How business can deal with bad online reviews

Gone are the days when we could hide bad service from our potential customers. With various online platforms designed specifically to capture complaints and poor reviews it can be pretty daunting to businesses that rely heavily on the net to raise their profile and attract new customers.

I’m sure business owners agree that gaining feedback on service is an essential part of business and should be welcomed and responded to. However, there are online trolls looking to wreak havoc to business through posting incorrect and slanderous reviews, either for their own benefit or on behalf of competitors.

Unfortunately, on the whole, we’re not going to be able to stop this from happening, so it’s essential we create a strategy for dealing with the feedback that raises your profile, reinforces your brand and ensures customers keep knocking.

1. Stop and count to 10! When you find a slanderous statement about you or your company it is too easy to respond in haste, losing the opportunity to take control of the matter. Don’t respond until you’ve planned what you’re going to say.

2. Do your research. Investigate the complaint from an internal perspective; could there be any truth in the allegations? Does this customer even exist? Search for the username online and you may find you’re not the only one they’re trying to destroy.

3. Plan your response. Break down the review and respond to each allegation separately, clearly outlining your standards for quality and service and how you’ve either rectified the situation, or checked on the troll’s specific encounter. If you don’t have a record of the customer, say so – but respond positively, reinforcing your company approach to service.

4. Thank them! Being open and approachable means you’ve got nothing to hide and will build trust in current and future customers. Always respond with respect and kindness.

5. Use the feedback. If there is any truth in the statements work with your team to ensure the same problems don’t happen again. One negative review can be handled, but multiple regarding the same issue is company suicide.

Without feedback we’d never know if our customers were happy, whether our products or services were meeting the grade, or whether our customers would consider returning to us do business. Setting up a system which actively encourages and captures feedback promotes a positive reputation for achieving excellence, and ensures you “own” the platform and can manage slanderous comments in an appropriate manner.

The system needn’t be expensive; in fact, social media is a free and relatively easy approach to encouraging and responding to feedback publicly. Good luck and don’t let the trolls get you down.