Believe it or not, the same premise applies to negative review response as it does to positive reviews. How you respond to a negative review impacts not only the reviewer, but all the sets of eyes that come afterward. Businesses need to handle particularly challenging reviews in a professional way that shows they are on top of things and proud of their business.
Here are some tips on how:
APOLOGIZE & SYMPATHIZE.
The first step towards fixing a problem is acknowledging that one occurred. Regardless of what happened, a simple apology and sympathy for your customer’s experience goes a long way.
PROMOTE. So the famous crab cakes weren’t up to par the day this particular customer visited. If they’re what you are known for, why not reiterate that? “Our crab cakes are usually a hit, we’re sorry to hear that they weren’t up to par when you visited!”
MOVE THE CONVERSATION OFFLINE.
Don’t open a can of worms. Keep the lid on tight by offering the reviewer the chance to reach out via phone, email or both.
KEEP IT SIMPLE. Avoid specifics and don’t ask questions. Those conversations are much better served in a space away from the prying public.
ALWAYS REPLY. But - NEVER argue or defend yourself or your business. This will only cause more negativity back and forth. Validate their feelings - no matter how crazy - apologize that they had that experience and offer to discuss further offline to rectify it.
Responding to negative feedback properly, shows OTHER potential customers that you are the type of business that cares to follow up when something may have slipped through the cracks.
This can attract far more new customers than the one that left the bad review, effectively turning that negative into a ripple effect of positives, as more and more people see you making an effort to correct the situation.
Getting consistent reviews - especially on Google - has become more important than ever. If you need an easy way to ask for reviews, actually GET them and launch your Google search ranking, check out SkyRocket Reviews.
One last pro tip: Leave your business name, location and category out of this. You don’t want your negative reviews showing up in search!
Now that wasn’t so bad, was it? You can use software to pull in your reviews from all over the web so you can respond quickly. And if you don’t have time, seek out our Digital Agency services to do it for you. Not only do we guarantee expertise, we guarantee it in a hurry: we respond to reviews as soon as our software pulls them in!
If there is anything else at all I can help you with, use the form below to reach out - and please share.