People Love To Read Bad News
You cannot always please everyone, and even companies with good practices will eventually have to deal with negative reviews. That’s a simple fact that you should know. Using this as a jump board, you can focus your energy on finding different and creative ways to achieve customer conversion—Yes, even with negative reviews targeting your business.
How To Handle Negative Reviews
Many companies are afraid of getting bad reviews for fear that it could negatively affect customer conversion. They do not realize that they also miss out on the positive effects bad reviews can have. Besides, with knowledge and proper approach, processing negative reviews can be easy!
Here are some practical tips to handle disgruntled opinions about your products and services.
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Respond. Then, Ask for the Negative Review to be Removed
It can be scary to see a negative review at first glimpse, but there is always a way to work around this.
The first thing that you can do is to respond correctly. You can do this by posting in a public forum to show that you care about your customers. It is also essential that you inform them that you’re taking steps to solve their problems.
Keep in mind that negative reviews that show you are not squeamish about this type of feedback can increase your credibility. It can even work on your side and generate sympathy for your brand. Potential customers will read your reviews and ratings, so a great response to a negative review could steer their opinion in the right direction.
If everything went well, you can then proceed to request for the negative review to be removed. Another option is to request the reviewer to update it into a positive one.
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Use an Automated System to Manage Your Reputation
In most negative reviews, a best-case scenario is to get the customer to change his opinion, or to have him remove or update the rating he gave your services. This does not happen always though, so finding a different approach might work.
There are many paid software and online applications that can handle negative reviews better than you do. These systems are proven to provide the opportunity to address the reviewers' concerns efficiently.
To position your business for future success, you can take advantage of these automated systems to prevent negative reviews. You can also use them to encourage satisfied customers to sing your praises.
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Learn to Ignore
Sometimes, there are negative reviews that just seem to be beyond your control. You can recover from this type of negative review by focusing on getting the good reviews your business deserves.
Take a deep breath and avoid drowning yourself in negative reviews. Aim to generate as many positive reviews as you can. As a rule, the more positive reviews you have, the less likely people will be interested in one or two bad reviews.
If you can do this, there is a high probability that the positive ratings will outnumber the negative ones, so you have to deal with both.
Look For The Silver Lining
While companies should encourage positive feedback, negative reviews are here to stay. You may be able to remove them, but if they remain, the best course of action is to first respond as described above. Then, surround yourself with glowing reviews about how amazing your business is.
If your reputation has come under fire or you have received a negative online review, what is the best way to react? The ultimate best way to deal with negative reviews is to respond positively and eliminate the problem that made the customer unhappy.
