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by Steve Houston
Whether you like it or not, your company’s professional reputation is now a very public thing, and before doing business with you, new prospects first want to know what other people are saying about you.
Everyone knows that the more 5-star reviews your company has earned, the better. But how should you react to the occasional, maybe even un-earned, negative review that someone writes about you?
Here are 5 important tips to follow to minimize the damage that even an occasional negative review does to your business:
1. Ask the review site for assistance.
Most review sites are reluctant to remove negative comments posted on them, some of them being more notorious than others in not wanting to help with these requests (in particular, Yelp). Your best justification for requesting a removal is that the review is factually incorrect, or if you can prove it was made by a competitor. In some cases, it’s worth a try.
Google My Business (GMB) has finally seen the light. Google is rolling out a new feature that lets you more easily submit - and track - reviews that you have requested to be taken down. You can check out the new feature here.
2. Promptly and professionally present your side of the story.
As soon as you become aware that a negative review has been posted about your business, it’s very important that you respond promptly to it. If you’re truly at fault, take your lumps and acknowledge the error. Customers who have been wronged can be very forgiving, and even will sometimes remove their negative review (or soften their criticism in it) if you show some sincere contrition.
And remember – don’t be thin-skinned when receiving valid criticism. Learn to welcome it because your customer is going to the trouble of telling you how to actually improve your business.
If you do it correctly, you can re-claim an unhappy customer and keep them for life. If you believe you weren’t at fault, then briefly present your side of the story in a factual and non-defensive manner. The goal here is to leave readers with the impression that you are big enough to “agree to disagree” about the situation and that there can be two legitimate perspectives to any story.
3. Try to steer the conversation offline.
In your response to the bad review, avoid turning the situation into an on-going public discussion. If you’re politely refuting their assertion, provide the complainant with a name and contact method to use to try to resolve the issue with you away from the review site. The last thing you want to do is to engage a disgruntled customer in a lengthy dialogue for the whole world – and new prospects – to see.
4. Bring the situation to an appropriate close.
Sometimes a resolution satisfactory to both parties just can’t be reached. When irate customers simply cannot be reasoned with, shut the situation down with a simple statement confirming your commitment to working with current and future customers in a professional and mutually respectful manner. Always leave on a high note, and prospects reading this exchange will be impressed with your professionalism and grace.
The increasingly social nature of the internet is affording people more and more ways to voice their opinions and be heard. Actively building and marketing your company's great reputation is now a business imperative. Online customer reviews are what marketing people refer to as “social proof”. It's a form of social validation that ranks second only to word-of-mouth referrals in the areas of believability and trustworthiness.
Today, every company’s reputation is out there for everyone else to see, so you just can’t leave the development of your online reputation to chance. Ask your satisfied clients to take a moment or two and write a review about you online. (It's okay to ask for a review, but it's not okay to ask them to write a good review.)
The steady accumulation of sincere, praiseworthy feedback about your company will set you apart from your competitors, who are either uninformed or are unwisely taking a more passive approach to this critical aspect of their business.
Bottom line: The professional reputation of your business is one of your most valuable marketing assets, so you should be actively doing everything you can to build and maintain that golden 4.5 - 5 star online rating. Prospective clients want to do business with only the most trustworthy and reliable companies. Following these five important tips will help show them that their decision is easy and that your company is the one they should choose to do business with.
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