POP SEO Tip #1: How to Respond to Negative Reviews
If you do business on the Internet and participate in social media, at some point you will field reviews and comments from your customers: both good and bad.
Often, however, businesses run into trouble when they are forced to deal with the negative opinions of their customers and clients. Knowing how to respond to such reviews is not only crucial to maintaining your business’s reputation, but it’s also an excellent way to build that reputation. We’ll explain how to do it in this blog.
Always Respond
The biggest mistake you can make is to ignore the negative feedback that you receive. Instead, make a concerted effort to field any and all comments that your business receives on review sites, whether they’re good or bad. It shows that you care what people have to say, even when it might be negative.
Read through the review and come up with an appropriate response. Even when people are upset about something, they appreciate that you put them into responding to them. This can be a great way to keep people coming back. Even if they don’t, they can leave with a better impression than if you had ignored their feedback.
Keep Your Cool
Even if the negative review that you’ve received is over the top, remember that as a business, you always need to take the high road. Nothing looks worse than a business that meets an unreasonable customer’s complaint by responding in kind. Sometimes this might mean stepping back and taking a moment to clear your head before you engage and drop a response.
The truth is that it doesn’t matter if you’re right or the customer who left the review is. As the employee or owner of a business, you’re expected to be professional. Avoid getting angry and posting in the midst of frustration. It’s only going to have a negative impact on your reputation.
Address the Review Directly
Think of how you would address the customer or client’s complaint had it been delivered to you directly. Take the time to consider what’s been said, and address the issue head-on. The worst thing you can do is leave the same generic response to every review. You might not think so, but people will notice and it doesn’t leave a good impression.
When someone leaves a review, they want a relevant response. Cutting and pasting generic answers to people runs the risk of leaving their questions unanswered. It’s better to take some time to make sure you address things in your own words after considering what the customer has to say.
Highlight Your Strengths
Responding to a negative review isn’t just an opportunity to address a complaint, it’s also an opportunity to educate that customer and others about your business’s strengths. Turn the negative review on its head and call attention to everything your business does right.
At the same time, don’t avoid answering to the things that a customer is upset about. Simply make sure you also give them something positive that might change the situation. Playing to your strengths is a great way to show what your business does best. It could keep the customer or even bring in a new one who is impressed with what you said in your response.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, you should come to view dealing with negative reviews as an opportunity rather than an inconvenience. Though the impetus for doing so may not be what you’d like, negative reviews provide a platform for you to sell your business and manage the public’s perception of it.
I hope you learned something from this post. To learn more about our SEO services, including Online Reputation Management, please visit this page.
