Negative Online Reviews–And Why They Can Actually Help Your Business
In some ways, posting and managing your corporate social media accounts is pretty straightforward and easy. You know who your potential customers are, what they engage with and what makes them respond. But, despite your best efforts, customers aren’t always going to be happy and sometimes they’ll lash out on social media.
Don’t panic. This can actually be a good thing, as long as you know what to do. Whatever you do, when faced with negative comments, don’t do nothing. Always respond to people who trash-talk your business.
For some business owners, negative comments are the primary reason they don’t want to be on social media. “What if people say unfounded bad things about us?” This reasoning is deeply flawed and can actually hurt your business. The truth is, when someone wants to say something bad about your business, they will say it, whether you provide the forum or not. Allowing folks to tag you on Twitter, or make their disparaging comments on your own Facebook page has two distinct advantages.
1. Improve your business. Ignorance is not a good strategy. Allowing honest feedback, both good and bad, can help you to provide a better product and service.
2. Show you have premium customer service. Recognizing your customers’ comments and providing feedback is a common courtesy. In fact, your customers just want to be heard and validated. You don’t need to respond to a review point by point, but instead let the customer know that we value a top-notch customer experience and we’d sure like to make it right for you. Please give us a call…. Or stop in so we can make this right. This often will suffice for the customer and other customers that read the review will realize that you truly care about your customers.
DO NOT Make it a habit to simply delete negative reviews.
Some businesses try to restrict comments, such as holding Facebook comments in moderation and only approving the positive ones, or even deleting comments that are not fully positive. These are mistakes. Let people complain and give your business the opportunity to shine through.
This can be hard to swallow. Especially if the comments are vitriolic or factually inaccurate. No matter what is being said, you should always respond promptly and courteously. Apologize for the writer’s bad experience. Assure them that you will do whatever it takes to make things right. And you must do so publicly. Even if you continue your correspondence with the individual offline or in private, your initial response must be public. This is key. Your response is not for the commenter alone–it is for everyone. Obviously, there are outliers to this (e.g. profanity), but for the most part it’s just a disgruntled customer who can be turned back into a loyal and loving customer.
Customer research shows definitively that people who see you responding like this have a far better opinion of your business than if the whole thing never occurred at all.
Complainers are often surprised when you do this. People seem to feel that their online comments disappear into the vast internet like a drop of water in the ocean. Your response makes them feel like they matter. And often their additional comments in the thread will become much more positive. And best of all, every other visitor sees that you are a responsible business owner who cares about customers.
Responding to these kind of comments is called “service recovery.” Whatever has gone wrong, whether it’s your fault or not, take responsibility for it. Customer research shows definitively that people who see you responding like this have a far better opinion of your business than if the whole thing never occurred at all.
Online complaints and gripes are a gift! Treat it as such. The best thing that happened is that the person took the time to share with you the problem, so you actually have a chance to fix it. All you have to do is respond, hear the customer and make a concerted effort to help resolve the issue.
Modified image by Tatiana T
