In spite of all the effort you put into providing high-quality products and services, someday you will receive a bad review, or even bad reviews. Maybe the customer was having a bad day, maybe something went wrong on your end and you delivered a subpar experience, but one thing is certain. You have to deal with it. Now.
While it may seem like the world is falling around you, don’t panic. You could be in a worse situation. One, or even a handful, of bad reviews isn’t a death sentence for your business, but you do have to take action to minimize the damage your business will experience. Here’s what you should do in case you find yourself faced with a bad review in a high-profile place.
Act Quickly (Not Just on Bad Reviews).
You should get to work as soon as you see that you’ve received a bad review. It’s a good idea to set up Google Alerts for your business name, monitor social media platform for activity referencing your company and regularly check review sites like Yelp and Angie’s List for reviews about your company. Chances are you’ll mostly see glowing accounts of the quality products and service you provide, but if something ends up going wrong you will be alerted as quickly as possible. Besides, it’s never a bad idea to show off a good review to your employees or customers. It can be a great way to motivate workers and make what they do seem valuable and impactful in the real world.
Don’t Do Anything Rash
If there’s anything worse for business than a bad review, it’s a bad reaction to a bad review. Reading a bad review you feel or know misrepresents your business is infuriating, but you must resist the urge to respond with insults. Check out Dale C.’s response to Brandon B.’s bad review. Rather than coming off as a capable and attentive business owner, Dale comes across as an angry man with a bone to pick. Whatever bad feelings Brandon’s interview gave you are only magnified by Dale’s frenzied response. Don’t be a Dale. It’s very likely you’ll have to respond, but this is absolutely the wrong way to go about it.
Above all, do not try to sue the reviewer or review site for the review. There are very few instances where this can be successful, and they all involve the reviewer using hateful language towards your business or employees somewhere in the review. All a lawsuit will accomplish is negative publicity, likely accompanied by a stream of bad reviews berating you for your action. A negative review is bad news, but a lawsuit is a PR death sentence. Here’s an example of a business who tried to sue a Yelp user over a bad review and came across as bitter and petty.
Plus, lawsuits like this are usually in violation of anti-SLAPP laws, which are being adopted in more and more states. Standing for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, these laws are designed to protect citizens from being intimidated out of voicing their opinion. Frivolous lawsuits fall under this category, especially if they are in response to something like a bad review. Regardless of what your intentions are, it is seen as burdening the defense with the cost and time needed to build a legal defense.
Contact the Website.
Except for rare exceptions, larger review sites like Yelp won’t take down negative reviews just because you ask them. This isn’t a bad thing! People use these places to inform their next move and want honest feedback from real customers. If Yelp took down every bad review that someone asked them to, they would have no authority as a review site and people would move on to the next one.
However, it’s always worth a shot. It’s possible that the review was left by a competitor trying to hurt your business or an account that gets paid to leave negative reviews. In these cases, there is a decent chance that you can have that review taken down. This isn’t really a high-percentage tactic, but it’s worth trying to see if something fishy is going on.
Start the Conversation.
So the nasty review is still there. The next step should be to start a conversation with the reviewer. If possible, you should try to contact the reviewer over the phone or in person. Most review sites have things that make it easier to identify who left the review. This usually comes in the form of a first name and last initial and a picture of the person who left the review. Try your best to look over your records and find someone in your order history that matches the reviewer. Reach out and see what went wrong. Offer to make things right and extend a unique offer like a small discount if you feel that it’s necessary. Oftentimes, just hearing a human voice and a sincere apology is enough to get someone to take down or change a review.
If you can’t find any feasible way of getting in touch with the person who left the bad review, the next step is to respond on the review site (if possible). Be extremely careful to choose your words well and monitor your tone carefully. This response will make a huge difference into how you come across to your potential customers. Here’s an example of a response done right.
The owner doesn’t throw out wild, ad hominem insults like the owner in the other example in this article. Her tone is apologetic and accommodating and she proves she took the complaint seriously by investigating further. While it’s still a 1-star review, the owner ends up coming across better than the customer does. It’s more or less the best outcome that’s possible without the review changing or being removed from the site.
An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure.
This adage is just as true when it comes to reviews as it is in all aspects of life. The impact of a couple bad reviews on your business will be much harder to notice if dozens (or even hundreds) of positive reviews overshadow it. Your overall star rating will barely twitch and there’s a good chance that it won’t even show up in the recommended reviews section.
If you don’t have a solid base of good reviews built up yet, it might be a good idea to offer a one-time promotion to anyone who leaves a review for your business, perhaps a small discount or gift card. Make sure that it’s not an offer that specifies you want positive reviews. This comes across as bribery and will turn customers off. Your quality products and service should be able to speak for themselves. If you aren’t in a position where you can offer promotions like this, consider adding some sort of graphic with a link to review sites that you have a presence on. Even a small reminder like this can motivate someone to talk about their positive experience online.
Conclusion
Bad reviews suck, but they happen all the time to businesses all over the globe. It comes up in every business owner’s career at one point or another. It’s definitely upsetting, but it’s a situation that can be handled without too much trouble as long as you stay calm and respond appropriately. If you haven’t received a bad review yet, we hope you can keep that streak alive, but if you have, we hope that this article helped you deal with it smoothly.