Negative online reviews are a thorn in the side of businesses, especially smaller businesses that rely on positive word-of-mouth to help generate growth and new leads. The hard truth is that reading a negative review about your business isn’t the best way to make use of your time.
Don’t worry though! Negative reviews aren’t a death sentence for your business. To help you deal with them quickly and effectively, I’m going to share with you 3 super quick ways to transform every poor review into an opportunity for great customer service. Here we go:
Respond To The Negative Review
It won’t go away and people will read it! Even worse, readers will wonder why you may not be responding to it. Sure, you may have your reasons: you think it’ll go away on its own, it’s a fake review from a competitor, you dropped the ball on the customer, or maybe you didn’t like them to begin with!
Here’s the thing – respond! Simple. Respond to the review in a calm and pleasant way. Look for the issue(s) within the review and let that customer know you want to make things right and ask them to call you, so that you can personally take care of it.
Alright, you’ve now responded to the review and things are starting to look right in the world (even if the review is a fake).
Embrace The Review
Yes, really! Maybe that negative review is real and it’s providing your business with some great feedback on how you may be able to improve things. Even though your restaurant might serve delicious food, long wait times could be turning away potential customers or maybe your location isn’t easily accessible and people just aren’t bothering showing up.
Also, if you have employees, then a negative review a great way to openly discuss how the business can improve. Bring your employees into the conversation and see what you can do to help your team and your business.
Embrace all of your reviews and use them to your advantage! Negative reviewers aren’t just out to get you – they can be people who truly care about your business and want to see you succeed. So listen to what they have to say!
Ask For Reviews
Yep, that’s right – ask your customers to provide reviews for your business after completing a sale. Make it easy and provide them with links to the review sites that are most important for you. Don’t fret about getting negative reviews, instead focus on the positive ones that you will receive.
By asking customers to review your business, you should actually be working towards providing them with the best product/service/customer experience possible. If you want that perfect review, you’re going to have to earn it and by practicing providing your customers a great product and service, you’ll be watching the great reviews pour in in no time.
Of course, within all of this you’ll want to monitor your online reputation. See where people are leaving reviews and stay on top of what’s happening. Being quick to respond will help show that you care about your business and about satisfying your customers. Dealing with a negative review also comes with the possibility of generating a newly positive review from a previously disgruntled customer. Guess who wants to see a business take ownership and ensure happy customers? I’m pretty sure I don’t need to provide the answer to that!
Want your business to really shine online? Give us a shout, it’s what we love to do!
