Wednesday, April 30, 2014

How to Handle Bad Online Reviews


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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