Online Reputation
As entrepreneurs, we have all poured our lives into our businesses and put in years of restless evenings–so when a customer writes a negative online review for the world to see, it strikes at our heart and soul. The main thing with building a triumphant online reputation management is to develop the public’s regard.
In any case, instead of taking a bad review personally, the best reaction for entrepreneurs is to figure out how to accomplish our businesses’ reputations and safeguard them from negative reviews.
So what should you as an entrepreneur do to deal with negative reputation/reviews online? Here are some big takeaways,
Understanding negative reviews
We can securely infer that customer reviews have a tangible impact on productivity. But what would businesses be able to do when faced with negative feedback? The first step in dealing with them is understanding them. Broadly, there are three flavors of negative review:
1. Experienced low-quality product/service
2. Had a negative brand experience
3. Lack of information
How to respond publicly
1. Acknowledge the problem
Validate their experience. Try not to contend with the customer or state to them why they’re wrong. Your goal is to recover their trust, not estrange them further.
2. Apologize for their experience
A respectable customer experience is vital to your accomplishment as a business. At the point when that isn’t conveyed, it’s problematic. Accepting accountability is the first step in transforming a negative reviewer into a brand advocate.
3. Offer to make things right
Thank the customer for their feedback. If they’ve encountered a low-quality product/service, demonstrate that you comprehend the issue and explain how you’re going to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
If their complaint is more common, gently request more information about their problem. Take the dialogue offline.
If the issue is a lack of information, thank the customer for highlighting it, supply the information and direct them to a source of further information (like your website).
How to respond privately
Following up a public response with a private message tells the customer that you give importance to them, and that you’re not simply endeavoring to subdue their concerns.
Offering them a goodwill gesture on top of an apology – such as their cashback, a future discount, or complimentary gifts– can likewise enable them to feel more positively towards your brand.
Long term: creating brand advocates
As a brand, your objective should be to build an open and engaged community around your product or service. In the event that the connection with your customers is one of trust and loyalty, this will enable you to weather bad press much more effectively.
When the Negativity Persists
Sometimes, regardless of how sincerely you react to reviews, negativity will continue to keep on dragging down your online reputation. Fortunately, there are also reputation management services and tools that help scrutinize and repair your online reputation.
You can use Online Reputation Management Tool to improve your Google results to your liking and send them to a reputation management team for analysis. With Google Alert, you can create notifications to alert you when someone mentions your business anywhere on the Web, and Social Mention enables you to keep track of who’s saying what about you on social media.
Combined with a detailed plan to respond to online reviews, working with reputation management service providers or instruments can help manage your reputation on review sites. Online reviews, while useful, can also be a breeding ground for negativity—if a business reacts with courtesy, understanding, and patience, it can reap rewards instead.