Your Reputation is your company’s most valuable asset. A damaged reputation can lead to lost customers or sales. This article will show you how to deal with negative reviews.
As in life, business is a matter of Reputation. Businesses spend a lot of money and years building a positive reputation. This includes staff training, customer service policies, and listening to customer feedback.
A business’s Reputation can be damaged by just a few poorly placed words, regardless of what they do. This is more evident than ever in the modern technological world of mobile digital technology and internet review sites. A negative review can be posted to the entire globe in minutes.
Will one review make a difference in how people perceive your business? They can look around and find positive reviews about your business. How will potential customers receive this impression if it is their first interaction with your company? Does that make the best impression? When you start a business relationship with this person, it will be much more difficult to overcome negative perceptions of your brand.
It is important to manage how your business is presented online. This is especially true since 89% of people around the globe start searching for products on the internet before purchasing. Given the competition, customers will likely move on to other businesses if they see negative reviews about your business.
Online Reputation Management is important for any business. How can you manage your company’s online Reputation? It all has to do with how people shop today.
In the past, if someone wanted a new product like a washing machine, they would visit a brick-and-mortar store to browse the selection and ask for help from friends and family to decide on the best one.
The internet has enabled access to millions, not just thousands, of opinions. These opinions can be found on online review sites, social media chat topics, and buyer reviews. A staggering 89% of global consumers will start searching online to find the information they need to decide about buying a product or service. What other people think about your company, products, and services will impact their purchase.
You must take steps to correct any damage and jealously protect your Online Reputation to maintain a positive business image.
WHO CAN DAMAGE YOUR ONLINE REPUTATION
There are many reasons why someone might publish a negative review about your business. It is risky to dismiss one simply because you believe it to be false or unfair.
Ask yourself, “Why did this person feel forced to say these things?” ‘
It doesn’t matter if the comment is true or false; it is clear that the person who commented believed that the reason was real and felt compelled by the law to tell you (and the rest of the internet) how strongly they feel. While negative comments might not be true, it is important to remember that a person is always behind them.
Customers
It is a common thing for people to tell businesses that the customer is always right. This applies regardless of whether they have unreasonable expectations, are demanding too much, or are expecting more than what was promised. This ‘I am right culture’ has been ingrained in them. They feel entitled to speak up when things don’t go according to plan.
Customers are sometimes wrong, but they sometimes get it wrong. Before taking action, it is important to examine the customer’s experience.
Competitors
There are indeed some businesses that use dirty tricks to publish fake negative reviews about other competitors. It must be challenging to prove that a review is not genuine. Sites such as YELP that actively target fake positive reviews are trying to find and remove them. However, until they are proven counterfeit studies, you should treat each one as if they were a real customer, regardless of any suspicions.
Employers
Whether they are employees, past or present, workers with a grudge can leave negative reviews or comments. It’s not always the grudge-holding employees who are the problem.
Your company’s employees, from top executives to sales staff on the floor, can have negative publicity. You might hear a controversial statement and see rowdy or illegal behavior from staff members that can be linked to your company; you could also see controversial photos of staff members published on social media that could reflect poorly on your business.
It is crucial to treat staff breeches and other situations properly. It is tempting to fire employees or launch an attack against a competitor who you feel is badmouthing you. But this will only lead you to more problems.
What should you do if you come across negative comments on social media, blogs, review sites, or in the comments section of your website?
Finding ways to heal the damage to your online Reputation is important. It would help if you were calm and rational to find a solution that will reflect well on your business and you. You will only make your Online Reputation worse.
DAMAGING YOUR ONLINE REPUTATION
It is normal to be upset or angry about the negative comments made about your business by others, but you should avoid these actions at all costs.
1. Do not try to erase all trace
Many businesses believe that deleting all negative comments is the best way to handle a storm of negative feedback. Then it will disappear. Deleting something once it has been published in cyberspace can be challenging. This is what some businesses discovered to their dismay. 1.4 million people saw one company’s incident – that’s a lot of customers!
Delete comments can tell potential customers you have something to hide or something wrong with your business. This can cause them to lose any trust in you. Please don’t be ashamed to admit you made a mistake and take steps to correct it. It shows that you are willing to admit your mistakes and work hard to fix them. This builds trust in your business ethics and motives.
2. Do not give up
These negative comments are often taken as an attack against us. Human nature is to react and hurl a barrage of insulting words at the offending reviewer. These actions will not result in a happy ending in any situation.
Your response to negative comments can make it easy for you as a business to be scrutinized. It would help if you thought before speaking. As we said, everything is never really lost on the internet. Are you willing to publish anything you wrote in haste to make it back to bite you repeatedly?
It is better to make a draft and then let it sit for a while until you can review it with a more calm mind.
3. Do not put good words in someone else’s mouth
It is possible to think, “If they can write negative reviews about me, then I will write one!” Although it may sound like a great idea, a lie is still a lie. While you may be truthful about your company, pretending to be someone else or getting another person to write a review or prompt you to do so, you are being deceitful.
How can you trust them again if you find out that someone is lying? Trust in a business is lessened when it is deceitful than when you read a few negative reviews. All companies get bad reviews. Some businesses lie to customers. Those that do are not treated well.
Search engines such as Google and YELP are becoming more aware of fake reviews being posted to sites. They will remove any review they suspect to be false and lower the business’s rank in question so they don’t appear in searches.
