Negative Reviews Create Business Growth Potential

Negative reviews can be painful, but if you use them correctly, they can give you the information you need to make changes, meet customer needs, and provide exactly what you need to grow your business!

The Power of Negative Reviews

Negative reviews:

• Provide customer feedback
• Alert you to issues needing addressing
• Give you an opportunity to mend bridges
• Give you clues to the changing needs of your customers
• Give you a chance to show the quality of your customer service

Of course this doesn't mean that getting a negative review is fun or should be sought, but they are also not without value. 

Handling a Negative Review

Steps to take:

1. Respond to the reviewer preferably within 24 hours of the post expressing your concern and desire to mend bridges and resolve complaints. 
2. Look for any patterns or similar reviews - for example, if you see three reviews about the cranky service technician you have on staff, it's time to do some re-training of your employees to make sure they are serving with a smile. 
3. Take action - make any necessary changes to your business or practices.
4. Monitor your reviews for any new feedback.
5. Ask your happy clients to write reviews to solidify your online reputation.

Negative reviews smart, but you can be smart about them by paying attention, responding, and making any necessary changes to help your business grow. 

Negative Reviews? Turn Them Around!

Negative online reviews are frustrating to the business owner and harmful to local advertising. Sometimes the reviews just make you mad and you'd like to take legal action, but that's not usually going to produce the results you want.

Creative Responses to Negative Reviews

One creative restaurant owner responded to a negative and offensive review that suggested his waitresses "show more skin" by saying that is restaurant would be offering a potato skin special with 100% of the proceeds going to a local rape-prevention organization. His response went viral and his point is well-taken - when negative reviews strike, it's not time to respond with anger even though that may be exactly what we are feeling!

Turn Negative Reviews Around

Thoughts to keep in mind when you are responding to a negative review:

• Respond and do so as soon as you can - A recent study found that 79% of consumers who shared their bad customer service experience online were ignored and that consumers give a brand one week to respond to a question and then 50% of them will leave and go to a competitor. 
• Calm down before you write your response - negative feelings come through easily. Go for a walk, play with the dog, do whatever you need to do to shake it off before you compose your response.
• Be nice - When you respond online, you are not only posting to the person who reviewed you. You are also posting for everyone considering your business who may be reading along. 
• Show that you care about the person and his/her experience with you. If you made a mistake, own up to it, apologize, and work to make it right.
• Ask for feedback on your planned post - ask a trusted friend or co-worker to look over what you plan to post before you put it out for all the world to see. Choose someone who will be willing to let you know if your response sounds angry or defensive and who will help you tweak your writing so you put your best foot forward.
• Generate new reviews - It's important that people reading your reviews see a balanced view of your business. Ask your customers to write reviews for you - you will gain their feedback and provide prospective clients with information on your services, products, and quality.

 Negative reviews are frustrating, but you can turn them around and build a strong online reputation.

Online Reviews - When It's Not Your Fault

Negative online reviews are tough to swallow, but especially when you know it is not your fault.

Negative Reviews for No Reason

One New York restaurant wanted to know why they were getting negative reviews that claimed they were slow in service even though they had hired plenty of people and did excellent training for their staff. They found, from examining video tapes of their waiters and clients spanning the last 10 years, that average times people spent at the restaurant almost doubled, but it wasn't because of anything the restaurant did or could do. It was because their customers were playing on their smart phones!

The data was clear - no doubt about it! It is not their fault.

How should you handle negative reviews?

You might be in a similar situation. You might have all the proof in the world to show that you are right and the reviewers are wrong. What should you do about it?

Start interacting with your online reviewers. One study on negative review posts showed that 1/3 of reviewers who posted a negative review went back and posted a positive review when they received a response from the business. The study also found that more than 1/3 of that group removed the original negative post!

Take control of your online reputation by paying attention to reviewers and responding to both their positive and negative reviews.

Negative Reviews: Issues of Customer No-Service

Unfortunately, there are many examples of how to get your customers to write bad reviews for you and Comcast just hit on one of them - arguing with a customer who wants to end service.




There surely will be employee training for this individual and Comcast is planning a formal apology for their behavior, but it actually hits on many different issues we as business owners have to be constantly considering.

How to Handle Negative Reviews

• Listening to the customer - Sometimes the business is simply not a good fit for the customer and the business needs to gracefully end service. If you want to amplify your reputation, help the customer find what he or she needs.
• Set the tone - As the leaders in our businesses, we have to set the tone for our employees. Yes, we need to make sales. Yes, we need to be mindful of upselling and retaining customers. Yes, we need feedback when a customer intends to leave us, but NO, we do not argue with customers. Service is the key word in customer service.
• Staff development training - All employees need to be aware of the serious power of online reviews. Consumers have a loud voice in social media and on online review websites. When poor customer service is captured and goes viral, business owners need to know how to respond and do so quickly, but far better to not get into that mess in the first place. 
• Long-term impact - Online reviews impact revenue and changes in review ratings can increase or decrease your ROI.

Building a solid online reputation takes time and focused effort. Don't wait for a crisis to address yours. 

Local Online Advertising - Be Happy!

Local Online Advertising with Positive Reviews

I love TED Talks. As I laughed my way through this one, I realized that the information Shawn Achor shares is the perfect starting place for growing local online advertising through positive customer reviews:

• Happy business owners are productive business owners who lead by example and set the tone for their employees. 
• Happy, productive employees result in satisfied customers.
• Satisfied customers leads to positive reviews.

Enjoy Achor's humor and consider how you can incorporate his research into your business to improve your reviews and strengthen your local online advertising.

Local Online Advertising - Reviews and ROI

If you've read much of my blogging, you know I advocate for local online advertising through online reviews. But does it give you a return on your investment?

Reviews and Return on Investment (ROI)

In this Business to Community article, Martin Misiowiec explains that it's important to remain diversified in your internet marketing and he expounds on the very positive impact reviews have on your ROI - according to a recent study, they have the potential to increase your revenue by 40%!!

Yes, you definitely need a quality website, but to get prospective customers to your website, you need to have:

• strong star-ratings on the search engines and review websites
• quality reviews providing information about your services, products, and customer relations
• a presence on social media sites
• optional email advertising campaigns

In addition to a strong impact on your revenue, monitoring what is being said about your business online, responding to reviews, and generating new reviews keeps the online conversation about your business alive and gives you the feedback you need to make data-driven decisions for your business.

Get started on those review websites today!

www.impressionsrm.com

Internet Marketing - Are You Missing Something?

Internet marketing is still relatively new and many businesses are only partially taking advantage of the full power of the internet. There are four main pieces of online marketing that you want to make sure you have in place for your business: your website, search engine optimization (SEO), social media, and online reputation management (ORM).

All four components overlap and affect whether people are finding you when they run a search for your products or services.

Your Website:

• Web-friendly content - Your content should be written at about an 8th grade reading level, should be pertinent to what your clients are looking for, and should contain key search words as well as links to related outside websites. 
• Photos - Any photos should be your own or should be free from copyright issues.
• Navigation - Your site should be easy to locate information and it should be of a responsive design meaning it will re-size depending on the viewer's device and viewing screen size. 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

• The coveted spot in search engine results is at or near the top of the list of businesses. 
• Your business website should come up when people search for the type of product or service you provide.
• Your business website should come up at the top of the list when a person conducts a search for your brand name.

Social Media Marketing:

• Your business should have a page on the social media sites common for your customers to use.
• You should be posting news and public interest posts regularly.
• You should be monitoring your social media sites for interaction and/or reviews from your clients.

Online Reputation Management (ORM):

• Your business should have reviews on all of the major review websites including Google+, Yahoo, Yelp, Foursquare, Citysearch, Merchant Circle, Super Pages, Insider Pages, and Angie's List as well as any industry specific review sites such as Wellness or Trip Advisor. 
• You should claim and update each of your pages on the review websites.
• You should monitor for new review postings and respond to each review.
• Your business should implement strategies to generate new customer reviews - keep that word-of-mouth advertising going strong!

Online marketing obviously has a huge impact on generating new business - use the power of the internet, marketing your products and services so everyone will know your business is awesome!

www.impressionsrm.com