In August of 2019, we wrote a blog, Google Reviews: How to Get More and Why They are Important in which we addressed, you guessed it, how to get more reviews on Google and why it’s important for your business. We focused on Google, but you can apply the concepts to any review platforms such as Facebook, Yelp, and Amazon just to name a few. The bottom line is no matter what type of industry you are in, reviews can make or break your business. In most cases, they are the difference in whether a customer will even consider buying from you. c
The Good
Everyone wants good reviews, but they don’t just come automatically. A customer who is angry is two to three times more likely to write a bad review than a customer who had a great experience. Because of this, it is important to nurture good reviews. To do this, you must know when a customer is having a good experience (it should be most of them) and simply ask for a positive review and let them know where they can write one, i.e. Google, Facebook, Yelp, etc. Once you receive a review, take the short amount of time to write a friendly response directly on the review platform. This adds a personal touch that customers love.
The Bad
A bad review is inevitable. At some point, they are going to happen. This is when you must step up your reputation management game. It can take 12 positive reviews to cancel out a negative one. The first step is damage control. You must reach out to the customer either through the review platform or direct contact. Listen to their concerns, see if you can come to a mutual resolution, and kindly ask if they would please revise their review. The worst-case scenario is that they won’t revise their review and then you will need to continue to ask other customers for some great, 5-star reviews. This could be you, your staff, or even your friends and family. Hopefully, you will always get great reviews and won’t have to worry about the bad!
The Ugly
Sometimes, there is that one person who decides that they want to ruin someone’s day, life, career, or whatever it may be! They have a personal vendetta against someone. They’re mad and they want everyone to know it! They take to the internet (with clearly too much time on their hands) and do anything they can to bash the reputation of a business or even an employee of that business. We call these “Internet Trolls”. Here’s an example:
“John Doe, who works for your company, made fun of me in high school for an ugly haircut. I just thought you should know the quality of the character of your employee. I give your company 1 star!”
We have seen this happen before. The review is not relevant in any way to the services you offer. John Doe might have been a jerk in high school but that’s not going to ruin your business and you don’t need to fire him just to please the angry troll. In these cases, you can appeal the review directly to the review platform admins. In most cases, they will take it down. The second step is that you might need to block this person from access to leaving reviews which may also involve contacting the platform admins. Problem solved!
If you or someone you know needs help with collecting reviews and review management, contact us or give us a call at 713-309-6380. Brand Ranch Media is a full-service advertising agency. We would love to help you achieve all your marketing goals!