HOW TO RESPOND
TO A NEGATIVE
REVIEW ONLINE
By Trudi Charest, RO
IT WAS NOT THAT LONG AGO
THAT THE EXPRESSION “WORD
OF MOUTH” WAS LITERALLY
ONE PERSON TALKING TO
ANOTHER PERSON. TODAY IT
HAS CHANGED TO “WORD OF
INTERNET.” ALMOST EVERYONE
I KNOW HAS DONE IT… THEY
HAVE GONE ONTO A FORUM,
REVIEW SITE OR SOCIAL MEDIA
TO COMPLAIN ABOUT A NEGATIVE EXPERIENCE WITH A
BUSINESS OR PRODUCT. WHEN
A CUSTOMER IS UPSET THEY
HAVE OPEN CHANNELS NOW
TO VENT AND COMPLAIN
TO THE WORLD.
THIS IS USUALLY EFFECTIVE
AS BUSINESS OWNERS DO
NOT WANT OTHER POTENTIAL
CUSTOMERS TO BE SWAYED
BY A BAD REVIEW SO THEY
WILL GENERALLY RESPOND
MUCH FASTER. THE WORST
CASE SCENARIO IS THE BUSINESS
DOES NOT RESPOND QUICKLY
OR AT ALL, WHICH CLEARLY
SAYS TO THE OTHERS THAT
THEY DON’T CARE. BAD
REVIEWS ARE NOT THE END
OF THE WORLD IF HANDLED
PROPERLY… IN FACT, IF YOU
RESPOND CORRECTLY IT CAN
SHOW THAT YOU ARE TRULY
THERE FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS
AND WILL DEAL WITH ANY
SITUATION AS IT ARISES.
16 Optical Prism | May 2016
Here are 5 tips on handling
a negative review:
Immediate is the new expectation.
When someone is upset, taking a long time to respond will only ignite the
anger, potentially resulting in even more complaints on additional channels or the same one. People today have an expectation that if they have
sent something online, it has been seen right away. Although we know
this is not always true, your business should be checking social media
sites and review platforms daily. If you are signed up for Google reviews,
Yelp reviews or other sites such as RateMD.com they should be prompting you with an email that you have received a review (good or negative).
Take this opportunity to open it as soon as feasibly possible so you can
respond immediately.
Apologize!
There are a few ways to look at this… one the complaint is valid and honest
and the customer has every right to complain or you need to do some investigation into what has actually transpired to truly understand the situation. Either way you need to say something online so that this customer
and anyone else looking at the review knows you are on it. It is sometimes
as easy as saying: “We apologize for any inconvenience you have experienced and we want to make this right. Could you please contact us at
(contact info) as soon as possible?”