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“You can please some of the people some of the time, all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can never please all of the people all of the time.” – Abraham Lincoln
A negative review online is virtually unavoidable when considering the ease for people to air their views through social media. In fact, any business that maintains a complaint percentage of below 1% is not doing so bad at all.
It is clear that online reviews hurt when they are not great. For the business concerned, it is a blow to the core, and often one that they genuinely didn't see coming.
The thing is, no matter how desperately a business might wish to defend negative reviews, there is a fine line between protecting reputation and damaging it even further.
When a business find what customers are saying, the very first thing to do is to take a few deep breaths, contain any initial reaction, and maybe even walk away for a while.
No knee-jerk response is ever going to resolve a problem and often, a customer with a complaint is probably quite happy to enter into a war of words in public. Especially when it is a war that the customer is almost certain to win.
Of course, there will always be the obstinate and over-bureaucratic corporations who will protect their name to the bitter end, in the realms of the ordinary business, the process becomes ever simpler.
A first response should always be to attempt to offer a common sense solution, and one that will be seen by all in that light.
Don't ever challenge the review, respond with sarcasm or attempt to discredit the reviewer.
Instead, it could be a good starting position to state how you had not been aware of this problem at the time and if so, would have made every effort to have resolved any complaint.
It could be a good point to state that the business trains their staff on providing customer satisfaction but the points of the review have been noted and will be addressed at the next weekly staff training session.
This suggests that the problem, if indeed it existed, will be looked into and that it should not occur again to any new customer.
The response should be posted by a senior representative to so that the customer sees that their complaint is being treated with priority and shows other readers that the business takes complaints very seriously.
Of course, it is possible that the complainant will never be pacified and will adamantly challenge every response.
This is where the line needs to be drawn. If the first response does not meet with the customer's satisfaction, then leave it at that point, with a clear indication to others that you are dealing with this matter positively.
For a business, the next step would be to make certain the training is in place to ensure ongoing positive reviews that will in time dilute the one bad review.
Reputation Marketing is precisely about this, how to adapt business culture to attract positive reviews and use these to show a business in a positive light to any potential new customer.
When considering that over 70% of people do use online reviews for guidance on businesses, it is clear that drawn out arguments won't ever attract trust in a reader.
These potential new customers on the other hand will fully understand the words of Abraham Lincoln and realise that the occasional bad review is inevitable, as long as it was resolved in some way.
Website: http://businessblast.co.uk/
Release ID: 55033