The thought of bad online reviews makes most business owners uncomfortable. To reduce the chance of bad reviews, some business owners refuse to create business profiles on certain sites like Yelp or Facebook. According to the experts, however, this is a failed strategy. The absence of a business profile will not prevent bad reviews, but it may limit your ability to mitigate the damage.
Here are a few other things to consider regarding bad online reviews.
When you see a bad review about your company posted online, do not ignore it. A timely and well thought out response is in order. A high percentage of customers look at online reviews. The way you respond can influence their opinions more than the review itself.
Before you respond to a legitimate review, investigate the situation that generated the complaint. Once you know all of the details you can prepare your response.
Begin by apologizing and validating the customersβ experience. Let them know your priority is to restore their satisfaction. Do not become defensive or combative in your response. Empathy and compassion is what needs to be felt in your response.
Before you can begin to discuss possible solutions, you need to speak to the reviewer if possible. It is important to get their side of the story first hand and to take the conversation offline at this point.
When communicating with the reviewer, meeting in person or speaking on the phone are your best options. Understand they may be emotional and possibly even rude. Do not take this personally and do not allow your emotions to get the best of you. Let them vent their frustrations and tell you exactly what happened from their perspective. Then direct the conversation to develop a solution that works for all involved.
Once the situation is resolved, ask the reviewer if they would consider modifying their original review and changing it to a satisfactory rating.
