How to Help Your Company Bounce Back From Bad Reviews

Jordana Klein

The majority of the time when a consumer experiences good customer service, they won’t take the time to sit down and write a positive review. But the second a customer may have one, slight issue with your service, they want to tweet, Facebook, post a review, or comment about their negative experience.

However out-of-proportion their comments may be, they are still in the public’s view, and it is your job as a business owner or employee to assist your company in overcoming these negative reviews and comments on social media or anywhere on the internet.

So, how does one go about bouncing back from negative feedback?

Monitor reviews:

Google Alerts allows you to receive notification when there are new reviews about your business. Studies show that 24% of customers who see two negative reviews are more likely to change their opinion about the company or decide against a purchase, so facing negative feedback ASAP is crucial!

Claim your pages:

It’s important to claim your Yelp (or Trip Advisor, Kudzu, Angie’s List, etc.) page so you have control over the page and comments.

Keep it private:

Use private messages for one-on-one confrontation online. Public responses should be solely to address calm and casual remarks, not the incredibly sensitive or negative remarks.

Respond appropriately:

Fraudulent reviews should only be given one glance and maybe a polite and public repsonse, and then the owner or employee should return to normal business and ignore any other comments.

It’s important to attract positive reviews so you maintain a good ratio of negative to positive reviews. Ways to expedite the happy reviews could be with loyalty programs, periodic customer surveys, and easy-access comment links. However important positive social interaction is to your business, do not attempt to purchase positive reviews on Yelp because they can shut down your page after 90 days once finding out. In addition, it’s important to refrain from placing a tablet in front of customers at the time of their purchase because they may be filtered out or not offer a review at all.

Has your company survived any negative comments or feedback? How did you handle it?

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