Reviews seem to be all the rage right now. Yelp and other online apps have even started letting humans review other humans. While it can seem like a lot of noise and something many people don’t put a lot of stock into, the hard truth is, people do read these reviews and make purchasing decisions based on them. If you find yourself with a negative review online, here are a few ways to handle it in a positive and professional way.
Get involved
While you don’t have to take the time to respond to every review, it can benefit you and your company’s reputation that you get involved when someone posts something negative about you.
Don’t respond in haste though – take the time to read the review thoroughly and get a little more information about the situation that upset them. In some cases, a competitor will be the one who’s writing the negative words. If you know this to be the case, you can contact the website or social media outlet the review is posted on and ask them what your next actions should be. Many review apps and websites have policies about false reviews and will remove them. However, if there’s nothing they can do, just move forward from there.
Once you’ve discovered what sparked the negative review, you can respond in a professional and positive way. Remember that it’s better to take the high road in these situations and apologize for the experience they had, and let them know that you’re looking into it. Sometimes people just want to be heard and when you take the time to listen, others will notice when reading the review.
Have an incentive ready
Most people know to take reviews with a grain of salt. And many reviews that are written don’t go into great detail about the experience, but only discuss it in broad terms, such as, “Service was great. Would definitely come back.”
However, when people write a negative review, it seems that they go into great detail about their experience, and it will take a little more to smooth things over. Having an incentive in place such as a free consultation, coupon, or gift card will be a helpful go-to when someone just isn’t satisfied with your explanation of where the miscommunication was lost or the service failed to be acceptable.
Hire a reputation management company
Many companies that design and manage business websites will offer services in reputation management because they understand that SEO and your online reputation go hand-in-hand. When you don’t have time to read every review on Yelp, Facebook, and other public forums, find someone who does.
Having a hands-on, proactive strategy in place for your online reviews is not only an excellent way to combat and stay in the loop when it comes to negative reviews, but it also keeps you in touch with real customers who are using your services and purchasing your products. You can use this data to your advantage and fine tune your customer service experience to ensure the majority of your reviews are positive.
