If you own a business, you’ve most likely had one customer that has been unhappy and threatened to bad mouth you on popular rating sites such as Yelp, Rate MDs, and Google +. While the reviews are important when it comes to getting new business, how you react to a negative review is the most crucial part of the process.
Tips for handling negative online reviews
Here are a few tips on handling negative user reviews on websites:
1.Respond to the post diplomatically
Whether the customer was out-of-line or not doesn’t matter when responding to a review. Be civil, professional and offer a solution when appropriate.
2. When given the option, respond to the post publicly.
Sending a private message to an unhappy customer is always an option. However, responding to the post publicly demonstrates to other potential customers that you value their business and it shows action was taken to handle the concerns.
3. Be consistent with responding to reviews.
Each customer should receive the same treatment when it comes to dealing with complaints. Check popular rating sites at least three times a week to stay on top of reviews.
4. Be proactive with collecting positive reviews.
Negative reviews aren’t as bad if the positives outweigh the negatives. If a customer makes a comment about a positive experience, ask them to write a review and guide them to a couple review sites. You can even offer deals so the customer has more incentive to write the review.
5. Hire Practis, LLC
Keeping up with negative reviews and reputation management while managing a practice can be difficult. The team at Practis, LLC provides a range of online marketing services, including directory submission, link building and reviews management.
Contact us at 704-887-5300 for more information.
