How to Turn Negative Reviews Positive

Posted July 6th, 2011 by ybo
By Hilary Cable, Dex One local social media expert

Here’s a popular misconception about consumer review websites:
“Only nuts and whiners write reviews and they’re mostly negative.”

Yes, a small percentage of your reviews may be written by unreasonable people. Overall, however, people who write reviews praise when they get great service at a store, have a pain-free experience at the dentist or have a superior meal.

In February on DexKnows.com, here is how the breakdown of reviews went:

92% were Positive (4 and 5 stars)
2% were Neutral (3 stars)
6% were Negative (1 or 2 stars)

If your business is under performing in the quality or customer service departments, your customers will tell you through reviews. Think of customer reviews as business intelligence you don’t have to pay for.

Review Websites

Yelp is just one of many consumer review websites. Here’s a list of popular websites you should be monitoring:

DexKnows.com
Insiderpages.com
Citysearch.com
Local.Yahoo.com
Local.com
MerchantCircle.com
Angie’s List

First Steps to Review Site Success

Consumer review websites allow you to claim your business; you’ll have to do this to respond to reviews by customers. Follow the directions for claiming your business (it varies by site; on Dex, go to this DexKnows.com page). Complete all the fields in your business profile—it’s free advertising and will help customers find you. Profiles usually allow you to add photos, post hours of operation and list your business website and contact information.
Some sites allow you to post food or service menus and offer deals and online ordering. If your business serves food or drinks, remember to update the menus and specials.

How Responding Benefits You

Businesses have three choices when it comes to online reviews: argue, ignore or engage. Argumentative businesses look like they have something to hide. Businesses that ignore reviews look like they don’t care. Businesses that engage customers demonstrate transparency and integrity.

Responding to negative reviews in public builds your credibility as a small business owner who cares about the customer and works hard to make customers feel valued.
When potential customers read negative reviews and see that you have done all you can to improve your product or customer service, you’ll attract new sales.
Reviewers who have been won over by your efforts may modify reviews in your favor.

Next Steps

Take a deep, relaxing breath and read the reviews about your business. Reviews illustrate two important trends in your business:

What you’re doing right
What you’re doing wrong

If you’ve got lots of glowing reviews, congratulations! If you want to respond to a favorable review, a sincere thanks is probably all you need to do.

Do not offer goods, services or food to reviewers who are positive. It ruins your credibility and that of the reviewers. A public thank you is enough.

Tips

Here are a few things to do to help you turn what may seem like a bad review into a positive experience for your business and your customers. If you’ve got some negative reviews, give yourself a few minutes to think about what you’re reading.

Do not respond impulsively
Negative reviews are an opportunity for you to get more information about possible problems in your business and solve them.

Look for trends
Is the complaint something that more than one person pointed out? Can it be fixed quickly? Examples include food quality in a specific dish, your company’s telephone greeting or an employee grooming issue.

Contact the reviewer
How you accomplish this varies by site. You may have access to an e-mail address, or you may be able to respond via a comments system. Check the “help” link on the site if you’re not sure how to go about making contact.

Check your comfort level
Until you get the hang of it, you may be more comfortable having these conversations offline, but take the conversation or outcome back to the review website as soon as possible. You want customers to see you acting responsibly and delivering great customer service in a transparent environment.

Ask for details
Ask the reviewer to tell you exactly what happened so you can figure out whether your customer service or products fell short. Reviewers are not always specific; you may have to coax the details out.

Explain
If the situation is based on a misunderstanding, an explanation might make the reviewer happy. Examples of misunderstandings include the use of industry jargon when plain language would be more appropriate, improperly marked merchandise or cultural miscommunication.

Apologize
The old saying “The customer is always right” is still true. The goal is to move the customer from an adversarial position to one of cooperation.

Offer to make it right
Ask your customer what it will take to make him or her happy. If the request is within reason, act on it. Remember, everyone has bad days, even customers and clients.

Maintain high standards
If a reviewer offers to change a review in exchange for a seven-course meal for 10, that’s called extortion. Courteously decline the offer.

Cut your losses
If it appears that nothing will change your customer’s mind, it may be time to walk away. Apologize and end the conversation. But be willing to reopen the conversation if the customer initiates it.

What Not To Do

Do not respond to reviews if you are angry. Walk away. Come back when you are calmer.
Do not be defensive, insulting or aggressive, no matter how nasty the customer gets.
Do not harass your customer.
Do not threaten to sue. Your customers have the right to discuss your business online; trying to quash the dialog in court only makes you look like someone whom customers don’t want to do business with.

A Dex One Local Marketing Consultant can help you navigate these troubled waters. You can also receive valuable inside information about how to market your business better with the Dex One Reputation Management dashboard.

And remember:
The best way to get great reviews and to avoid negative feedback is to offer service and products better than the competition – and maintain high standards.

Tags: buisness tips, dexone, negative tips into positive, tips, what do to, what not to do

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 31st, 2011 at 4:03 pm and is filed under Informational. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.