Online Marketing - DON'T Ignore Your Customers

I came across an excellent infographic today at Zendesk that gives spot on information on how some negative reviews end up being posted.

The part that really caught my eye was their statistic that 96% of online complaints were a result of double disappointments meaning that something had happened to upset the consumer and then, when they tried to get the matter resolved, they were wronged again.

These things happen to even the best of companies - a series of honest errors, a day where technology fails us completely, or the customer falls prey to a weak link in our system or staffing. It is frustrating to everyone, but when the customer goes public with his or her complaint, if we are paying attention, it can give us the opportunity to right the wrong... or wrongs as the case may be!

If you've checked out my website, you know that I advocate for very careful monitoring of reviews that are posted about your business for just this kind of situation. As soon as you know a negative post has been made, take action to reach the customer and work on mending those bridges. The longer you wait, the more people will see the negative review post and the more damage it will do.

If your business is one where you know your clients and have access to their contact information, the best thing you can do is to pick up the phone and call the customer with a personal apology. Work to determine where the problem(s) originated and offer a solution or recompense.

In situations where you do not have the ability to call the customer, be sure you reach out to them as soon as possible on the public forum where they posted the negative review. Don't go into great detail in your response, but let them know that you have heard their complaint and that you'd like to try to make it right. Ask him or her to contact you and make sure you provide both an email address and a phone number that you will personally check.

Be very careful when you post publicly - remember that your audience is no longer just the person who was wronged. Your audience is now that person and everyone else who is reading along - every potential customer deciding if he or she should use your services or turn to your competitors. It is always in your best interest to be kind!

Hopefully most of this is common sense to you and you can relate to your customer having experienced the double-whammy as a consumer yourself when things just don't go right.

Keep an eye on maintaining excellent customer relations, monitor all of the major review sites closely, and be quick to make amends and you should be able to avoid a customer service fiasco!

Ann M. Pearson is the CEO of Impressions Review Managing, LLC - an online review managing and monitoring service for businesses new to review websites. If your business is needing assistance handling negative reviews or monitoring the high number of review sites, please check our website and program information at 

Legit Reviews or Manipulated?

A friend sent over a question last night asking if I'd ever heard of a company she saw advertised on TV that claimed it could remove negative Yelp posts off of the first page of website search results. As a business owner, I understand the appeal of being able to make negative review posts go away, but I am always wary of burying problems when you have the option of getting them out in the open, so I did some investigating.

This particular company plans to have its own review websites where the businesses that they serve can manipulate the feedback that is left so that only positive reviews are seen. Then, this company hopes to flood Google, Yahoo, and Bing with many of these sites so that they will show up when the customer searches for the business they want to investigate and it will result in the negative Yelp link being moved to the second page of Google's search results.

In theory, this will work whether the business is trying to bury Yelp posts or Foursquare or Insider Pages or any of the legitimate review websites. Sound a little shady to you? Well it sure does to me!

Most negative review posts are based on a misunderstanding or honest mistake made by one of the parties. Now don't get me wrong, sometimes these reviews have roots in some pretty big and pretty ugly problems at these businesses and sometimes there are people who complain just to complain, but the most common negative reviews can be resolved with some good customer service and that is what most people are seeking when they go public with their experiences.

That being said, while negative reviews sting and can harm your business' online reputation, the answer is most definitely NOT to bury the reviews, but to contend with the issues. Fess up if the mistake was yours. Make changes if your business is having repeat problems. Do some extra staff development training if your employees are not meeting customer needs. Change your product line and services if they are not what your customers are asking for. Reach out to your customers if there have been misunderstandings and work to mend bridges!

While there are times we'd all like our problems to just go away, don't fall prey to these kinds of shady companies who will try to play the system and ignore the problems. It can and will come back to bite! Your reputation will soar if you work to reconcile with unhappy clients and let the review sites serve both your customers and your business!

  Ann Pearson is the CEO of Impressions Review Managing, LLC - a company committed to empowering businesses to manage their online reputations through monitoring and responding to customers on online review websites. For more information on IRM, it's services and programs, visit www.impressionsrm.com .