AARGH!!! A NEGATIVE REVIEW!
You’ve discovered a negative review left about your business, oh no, what do you do? It’s best to act swiftly and accordingly to help the disgruntled customer and find out what went wrong. When responding, you should be very mindful when responding to a negative review. It is best to take a positive direction with your response because of the fact that visitors to the site can see the negative review. Along with your reply and remediation of the problem at hand. Situations we’ve experienced with clients have created a few do’s and don’ts to responding to negative reviews and how to overcome this unforeseen obstacle.
First, we want to let you know what you shouldn’t do when responding to a negative review.
- Ignore the Review – This allows the negative review to grow and create a bigger problem, even possibly pushing into your personal life on a social media platform.
- Fight Fire with Fire – Never reply to a negative review with criticism about what they said. This could escalate the situation and push potential customers away who see your reply.
- Disregard the Customer’s own Online Reputation – Some users get a rise out of purposely leaving negative reviews without valid reasoning. Check their background on the internet and see if they have a tendency to leave harsh reviews for others. In most cases, these “internet trolls” aren’t worth dealing with.
Next, we want to let you know what we consider some of the best reactions to negative reviews.
- Encourage Reviews – You want to efficiently gain more positive reviews to overlook the negative ones and to hopefully form a better impression of your business.
- Interact with Users Positively and Professionally – Always respond with a positive reply that keeps your interest in the customer and focuses on the problem at hand.
- Leave a Reply that Satisfies Other Potential Customers – Since other potential customers can see the negative review, make sure you provide a thoughtful response that engages how you’ll solve the issue and thank the reviewer for their time.
- Respond to Spam – Some individuals may leave dozens of negative reviews on different sites for all sorts of businesses, whether the person had any interaction with them or not. If it seems you have been spammed, acknowledge that you don’t know them and indicate you will be contacting them to let them know they might have the wrong business.
Customers are a major priority in business and you should always be aware and focused on the response they leave for your business. A good step is setting up a Google My Business Profile that allows customers to leave reviews. You can even provide them with a link that directs them to where they can leave a review. Remember, encourage all customers to leave a review and let them know how appreciative you are of any feedback! If you have any problems with negative reviews and are stuck trying to handle them, let us know and we have helped others in the same situation and certainly can help you!
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