Are You Ignoring Bad Online Reviews?

The other day I was doing my normal reading of blogs, etc. and notice a statistic that I found quite interesting, but a little disturbing.

72% of Bad Reviews Online Are Left Unanswered.

I don't know whether this number is correct or not, but the point is that many negative reviews are left unanswered. I know this first hand because I have left some that have become ignored.

So, should you ever ignore a bad online review?  I am sure some people will say yes, but I am not one of them.  These are my tips for online reviews:

1) Find Customer: First, find out who the customer is that posted the review.  Reach out to them offline and attempt to solve the issue.  If it is resolved, ask them to remove or modify the review.  Even if it is not completely resolved, just the act of reaching out may cause the person to modify their review to be a little more positive.

2) Fake Review: If the review is flat out wrong, or obviously posted by a competitor, etc. make a simple statement that you would like to understand the problem this customer has. If you have no idea who the customer is and cannot determine when the problem occurred, add that you would be willing to discuss this if they would come forward. This puts the reviewer on the hook to further clarify the problem, or look as if it was fake.  Most people reading the review will figure it out that this is a fake or untrue review.

3) Post Response: If there are circumstances surrounding the incident, or issues, then let others know.  Maybe it was right after a fire and you were out of chicken, or if you had half of your staff out because of a funeral. Maybe the customer was drunk and you had to call the police? Just make sure you provide only facts, not your subjective comments.

4) Be Positive:  No matter what, try to stay as positive as possible and keep from the urge of telling the person off.  The last thing you want to do is start fighting with a reviewer online, as this will be a back and forth brawl and you will certainly come out the loser.  Thank the customer for their comments and apologize that they were not satisfied with whatever it was.

5) Answer Positive Reviews:  I don't understand why more businesses don't post comments to positive reviews. If a customer posts a good review about your company why not post a response such as "Thanks for your nice comments, really glad you stopped by and we appreciate your business, please stop by again"

6) Solicit Reviews: Of course the best thing you can do to offset a bad review is to have many many good reviews.  Do you have systems setup in your business whereby customers know how to leave a review on Google, Yelp, YP, etc?  Why not make up a little card that explains how and ask customers if they like what you did if they would leave a review?

Small Businesses have a unique and really inexpensive marketing tool.  Using Reviews to your advantage by not only answering negative ones, but commenting on positive ones and also asking for reviews.  Take the time to follow these rules and you will see results.  Remember, people like to hear what other people have to say about your business much more than they want to hear what you have to say.