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No business wants a bad review online. But simply put, you’re not going to please every person every time, even if customer service is your top priority. While we always encourage you to try to turn reviews around, having a few bad reviews really isn’t the end of the world. Here’s why.
It Humanizes You
Having nothing but 100% positive, 5-star reviews sounds just wonderful. But from a customer’s perspective, it’s just not believable. No one is that perfect. So having nothing but glowing reviews, even if they’re all real, can lead potential customers to thinking you’re faking it. Having a mix of good, great, and even some mediocre reviews is a strong signal that your reviews are real and telling a more complete story. Your responses to both good and bad reviews complete the picture by showing that while you may not nail it every time, you are committed to being excellent.
Negative Reviews Present Content Opportunities
In a lot of cases, bad reviews stem from a lack of communication. It can break down in all sorts of places, but many times we see opportunities to add online content that will address future concerns. For instance, maybe a reviewer says she was surprised by a particular fee that was part of your service. A more clear indication of your fee schedule (both online and in print) might help to address this concern in the future.
Negative Reviews Present SEO Opportunities
Sometimes you can use a negative review as an opportunity to spot SEO weaknesses and create new and meaningful content for your website that “overpowers” the bad review. For instance, if you run a bike shop but the first mention of you when searching “buy a bike in [city name]” is a negative review, that means you need to develop a lot more site content to provide searchers with helpful resources about your business.
Reviews Help You and Your Staff Improve
Positive reviews are a huge opportunity to praise staff and reinforce positive behaviors. Negative reviews can bring out issues going on with your workers that you may not know about. Take the opportunity to make sure everyone on staff is trained properly and is representing your business in the same way. If you went above and beyond to please the customer but they are still unhappy, is there a change of process that would have prevented the issue in the first place? While you’ll always have a few “complainer” customers, don’t be too quick to dismiss the review feedback you receive.
You Can Prove Your Amazing Customer Service by How You Respond
It’s a great idea to think about a negative review as your moment to shine while everyone is watching. The way you respond to the review can not only alleviate the reviewer’s hostility but also show to every other person who sees it how professional you are and how concerned you were with their not-so-great experience. Let the reviewer know you value what they have to say and ask them to reach out to you personally for resolution. An amazing example of this can be found here.
Summing It Up
Soliciting, managing and responding to online reviews is just a part of doing business today. Continue to encourage people to review your business online and if negative reviews come up, handle them like a pro and they’ll end up working in your favor.
