By Stacy Bass
I’m not really suggesting that you should be happy about
receiving a negative review on Yelp, Google, Bing, etc., right? Who in their right mind would say that? Maybe ‘happy’ is not the best choice of word,
however I am suggesting that negative reviews do not have to be…negative.
We all have immediate access to information at our
fingertips 24/7. A few keystrokes and we
can learn all about a company, a product or service, a person, and so on, without
any tremendous effort. More and more,
people are using technology in every facet of their life, including decision
making. I recently wrote about how I used reviews in making a simple luggage purchase; it is just a sign of the times. Looking through reviews really shows how
right poet John Lydgate was when he said, “You can please some of the people
all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t
please all of the people all of the time.”
While none of us are pleased when something goes wrong, the reality of
business (and life) is that sometimes things don’t happen according to plan and
sometimes people get upset about that. The
thing about reviews is that while you have no control over a person who feels
the need to write a negative review, you do have absolute control over how you
choose to respond. In short, you should
embrace negative reviews as an opportunity to shine.
A negative review presents the opportunity to turn a dissatisfied
customer into a happy customer, and better yet, you have the opportunity to
demonstrate for those who are not yet customers just how much you value your
customers and how you will treat them as a customer. To begin, the length of time it takes for you
to respond to a negative comment is the first opportunity to demonstrate your commitment
to satisfaction. It is very important
that reviews and social media accounts are monitored frequently. Ignoring negative reviews will not make them
disappear; instead ignoring a negative review gives some credence to whatever
the issue causing the dissatisfaction was.
Respond to the review publicly and professionally. Acknowledge the customer’s comment and
apologize for whatever led to their negative feelings; showing your concern and
intent in rectifying the situation.
However, NEVER engage in a verbal sparring match with the reviewer, even
if they are wrong in their claim, are being nasty or are flat out just trying
to cause trouble for you. You have
nothing to gain by responding in kind, and everything to lose. There are several horror stories that have
gone viral when companies have responded poorly and in each instance the company
gets the blame regardless of whether the initial issue was justified or not,
simply because of their poor handling of the matter. After you have responded to the initial
review publically, take the issue offline and bring it to a full
resolution. Be open and listen to the
issue; you may just discover an opportunity for improvement. Once you have resolved the issue, follow up with
the customer and see if they would update their review now that you have
resolved the issue.
Transparency goes a long way in building customer
satisfaction. If you consistently
address and resolve customer concerns in a public manner, it shows others
researching your company, products or services it builds confidence that when
stuff does go wrong that you care enough to make it right. As a consumer, would you choose the company
who ignores their negative reviews or would you choose the company who makes
the effort and treats their customers with courtesy and professionalism?
Select Web Solutions is
always eager to help our customers find the best web strategy for each of our clients.
We would welcome the opportunity to build or update your existing web
strategy to meet the needs of today’s technology driven world. Select Web
Solutions is an Orange County
website development company in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA. Our products include Orange County custom
website solutions, WebZeo affordable websites in Orange County, MobZeo Orange
County mobile websites, ProZeo Orange
County social media profiles, ListZeo Orange County Website
Business Listing Service, SendZeo Orange
County newsletter marketing, MailZeo hosted email
services in Orange County, SEOLight affordable
Orange County SEO, and much more.
We will be posting musings on this blog related to the web industry. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Google Plus.
Select Web Solutions,
LLC, an Orange County, CA website
developer in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA.
Select Web Solutions is a provider of web services in Orange
County; including custom website design in Orange
County, MobZeo affordable affordable website development in
Orange County, MobZeo mobile websites in Orange County, website
hosting, online marketing in Orange County, search
engine optimization in Orange County, social media services in Orange
County, newsletter services, email services,
logo design and web
consulting in Orange County, California.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comment.