negative reviews Archives - Reputation Communications

Commusoft, a U.K.-based software provider, just published a blog series by Linda Formichelli about customer service management. The last post features an interview with our founder and CEO, Shannon Wilkinson. While the article focuses on a particular service industry, the principles of managing reviews apply to all organizations. Here are key takeaways:

“When you discover that a customer has left an online review slamming everything from your products to the color of your trucks, your first instinct is probably to come back at the reviewer with guns blazing. That will make you feel good, but it will also make your company look bad.

“How the owner, marketing manager, and other employees at a field service company handle bad customer reviews can either make the company look even worse—or demonstrate the company’s stellar customer service.

“We talked with Shannon Wilkinson, founder and CEO of Reputation Communications and author of How to Look Better Online, for expert advice on how your field service business can turn negative reviews into raving fans. Try these tips, and bad reviews can become good news for your field service business.

Prepare for the Worst

“Every field service company is bound to get bad online reviews at some point. Competitors and disgruntled employees may leave unverified bad reviews, some customers just like to vent no matter how hard you try to please them…and sometimes, well, you make a mistake and a customer calls you on it. ‘Statistics show that frustrated or unhappy customers are far more likely to publish reviews than satisfied customers,’ says Wilkinson.

“The solution: Set up a feedback system to ask your customers to leave reviews on the sites that are relevant to your business, with the aim of encouraging your happy customers to put a good word in. Wilkinson notes as an example that restaurants that solicit feedback tend to attract a more balanced collection of reviews

“For example, you might send a personal or automated email after every job asking the customer to review your company. Some businesses also offer an incentive for reviews, such as a percentage off the customer’s next service, but be sure to check the review sites first…this practice goes against some sites’ policies.

Go Farther Afield

“Make it a habit to regularly check your company’s reviews on Facebook, Google, and review sites like Yelp, but don’t forget that negative feedback can also hide on other social media platforms, personal blogs, and employee review sites like Glassdoor. If you can’t handle all this tracking solo, look for review management software that will alert you to new reviews.

“Google offers a lot of free help in this area as well: Set up a Google Alerts account to be the first to know when your business is mentioned online, and list your company on Google My Business to easily track and respond to Google reviews.

Look for the Good

“’People are becoming very good about filtering out those reviews that are either too effusive or too biased,’ Wilkinson says. ‘Biased’ reviews are those where the reviewer is overly critical without providing actual details as to why the service they received was bad.

“For reviews that are negative but not biased, keep in mind that these reviews are valuable sources of feedback from your customers. They give you the opportunity not only to improve your services if needed, but also to impress the complaining customer (and everyone who reads their review) with your response.”

Read the complete article: Here’s How to Handle Bad Reviews—And Turn Haters Into Customers

Best Ways to Manage Online Reviews

Naveen Gupta, CEO of Birdeye, on Managing Online Reviews

Customer reviews on sites such as Yelp and Angie’s List have long posed major challenges to companies in industries like retail and hospitality. But now—especially with the advent of Google My Business— customer review sites reach every industry, and are a potential concern for every company.

How your company lands on review sites

If your organization is listed in public telephone directories, information about it is most likely published on a variety of content aggregators as well as on consumer review sites like Google My Business. Those sites often make the decision for you. In some cases, you often can’t opt out.

There are numerous consumer review sites on the Internet. Many work to maintain the integrity of their forums, but often their primary interest is in driving reader engagement—not protecting your company’s brand. The more businesses they have listed, the more visitors they attract. The more clicks they receive, the more advertising revenue the site can charge.

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to ensure your business is represented better on review sites. The most proactive is using a review management service.

What review management services do

Review management services work by monthly subscription. They provide clients with a dashboard where they can monitor over numerous online review sites in real time as well as with aboveboard methods to invite customers to review your company or services.

As positive and legitimate reviews come in, you can amplify their exposure by publishing them on many online platforms after establishing a profile about your business on them. This does not prevent negative reviews from appearing on review sites. Instead, it simply posts the reviews you choose to emphasize on social media and review sites—providing an effective counterbalance to reviews that may be biased, or have low credibility but high visibility.

Review management services also work to make your company’s website more visible to search engines. A key way of improving a website’s SEO (search engine optimization) is to increase the number of highly ranked sites that link to it. By allowing you to easily create profiles for your company across many review sites, review management companies also allow you to create many such inbound links from high-ranking platforms.

Review management sites aren’t right for every business. Many companies do not have storefronts and do not actively market their services and products to widespread groups of consumers. They are less likely to utilize review management services and more likely to remain detached from the online review space.

If your business would benefit from taking more control over your brand, though, it is a service worth looking into.

Related reading: How to Handle Bad Reviews

Naveen Gupta, CEO of Birdeye, on Managing Online Reviews