MAIN STORY
Whatever the
16 SEPTEMBER 2018
scenario,
ignoring a
negative
online review
won’t help and could make things
worse. Ask John* from Auckland
what he did wrong when his food
product was under attack online
from a consumer, and he’ll say not
responding damaged his reputation
even more. It was two years ago
that a customer decided to target his
range of specialty snacks, accusing
him of labelling them as organic and
vegan when they weren’t. “I knew
my ingredient details were absolutely
correct, but the customer involved
didn’t listen,” he says now. “She
continued to bad-mouth my products
online but I didn’t respond because
I thought she would go away. Then
other customers started questioning
the validity of my claims until, in
desperation, I called the police.
They couldn’t do much for me and,
thankfully, the woman eventually
stopped posting. But the damage to
my brand is still affecting sales after
all this time, and I wish now I’d been
more proactive.”
So how do you react in the face of
online attack? There are eight steps
that could help your company straight
away:
Build up good reviews to dilute the
bad. Probably the most important
step you can take to improve
matters, as you have control over
diluting the bad reviews with positive
ones. Be careful, however…soliciting
reviews is banned on most sites. Link
your online reviews on your website,
such as a post-purchase thank you
page. Prominently display the sites
where customers can comment,
and email subscribers direct links to
positive reviews.
Do you actually need to fix
something? You’re feeling annoyed
and touchy about the bad review
and it can be easy to go on the
defensive immediately. But is there
an air of truth to the review? If
the commenter is frequently on
other sites, their feedback might
be valuable. Or they might be just
a hater. Take a minute to honestly
evaluate.
Respond…always. It doesn’t
matter what you think of the review
– good or bad – you should reply
to all. The impact goes far beyond
how that particular customer thinks
of you and, while only a handful of
consumers leave reviews, hundreds
or thousands are scrolling through
the reviews. Not responding means
you don’t care about your reputation,
or you aren’t monitoring the reviews,
or you’re trying to hide something.
If you don’t have enough positive
reviews. It’s sometimes hard to
find enough positive stuff to make
a difference, so it might be time
to shift your efforts elsewhere.
Google your business and see what
other review sites pop up. Focus on
building up positive reviews on them,
to dilute the negative reviews in the
search engine results.
Don’t allow free shots. Whether
your critics are active on social media
or on review sites like Google, don’t
allow anyone a free shot. Always be
respectful, obviously, but don’t lay
down with your legs in the air and let
the criticism go unattended.
Go offline as soon as you can.
Respond to every review, but
don’t get into the dirty details -
keep your response brief, avoid
discussing specifics and move offline
immediately. An immediate response
could be ‘We are so sorry to hear you
had such a bad experience with our
product. Please reach out to us at
….so we can discuss it further. Give
us a call and ask for Frank’.
Don’t use automated responses. If
you’re going to cut and paste all your
responses, don’t bother responding
at all. Dissatisfied customers want
to be taken seriously and responding
authentically means you are doing
just that.
Turn that customer around. There’s
no larger fan and advocate than a
customer who has complained the
loudest and been happy with your
response and actions. Always try to
salvage a relationship, as you can
turn them into a repeat customer.
Sometimes that’s impossible, but a
respectful and generously worded
public response can make YOU
look better, while at the same time
discrediting the reviewer.
Negative reviews might sting, but
they aren’t the end of the world.
A few negative reviews shouldn’t
irreparably harm your business, so
long as you take customer service
seriously. However, if negative
reviews are outnumbering good
ones, listen to them. Fix what’s
broken in your business and then
deal with fixing your reputation.
*John’s name has been changed for
anonymity.
WHEN BAD
REVIEWS STING
You might have the best product in the world…one
that you’re proud of. But whether it’s your first or
thousandth negative online review, it can feel like a
punch in the gut. And unless it’s a spam situation,
that review will be online virtually forever. So where
does that leave you? Kathryn Calvert reports.