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Living in Terror of Negative Reviews?

February 6, 2015 By Gail Gardner 18 Comments

Has your business been hesitant to fully participate online? Many are because they fear bad reviews. While this is a valid concern, not being online won’t protect you. People are talking about your brand whether you choose to see or participate or not.  It is far better to know what is being said than to ignore it.

This is an important topic, so let’s elaborate on what you can do to protect your reputation. First, we’ll discuss how to handle negative reviews or mentions online.

Cat lying on the grass looking at a mouse; Living in Terror of Negative Reviews? Is Your Brand the Cat or the Mouse?

Blue Hat Marketing local SEO service recently shared their suggested process in How to Deal with Negative Reviews:

  1. Don’t become defensive
  2. Investigate internally
  3. Engage in open communication
  4. Find a solution

Check out their post for full details on what they advise and also how to deal with false reviews. Then continue below for how to proactively reduce the harm negative publicity can cause.

Table of Contents

  • Don’t Make This Mistake
    • Plan a Course of Action
  • Proactive Reputation Management
    • Make it Easy for Customers to Complain
    • Top Online Reputation Don’ts
  • How to Kill Your Brand SlideShare
      • Gail Gardner
      • Latest posts by Gail Gardner (see all)

Don’t Make This Mistake

The first step is not to act impulsively. If you’re really upset, take a break. Walk away briefly and regain your composure because the worst thing you can do is answer in anger.

Next, decide whether or not to respond publicly. The main consideration is how many are likely to see the complaint. Do not make the mistake of responding publicly to someone with little influence online. This is especially true if you have a large audience and they have none.

Yes, you still want to reply right away. But do it privately. Keep copies of everything. The most important strategy when responding to an unhappy customer is to make sure they feel heard. Ignoring them is not the answer.

People who don’t feel heard may decide to make complaining about your brand their life’s passion. That isn’t good for you – or them.

Be prepared to respond more publicly should the need arise. This can occur if a major media outlet covers the story or one or more social media influencers join in or launch a #boycott hashtag against your brand.

Plan a Course of Action

Even if the original review or complaint is unlikely to be seen by many, plan what to do should the issue go viral. Really listen to why this person is dissatisfied.  Follow the steps BlueHat Marketing recommended. Make things right with this customer if at all possible. An upset customer you satisfy may become your most loyal fan.

Proactive Reputation Management

Companies with little to no online presence are at greatest risk of negative publicity. One incident could lead to the entire first page of Google being filled with negative publicity. Your best defense is a strong offense.

Start now to increase the number of citations for your brand name and your personal name as well. The easiest ways to do that are to open social media accounts and obtain local listings.  Search for your name and brand name and see what comes up.

The more authority sites you have listings or bios on the more pages of positive citations will appear. By having many authority links, any negative publicity on minor sites is unlikely to make it to the first page of the search results.

Make it Easy for Customers to Complain

The best way to keep your customers from going online to write negative reviews about you is to make it easier for them to tell you directly. Add a suggestion box in your business. Make sure there are forms and pens available. (Test the pens to make sure they work.)

Put your contact information on your site and make sure someone is actively answering your customers quickly. (Since the advent of the internet people expect responses much sooner than they once did.) Even better, add live chat to your site so they can talk to someone in real time at least during some business hours. (Make when obvious so they don’t get frustrated about that, too.)

Train your front-facing employees including their managers to listen to customer complaints. Repeat what the customer said back to them to confirm you understood it. Empower employees at every level to resolve common issues without having to wait for management approval. (If all your employers aren’t capable of this, make sure they have multiple superiors they can contact.) Have policies already in place for how to handle complaints immediately.

If you listen and make things right customers won’t be spending their time telling everyone they know how unhappy they are. The internet is actually an advantage. People have always told others when they were dissatisfied – you just didn’t know it. Now you can “eavesdrop” online, discover issues and get them resolved.

Top Online Reputation Don’ts

This entertaining animated video contains common sense advice on how to interact online:

Video Highlights:

  • Don’t lie; be real and genuine
  • Focus on why you are in business and what you can do for your customers
  • Don’t attack others ~ take the high road and be professional
  • Sometimes it is best to let sleeping dogs lie
  • Remember the golden rule; be nice and they’ll reciprocate
  • Don’t ignore the buzz; set up brand alerts so you know when your brand is mentioned
  • What you don’t know could hurt you

How to Kill Your Brand SlideShare

Knowing what not to do can often be more valuable than knowing what to do. Here are some tips:

SlideShare highlights:
  • Don’t procrastinate – respond to problems quickly
  • Consistency is a virtue – inconsistency annoys your customers
  • Time management is one of our greatest challenges; do what is most important first!
  • Don’t get stuck in a rut doing what is “urgent”, but does not contribute to customer satisfaction
  • Create a strong brand and spread the word
  • Focus on pain points your customers have so you can provide solutions

Remember that you are your brand. Everything you say and do contributes to or detracts from your reputation. Unlike times gone by, much of it will be preserved for what will seem like forever. Once something is online, it really will be forever most of the time. So prevention is key.

Be proactive and train your people well. Businesses that survived in the past in spite of having difficult employees (or even owners) dealing with the public are less likely to get away with bad customer service.

Make your customers your highest priority so when you do get that inevitable bad review, your happy customers are likely to answer in support of your business. (It is always better to have someone else say good things about you than to do it yourself.)  Be sure to thank them for their business, too.

Have questions about how to deal with a bad review?
Feel free to ask them in the comments.

 

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Gail Gardner

Small Business Marketing Strategist at GrowMap
Gail Gardner is the founder of GrowMap.com. She is a Small Business Marketing Strategist who mentors small businesses, bloggers, and freelancers. After 23 years in the field with IBM and 5.5 years managing AdWords accounts, her focus shifted to small business marketing strategy. GrowMap.com is listed by Cision as a Top 100 Site for Marketers and has received three Small Business Influencer Awards from Small Business Trends. Named by D&B a Top 50 SMB Influencer on Twitter, you can follow Gail @GrowMap and on LinkedIn.
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Google+ profileMy LinkedIn profileMy Pinterest profileMy Tumblr blogMy YouTube channel

Latest posts by Gail Gardner (see all)

  • Free Mentoring: How to Use the Inexpensive CRM Bigin to Increase Income - December 9, 2020
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Filed Under: Small Business Advice Tagged With: negative reviews, reputation management

Comments

  1. Patrick Leonard says

    September 27, 2017 at 12:28 am

    Reviews can have a tangible impact on your business so it might be hard not to act impulsively when you see a negative review. However, one bad review will never be as damaging as mishandling it.

    Reply
  2. Pooja Sharma says

    August 4, 2015 at 9:02 am

    Hi,

    Thanks- I am also a fresher blogger and quite upset for the negative reviews. Your blog is really helpful and I think it will ne resulting after implementing. Thanks for helping us !

    Regards: Pooja
    Pooja Sharma would love you to read ..Imported goodsMy Profile

    Reply
  3. Harish says

    April 14, 2015 at 7:52 am

    If there are more competition in a keyword, can i prefer to negative SEO for some main competitor..

    Reply
    • Gail Gardner says

      April 14, 2015 at 8:53 pm

      Hello Harish,

      How did this world get so evil that people would even ask whether trashing someone else’s business is an acceptable practice? Unfortunately, negative SEO is a reality – but also a highly unethical practice.
      Gail Gardner would love you to read ..Crowdsourcing Graphic Design Process: Tips for Best ResultsMy Profile

      Reply
  4. Ian Zafra says

    February 23, 2015 at 9:12 am

    I’ve learned a lot here Gail! Don’t procrastinate brought me back to Nokia’s downfall focusing more on production with little efforts in innovation for user experience with which Apple excelled surpassing the longest time top phone manufacturer.

    Reply
    • Gail Gardner says

      February 23, 2015 at 5:54 pm

      Hi Ian,

      Any business is at risk. The best advice I’ve ever read is in a book by Joe Calloway: Be the Best at What Matters Most. First we must be the absolute best at what our core business from the customer perspective if we want to compete with those who can afford all the marketing in the world.

      What he writes is very similar to what Marcus Lemonis fixes in many of the businesses he works with on The Profit.
      Gail Gardner would love you to read ..How to Reach More of Your Target Market By Repurposing Your ContentMy Profile

      Reply
  5. Pawan says

    February 12, 2015 at 12:11 pm

    Just about all businesses must do their utmost to prevent undesirable opinions when using the suggestions in the following paragraphs. Solve problems with clients as well as clients regularly.

    Reply
  6. Amit says

    February 12, 2015 at 6:53 am

    Hello there, an awesome tutorial about reviews. Some businesses face the same problem. Negative reviews sometimes becomes your strong point. This point is to keep in mind. When a user true and do the reviews which you do not like. Take that review and make your strong point which will boost you in coming days.

    A company should always try to satisfy the customers. This must be your first choice.

    Reply
  7. Hani says

    February 10, 2015 at 12:44 pm

    Hi Gail ,
    I am first time visiting on your site and have never read such type of very useful post.
    Really the pics of cat and the mouse describe about your article Living in Terror of Negative.

    Thanks for sharing these wonderful tips…

    Hani would love you to read ..Decoration ideasMy Profile

    Reply
  8. Cricket says

    February 10, 2015 at 11:06 am

    Many people might have got an idea to handle Negative Reviews. This blog will help many online business webmasters to handle negative reviews.Anyways.. nice stufff…

    Reply
  9. Emily says

    February 10, 2015 at 7:35 am

    Hey thanks for sharing !!!
    Your inputs are really helpful for me being a beginner in this field.

    Thanks again.

    Reply
  10. Brian Hughes says

    February 10, 2015 at 12:25 am

    Okay, first things first – before any business addresses bad reviews online, they first need to fix whatever issue is causing bad reviews. No online reputation company, online marketing company or even a PR agency can fix bad reviews without the company fixing itself first. Like the saying, you can polish a turd but in the end it’s still a turd.

    Of course, if anyone has been in business for any period of time, someone is going to get upset – and this can even be of no fault of the company. But a lot of times there is something causing bad reviews and it can be fixed internally. Then let the pros do what they do and help clean up any bad reviews and initiate a campaign to get positive reviews.
    Brian Hughes would love you to read ..Say What!? SEO Isn’t Just for WebsitesMy Profile

    Reply
  11. andi says

    February 8, 2015 at 5:19 pm

    I am really enjoying reading your well written articles. It looks like you spend a lot of effort and time on your blog.
    andi would love you to read ..Obat Penghilang TattoMy Profile

    Reply
  12. Shanmugam Ganesh says

    February 7, 2015 at 5:36 pm

    Many people might have got an idea to handle Negative Reviews. This blog will help many online business webmasters to handle negative reviews.

    Reply
  13. Jovan Lee says

    February 7, 2015 at 4:17 pm

    Does negative comment affect your pagerank in google?

    I appreciate how you share ways to handle negative comments but is there any impact of the review on the link juices?

    Thank you for the information!

    Reply
    • Gail Gardner says

      February 8, 2015 at 9:30 am

      Hi Jovan,

      First, PageRank is no longer being updated – at least the visible PR people could see in the toolbar. There are some indications that negative reviews could impact search engine position:

      • Your Guide To Customer Reviews For Organic Search Rankings In 2014
      • Local Search Ranking Factors
      • How Negative Emotion Could Hurt Your Rankings
      • Google: Now Likely Using Online Merchant Reviews As Ranking Signal

      It is not really possible to know with 100% certainty how Google algorithms work; they change constantly. Even if negative reviews did not impact SEO, they definitely affect conversions. All businesses should do their best to avoid bad reviews by using the suggestions in this post. Resolve issues with customers or clients whenever possible. Respond wisely if customers refuse to be reasonable.
      Gail Gardner would love you to read ..Social Media Management for Small Business, Agencies, and FreelancersMy Profile

      Reply
  14. Amit Jain says

    February 7, 2015 at 10:07 am

    I am sick and tired of bad and negative comment on my website. After reading the blog i will sure implement these tips into my website. And hope i will get better result.

    Reply
  15. mobidhan says

    February 7, 2015 at 8:01 am

    I just want to tell you that I am just very new to blogs and absolutely liked your web-site. More than likely I’m going to bookmark your blog post . You actually have really good article content. Bless you for sharing your web site.

    Reply

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