding rather than jumping to defend your business. Next,
move conversations offline. Talk to customers outside of social media and
encourage them to write a follow up post when the problem has been solved.
Finally, be proactive. Ask customers in an email or phone
call how they did during their time in the store, which will catch complaints
before a person vents publicly. This can help you uncover things that are
broken and find solutions to reoccurring problems. Make it happen!
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2014 eMarketing 4 Business LLC
