Review strategies are improving as companies realise the importance of them for their search results and to their overall business – especially their online marketing.
Steps are taken to ensure that only genuine customers can provide a review, often by providing contact details during a genuine transaction. This weeds out malicious or frivolous reviews, but not genuine ones. So what do you do to make those negative reviews work for you? Here are some ideas, and there are more at http://webmarketingtoday.com/articles/114986-10-Ways-to-Deal-with-Negative-Customer-Reviews/. For any more advice on general marketing needs, identity or logo design you could contact a Branding Agency and one option is http://www.reallyhelpfulmarketing.co.uk/brand-development/.
Be Quick
Firstly, you should respond as soon as you can. Potential customers will read the negative review, but they will also read your comments, and if you can engage your disgruntled customer in a positive dialogue, the overall impression will be positive. Just the fact that you care enough to respond makes you look good.
Be Polite
Secondly, always be polite. Some reviews can be expressed very rudely – don’t respond in kind. If the reviewer has a valid point to make, address that and not the language. If, on the other hand, you feel that their comments are defamatory or use prejudiced language, you can ask for the comments to be removed.
Be Discreet
You can also take the issue elsewhere yourself. You can often contact customers on review sites such as Yelp via email, so do so. Then, if the matter is resolved, you can post a comment to that effect.
Be Aware
Make sure you know where your reviews are. There are online monitoring tools such as Social Mention or Reputology which you can use to find out what is being said about you. Google Alerts is useful as well. Then you can get to all those reviews and deal with them quickly. Forbes suggests ways to do this: http://www.forbes.com/sites/sage/2014/03/03/handling-haters-how-to-respond-to-negative-online-reviews/#2715e4857a0b4bd8e7046687.
Be Thankful
Address the issue. Be grateful that someone has brought this to your attention and offer appropriate compensation, restoration or apology. It doesn’t hurt to be seen to do so.
Be Calm
Finally, encourage your customers to review you. One negative complaint looks bad next to ten positive ones, but it can actually be a bonus. People trust websites which have the honesty to show a few negative reviews.
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