Overcome Customers Negative Reviews

It’s bound to happen sooner or later. You can’t please everyone. You discover negative reviews people have written while searching for you business online. While it may be gratifying in the heat of the moment to tear into the offender with a surly rebuttal, you know in the long run that won’t help and it could hurt.

Overcome the negative impression these reviews create

• Be proactive. When finishing a job/completing a transaction, ask the customer if they would mind providing positive feedback. If you’re able to dwarf the negative review with positive ones, then new customers researching your business are likely to take the few negative experiences with a grain of salt.


• Provide an outlet on your website for customers with a negative experience to contact you/your company directly to deal with problems. This will hopefully drive negative feedback directly to you, so you can get ahead of the situation & hopefully resolve further conflict. In turn this could change a negative experience to a positive one, as that customer you helped may now go online and praise how you’ve helped them correct the problem.


• Respond. Politely. Put yourself in the customer’s situation. They purchased a product/service, and it may not have been what was expected. Ask the customer what specifically was wrong with the product/service, and what they need to correct the error. If they respond, great. You now have a chance to turn around the negative experience for the whole world to see. If they don’t… well then future consumers may disregard the negative review as someone who was just venting, and was unreasonable to begin with.


• Don’t think of it as a negative review, but as a chance to make yourself and your business better. Here’s an excerpt from an article in Forbes, The Upside of Negative Online Customer Reviews:

“Back in 2004, Jim Noble bought a $140 laptop case from eBags, a luggage retailer in Greenwood Village, Colo. He wasn’t pleased, and he wanted the retailer–along with any other unsuspecting customers–to know it. First, he posted an unflattering review on eBags’ website. That let off some steam, but it didn’t solve the problem of finding a case that fit his needs. Then he sent an email (with photos) to the company outlining all the ways the bag could be improved, including using a sturdier zipper that moved over a more rounded, forgiving path. eBags paid attention, made the adjustments and the case has since become a best seller.”

Having a Negative Review Isn't All Bad

Sometimes a third party or different perspective can show you something about your business that you wouldn’t have known otherwise.

• Finally, please don’t just ignore it. It won’t go away. Even if you don’t have the time or resources to deal with the negative feedback immediately, you should at least respond, thanking the author for taking the time to comment. Let them know that you are aware of the situation, and will get back to them quickly to resolve the situation. Then do your homework, investigate the issue and live up to your promise.

How to Get Reviews for Your Business?

The first thing you need to know about customer’s reviews is that they’re very powerful because they’re not you, shaping how you want your company to be perceived.

Not only are there dozens of websites out there that allow customers to post reviews of local businesses, there are an equal number of “experts” telling you how important reviews are and how you should solicit them.

In order to avoid being publicly “outed” by sites like Yelp or penalized by search engines like Google, you definitely DON’T want to buy reviews. And you don’t want to suggest to your customers what they should say about you in a review. But you DO want to solicit reviews.

Here are 4 tips for collecting reviews that will help your reputation online and not get you in trouble:

1. LINK. Decide where you want reviews about you to show up, and whenever you encourage customers to write a review, give them the link to that page. It could be a page on your own website or your business profile page on Superpages.com, or your Google + Local page, but if you give people a link to click on, that’s where they’ll write their review.


2. ASK. The number one reason businesses don’t get reviews is because they don’t ask for them. In the simplest language possible, thank your customers for their business and say something like “We hope we provided the best service possible. Feel free to tell us about your experience here. [link]“


3. BROADCAST. Ask for reviews everywhere you can: in person, on your website, in email, on your mobile website, text them a link, ask on your Facebook page, Twitter, on a comment card you leave with a customer, on any printed marketing material you give to a customer… everywhere.


4. RESPOND. Monitor and be sure to thank every person for their review, even the bad ones. And quickly contact that customer offline to resolve any issues.

It’s how people find your business online

As a smart business owner you’ve probably looked into SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and how key it is to your business — whether your customers are buying your products or services online or off. Review sites is what’s getting your business to pop up when someone searches for your products/services on Google, Bing, etc…

Are Social Reviews Good or Bad for Business?

The internet has given everyone a voice through social reviews.

Sometimes, that’s good. Like in the case of social justice.

However sometimes, that’s bad. Like virtually any YouTube comments section.

For businesses, this has become a double edged sword.

Being able to interact with customers gives you unprecedented access to create or further your brand.

But it also opens you up to criticism or trolls who express their dissatisfaction loudly and clearly for all to see.

However, getting honest feedback – whether positive or negative –  is important because it helps you know where you’re doing well, where you’re not, and how to improve. It clues you into those ‘blind spots’ that are unfortunately inevitable when there’s a ton of other things on your plate.

Here’s how to respond on Social Reviews

avoid being the next victim of those epic #socialmediafails you read about online.

Step 1. Don’t Be Argumentative. While seemingly obvious, your natural instinct when reading negative social reviews is to get defensive. It’s only natural, as business owners are personally invested in their business. However trying to argue or ‘prove someone wrong’ online is a losing proposition that will only backfire.

Instead, start with empathy. Try hard to see their point of view and understand where they’re coming from. Then respond with sincerity and a willingness to make things right.

Step 2. Take it Private. The longer a problem festers in public, the greater likelihood for it to spin out of control.  So start by responding publicly, but then try to take it offline or through private channels as quickly as possible.

That shows other people who might be reading negative social reviews that you care and you’re on top of it, but allows you to discuss the gritty details away from the public eye who might not understand what’s going on.

Step 3. Identify & Correct the Root Problem. It’s tempting to throw a discount at the customer in hopes the problem will go away. However only addressing the symptoms will leave your business open to this problem happening again in the near future.

Instead, try to understand where the original problem stemmed from. Document these in a simple Excel sheet over the course of the month, and review them with other people in your company as needed.

Negative feedback or criticism is never fun to hear. And it’s only natural for business owners to feel personally attacked.

But if you can change your perception and use it as a learning moment to see how and where you can improve, these tense situations can ultimately make your business run better and smoother for years to come.

Check out Results Matter’s social media management and Search Engine Optimization services for your local business. 

How Reputation Can Affect Your Findability

Someone once wrote, “A good reputation is more valuable than money.” That bit of wisdom has been proven time and again. From small restaurants to big car companies, nothing can affect a business’s bottom line faster than a reputation gone sour. But many entrepreneurs forget that reputation can also play a big role in a business’s “Findability.”

The Five Factors of Being Findable.

Being “Findable” means a business is visible to consumers where and when they’re ready to buy. There are five key marketing components or factors that help identify how findable a business is to consumers including: Brand, Physical Location, Advertising, Online Presence, and Reputation & Community. The degree at which a local business is engaged in each factor plays an important role in determining their overall visibility. But one of the most dynamic of the five is arguably Reputation & Community.

Reputation & Community.

For years, being involved in your local community through sponsorships, memberships and charities was an important part of keeping up your business’s findability, goodwill and brand loyalty. But today there are countless online places consumers can go to generate word of mouth about the companies—big or small—that they have experiences with. Sometimes that word of mouth is complimentary, sometimes it can be outright damaging to business. Either way, that information is out there for existing and potential customers to see and use when deciding whether to buy from you. So it’s important to keep a close eye on what’s being said about your business in order to engage any damaging word of mouth in a timely fashion.

Listening.

The most important thing you can do in managing your reputation is to listen.  Local businesses that listen to their customers benefit by not only understanding how people feel about them, but they have the opportunity to guide the conversation rather than react to it. But, in order to listen, you have to know where you’re being talked about. Today, that means monitoring social media networks, blogs, review sites and more to see what’s being said about you. That’s where the concept of “reputation management” comes in.

Reputation management.

Simply put, reputation management is the process of tracking what is being said about your business. For some, it may help to think of reputation management as a little bit like constant credit monitoring for your business. With credit monitoring, experts always say to check your credit every year, get an updated score, and review your report for unknown blemishes that you may be able to fix. However, with reputation management, checking only once a year for marks against your business is usually too late to undo any damage. Countless prospects may have already seen the detrimental information, believed it—whether it was true or not—and passed you over for a competitor. Reputation management provides an omnipresent electronic ear to the ground so you know what information is being said about your business in today’s instant social media world.

The Big Four of reputation.

There are four main areas that local businesses should think about when considering online reputation:

1. Visibility – Regardless of what kind of business you own, it needs to be visible in all the places people might find you online. That includes search engines, directories, industry/professional sites, local sites, and more. Where are you appearing? Are there reviews on any sites you may not be familiar with? Can your customers find your best reviews?


2. Reviews – What are your customers saying about you? Are you responding to these in the right way? Reviews aren’t just for movies and restaurants anymore. Everything from attorneys to zoos get reviewed by consumers these days and many times those reviews get republished on other sites. So it’s more important than ever to monitor what’s being said about you.


3. Social Media – What is the “buzz” around your business? Can your customers find you on Facebook? Are they mentioning you in their status updates or tweeting about you? Are they checking into your business on Foursquare?


4. Competition – It’s as important to keep an eye on your competition as it is to monitor your own reputation. What are their customers saying? Are you being mentioned in the same comments? How can you learn from that?

You’re not helpless.

Almost every business eventually drops the ball at some point. And that disappointed customer may vent their frustrations in ways that will be less than flattering to your business. So while you can’t control what they say and where they say it, you can control how and when you’re able to respond to it. Reputation management provides businesses the opportunity to address a negative situation and turn it around into a positive one. You’ll look like a caring and responsive business in the eyes of other customers by making your gesture in a public forum. So you could not only win back the customer you might’ve lost, but possibly gain dozens more with your proactive response.

Start monitoring your reputation today.

There are a number of reputable companies offering reputation management tools that make it easy for small businesses to monitor what’s being said about them. Results Matter advertisers have a free summary tool located within their account management system, where they can get a snapshot of their reputation across the web. Businesses can get a sense of how accurate their listings are, how many reviews they have, and how their social pages are doing. Or, they can even upgrade to a premium reputation management level and get the important what and where details, view a breakdown of reviews by site, see exactly what your customers are saying, update your listings across the web with one click, and manage your social pages.

How Reputation Can Affect Your Findability

Someone once wrote, “A good reputation is more valuable than money.” That bit of wisdom has been proven time and again. From small restaurants to big car companies, nothing can affect a business’s bottom line faster than a reputation gone sour. But many entrepreneurs forget that reputation can also play a big role in a business’s “Findability.”

The Five Factors of Being Findable.

Being “Findable” means a business is visible to consumers where and when they’re ready to buy. There are five key marketing components or factors that help identify how findable a business is to consumers including: Brand, Physical Location, Advertising, Online Presence, and Reputation & Community. The degree at which a local business is engaged in each factor plays an important role in determining their overall visibility. But one of the most dynamic of the five is arguably Reputation & Community.

Reputation & Community.

For years, being involved in your local community through sponsorships, memberships and charities was an important part of keeping up your business’s findability, goodwill and brand loyalty. But today there are countless online places consumers can go to generate word of mouth about the companies—big or small—that they have experiences with. Sometimes that word of mouth is complimentary, sometimes it can be outright damaging to business. Either way, that information is out there for existing and potential customers to see and use when deciding whether to buy from you. So it’s important to keep a close eye on what’s being said about your business in order to engage any damaging word of mouth in a timely fashion.

Listening.

The most important thing you can do in managing your reputation is to listen.  Local businesses that listen to their customers benefit by not only understanding how people feel about them, but they have the opportunity to guide the conversation rather than react to it. But, in order to listen, you have to know where you’re being talked about. Today, that means monitoring social media networks, blogs, review sites and more to see what’s being said about you. That’s where the concept of “reputation management” comes in.

Reputation management.

Simply put, reputation management is the process of tracking what is being said about your business. For some, it may help to think of reputation management as a little bit like constant credit monitoring for your business. With credit monitoring, experts always say to check your credit every year, get an updated score, and review your report for unknown blemishes that you may be able to fix. However, with reputation management, checking only once a year for marks against your business is usually too late to undo any damage. Countless prospects may have already seen the detrimental information, believed it—whether it was true or not—and passed you over for a competitor. Reputation management provides an omnipresent electronic ear to the ground so you know what information is being said about your business in today’s instant social media world.

The Big Four of reputation.

There are four main areas that local businesses should think about when considering online reputation:

1. Visibility – Regardless of what kind of business you own, it needs to be visible in all the places people might find you online. That includes search engines, directories, industry/professional sites, local sites, and more. Where are you appearing? Are there reviews on any sites you may not be familiar with? Can your customers find your best reviews?


2. Reviews – What are your customers saying about you? Are you responding to these in the right way? Reviews aren’t just for movies and restaurants anymore. Everything from attorneys to zoos get reviewed by consumers these days and many times those reviews get republished on other sites. So it’s more important than ever to monitor what’s being said about you.


3. Social Media – What is the “buzz” around your business? Can your customers find you on Facebook? Are they mentioning you in their status updates or tweeting about you? Are they checking into your business on Foursquare?


4. Competition – It’s as important to keep an eye on your competition as it is to monitor your own reputation. What are their customers saying? Are you being mentioned in the same comments? How can you learn from that?

You’re not helpless.

Almost every business eventually drops the ball at some point. And that disappointed customer may vent their frustrations in ways that will be less than flattering to your business. So while you can’t control what they say and where they say it, you can control how and when you’re able to respond to it. Reputation management provides businesses the opportunity to address a negative situation and turn it around into a positive one. You’ll look like a caring and responsive business in the eyes of other customers by making your gesture in a public forum. So you could not only win back the customer you might’ve lost, but possibly gain dozens more with your proactive response.

Start monitoring your reputation today.

There are a number of reputable companies offering reputation management tools that make it easy for small businesses to monitor what’s being said about them. Results Matter advertisers have a free summary tool located within their account management system, where they can get a snapshot of their reputation across the web. Businesses can get a sense of how accurate their listings are, how many reviews they have, and how their social pages are doing. Or, they can even upgrade to a premium reputation management level and get the important what and where details, view a breakdown of reviews by site, see exactly what your customers are saying, update your listings across the web with one click, and manage your social pages.

How to Get [Good] Business Reviews

Proactively Seek [Good] Business Reviews

You just got to get out there and actively manage the business reviews and ratings online, no matter what your line of business. Need persuading? Some data points:

• A survey by BrightLocal of 2,300 local shoppers found that 92% read online business reviews and the star rating is the #1 factor used to judge a business.


• In the 2015 Moz survey of search-engine consultants, reviews were one of the top eight factors they think Google uses to rank the sites of local businesses.

Read More About Why Getting Online Reviews Matters for your business

Of course, by “manage” business reviews, we mean “get good reviews and lots of stars”.

Or, to put it another way “identify happy customers and persuade them to rate and review, while still keeping them happy.” So follow these steps…

Step 1: Find Your (Good) Business Reviewers

Right after service or a sale, ask customers for feedback in person, by email or by a follow-up phone call. For instance, you might ask:

• Were they pleased with the overall experience?


• What in particular did they like about the experience?


• What benefit did they receive?

Specifics make business reviews believable, so you’re priming the customer to think about what to write in a compelling review.

If you’re not dealing with a satisfied customer, listen carefully to the complaint and attempt to deal with it right away.  Of course, you’re not going to solicit a business review–consider yourself lucky that you had a chance to head off negative online comments.

If your review candidate expresses a mixed opinion, play it by ear. You don’t necessarily want to discourage a mixed review: the search engines and review sites are thought to watch for “diversity” of opinion. Too much happy talk and they may consider you a spammer and delete your business reviews.

Having identified your potential reviews buddies, move them along to Step 2…

Alternative reviews buddies: Anyone who posts a compliment on Facebook or other social media. On to Step 2, too, for them, right away.

 Step 2: Ask for the Review

You followed Step 1, so you are about to ask the customers for the business review while they are still at the peak of happiness about their recent experience with your business. But tread carefully. You don’t want to spoil the mood by pushing.

• Ask if they ever write reviews, or would they consider it now


• Tell them it would be a big favor


• You can tell them it would mean a lot to you and your business


• Another thing to tell them you are looking forward to reading their reviews

Step 3:  Tell Them Where to Go

Politely suggest that they

• Go to Google, and enter “write a review for [your business name] in [your town]” in the search box


• Click on any of the many review sites that will pop up in the center, and enter a review


• On the box about the business that Google displays on the right, click “write a review” and at least enter a star rating. Or write another, different review on Google.

For the social media users who posted the compliments, suggest they enter a review on your Facebook page.  

Step 4:  Thank Them

• As quickly as possible, thank them by phone, email or handwritten note.


• Thank them by replying on the site where they left the review.

Step Never:  Don’t Do These

• Offer a gift coupon or any other inducement before or after the review. Review sites forbid it.


• Pay a service that posts fake reviews. This can happen: NY Attorney General Fines 4 Companies for Paid Reviews.


• Mass mail your customer list asking for reviews. Go back to Step 1: You want to approach customers just after a happy experience. Also, if search engines see a large number of reviews posted in a short time frame, they could tag them as spam and delete them.


• Set up a computer at your place of business and ask for a review there. Search engines can spot that, too, and delete.

Wondering how to answer reviews (good and bad)? We have an extensive guide for you, including suggested language for many different business types.

Why Your Business Online Reviews Matter?

Here’s why your customer's online reviews matter.

Ever seen that Black Mirror episode where every person is rated by interactions with their peers and their overall “rating” determines their lot in life? We’re not there yet as a society, thankfully.

But as a business owner, you’re not that far off.
Preview: It’s not all doom, gloom and creepy smiles. You have control more than you think.

“Don’t take our word for it…”

The first thing you need to know about customer's online reviews is that they’re very powerful because they’re not you, shaping how you want your company to be perceived. Yes, you should still influence your image through your marketing campaigns to make plain why you’re the best at what you do and how you’re different from your competitors, but independent online reviews are viewed as much more credible to prospective customers and can augment the marketing efforts. It’s called “social proof” and it’s here to stay.

Every extra star represents 5-9% more business

There is an actual value to those stars on sites like Yelp, Facebook, Google+ and many others, in case you’ve ever wondered. And though it may feel like a battle for each one as you try to manage a (hopefully) steady stream of incoming reviews, it is a battle worth fighting. Why? Because you could see a bottom-line boost of 5-9% from each star you see added.

and while it’s important to keep your star rating high…

…The “Greasy pizza” review could actually be good for business

As much as we humans crave quality, we inherently distrust things that appear too perfect. It plants seeds of doubt: “Do they pay for their reviews?” “Is their large extended family responsible for that five-star rating?” In short, if you own a pizza shop, let there be occasional grease. Some foodie, somewhere is always going to complain, and as long as it’s a one or two-off, think of it as your dimples of credibility and make sure to address and overcome any negative feedback and move right along.

It’s how people find your business online

As a smart business owner you’ve probably looked into SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and how key it is to your business — whether your customers are buying your products or services online or off. Review sites is what's getting your business to pop up when someone searches for your products/services on Google, Bing and other search engines.
Advanced tip: You can even look into microformatting your reviews for above-the-fold indexing.

More about Google’s rich answers here.

So how do you get more online reviews?

By now you know that reviews are very important for your business. So how do you get them? There are several different ways to get reviews, but the key is to be always willing to ask your customers for them outright. Passive reviews may come in, but you will have more control over the kind of reviews you get if you ask the right customers, at the right time. You could send out an email to a select list of loyal customers, you can also have your staff hand out a postcard to customers who’ve clearly had a positive experience. And no, it isn’t cheating to offer a small incentive. Think of cost-effective ways to encourage your customers to follow through and post online reviews.
Remember, when they do, the reviews will pay for themselves.