Negative Online Reviews and how to deal with them

It’s never pleasant receiving poor feedback but negative online reviews are not necessarily a bad thing & can actually be used to your advantage.

In this digital age, online reviews now play a huge role in influencing customer’s buying choices. According to a recent survey by Bright Local a whopping 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation (see full survey results here). With that in mind, I often hear concerns from new businesses about setting up social media accounts or listing their business on directory websites purely because of their fear of possibly receiving negative online reviews.

In my opinion, this is nothing to fear; not only do the benefits of online reviews far outweigh the risks but as strange as it may sound, receiving negative feedback is not necessarily a bad thing.

Negative Online Reviews can actually be used to your advantage for a number of reasons:

• You’re human and humans aren’t perfect so seeing the odd negative comment among your list of reviews can make them more authentic (and not just a heap of 5-star reviews submitted by your friends!)
• If other potential customers see that you are actively handling problems (and not ignoring unhappy customers) this is going to give them greater confidence in you.
• You may just receive some feedback that helps you to improve your products and/or services; contributing to the growth and ongoing success of your business.

How to Respond to Negative Online Reviews

Respond promptly, but take a deep breath first

People expect a quick response in the online world so you need to deal with this promptly, but at the same time when you are best equipped to do so. Understandably you might feel sad or angry after reading negative online reviews but the worst thing you can do is respond to them when you’re still upset. So go grab a coffee & some chocolate and deal with it after you’ve cooled down and have a clear head.

Be professional and understand the customer’s point of view

There’s nothing worse than reading a response to a negative review that is defensive, making excuses, or sometimes even rude; even if you disagree with their comments or if they are being unreasonable you need to be polite, professional and keep your personal thoughts to yourself. You need to try and understand why the customer has posted it and what their pain points are if you hope to have a successful outcome.

If the review is valid:

If they have a justifiable complaint, take responsibility for it and do what you must to address the situation. Most people understand that sometimes things just don’t go quite to plan, but if you take ownership of it and resolve the situation you’ll earn their respect and they may even change their review as a result. Furthermore, if other current or potential customers see this, it will give them greater confidence in your customer service.

If the review is unfair:

No matter what you do, there will be the odd occasion where someone just cannot be satisfied and may even be unreasonable. In these cases, again address the customer’s complaint and make it known what steps you have taken to resolve the issue. Even if they don’t change/remove their review, most people understand that some people just cannot be pleased, but if you at least demonstrate that you have tried everything to make a difficult customer happy, it’s only going to reflect positively on you.

Take it offline if necessary

If things don’t go quite to plan, it might be prudent to take the conversation offline. Provide them with your direct contact details so you can deal with it privately; any continual negative back-and-forth that is public won’t be helpful to anyone.

If it comes to it, ask for the review to be removed

If the review is intentionally malicious or breaks any rules (swearing, personal attacks, etc.) you can reach out to the site owner and ask for it to be removed. This can be a slow process sometimes or the site owner might disagree with you, so it’s always best to try everything else first and remember to keep your cool.

Learn and move forward

It’s never pleasant receiving a negative review but you can also turn it into a positive by learning something from it. As a result of the negative feedback you can:

• Address any flaws in your products and/or services that might have been previously overlooked
• Re-write some of your website copy or terms & conditions to give customers more accurate expectations
• Adjust some of your business practices to address the issues raised
• Learn how to avoid certain problems in the future or if they do arise, be able to deal with them appropriately

Final note: “How many people are completely successful in every department of life? Not one. The most successful people are the ones who learn from their mistakes and turn their failures into opportunities.” Zig Ziglar

More Helpful Links

Here are some related articles you might find useful:

• Online reviews – a guide for business & review platforms:
  This guide has been designed to help you ensure the integrity of reviews on your site or about your business…
• Local Consumer Review Survey:
  This survey explores how consumers read and use online reviews. The information contained in this survey helps businesses and digital marketing agencies qualify the value of consumer reviews and how reviews impact consumers’ opinions and actions when searching for local businesses…
• Google+ It’s more important than you think:
  We all know that reviews play a huge role in online marketing and influencing a customer’s buying choices. As Google is by far the most popular search engine, having reviews on there is super important!…

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New website. Now what?

So you’ve got yourself a brand new website, or perhaps you’ve had one for a while now but not much is happening?

The Internet is one of the easiest methods of connecting with your target group of customers and is the method through which many of your potential and future customers will do their research on you. However, a website is not a magic wand that will instantly create business and sales. You have to work at it, build onto it, promote it, and work to increase its ranking in the Google search system.

Having a well-designed website (both in appearance and functionality) used to be enough on its own to get top ranking websites but over the years google algorithms have changed, become more sophisticated and a lot more demanding. So be prepared to be patient, especially if you have lots of competition as climbing up the google ranks can take time, from weeks to months, even longer depending on your niche.

Here are some steps to help you climb the google ladder:

1. Build Your SEO

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the way in which online search engines such as Google decide what sites to show people when they search for something on the Internet. As your website is already complete I won’t discuss on-page SEO but there are things you can do to help improve your website’s online presence.

Backlinks – You must add relevant links back to your page throughout the web; these are called “backlinks.”

“www” stands for World Wide Web – Web being the operative word. No website was meant to be an island, but rather a part of a much larger interconnected “web” which is why google favours sites that advocate this. Plus, the number of backlinks your site has is an indication of its popularity and importance. Think about it, if another website links to you they obviously see your site as valuable and relevant, so google will recognise that also. Keep in mind, that backlinks need to be quality backlinks, that is, they are relevant and from reputable websites themselves. So don’t fall for shoddy backlink campaigns or link exchange scams! – Poor quality backlinks can actually do more harm than good, so be selective!

Where can you get backlinks from?

• Guest posts – A common method for getting backlinks is by writing guests posts on other reputable websites in your niche. This method has been quite abused of late but done correctly can give your site a boost, as well as make you an authority in your niche and hopefully get targeted referral traffic too. Here’s a fantastic article on writing guests posts to help guide you – The Definitive Guide to Guest Blogging by Brian Dean
• Directories – There are heaps that are available that have both free and paid options but these are to be used with caution; like backlinks from poorly ranked sites, directory listings can sometimes be harmful too so try to stick to those that are well known with good page ranks. You also need to check if these links from directories (and all websites) are actually counted too as some add what is called a no-follow link which means google doesn’t even count it as a backlink. If you can find locally based directories obviously that’s a big bonus too. You could also consider local business chambers, council business directories, and so on.
• Provide Testimonials – All businesses love displaying testimonials on their website and will often include a link to the provider’s website to prove that it is genuine, so take the time to write some. In doing so they will probably write a testimonial for you in return also which has extra valuable benefits in itself!
• Blog Reviews – Find quality blogs within your niche and contact them about what product or service you provide. Offer them a freebie product or service in exchange for a mention on their blog or better still, perhaps even writing a review about it. Don’t just straight out ask for a link though as that’s spammy and could violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
• Google My Business Profile – You’ll need a Google My Business profile to set up your Google My Business business page (I will discuss further down) so it’s worth setting one up. Within the about section of your profile you can write about yourself and what you do… and guess what, include links to your website!

There are a lot more methods you can use to get backlinks but personally I find the above the quickest and simplest, so get on it!

2. Get your Social Media Sorted

Social media activity can be used as an indicator to search engines for a website’s credibility and popularity, as well as help determine which sites are relevant based on the given keyword search. That combined with the popularity of social media sites these days highlights the importance of having a social media presence. Which platforms (i.e. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.) you use will depend on your business type, but Google My Business is one I would strongly recommend.

Google My Business may not be as popular as other social media platforms, however having a Google My Business page will help your google ranking and is a lot more important than most people realise. I have another article which discusses Google My Business and it’s importance here, but in the meantime here are some quick steps to get you started:

If you don’t have a physical location (i.e. you work from home or just operate online) you can still claim a page and simply select “I deliver goods and services to my customers at their location.” You will still need to fill in your address, but only your suburb will be displayed to the public. Do this as soon as you can as Google will actually send you a validation code via snail mail to verify your business and this can take a couple of weeks.

Click here to Claim Your Google My Business Business Page

3. Ask for Reviews

An online review is equally important as a personal recommendation these days and when people are looking for information about your business, finding reviews can not only be a great marketing tool but it can help boost your SEO as well. The more online content that is written about your business, the more relevant it will appear to search engines, so don’t be shy about asking for reviews!

4. Google Adwords

AdWords is the name of Google’s advertising platform. In general, most people will click on the organic results over paid results, and running an AdWords campaign won’t boost your online rankings.

However, if you have room in your budget, AdWords can be a helpful option to use, particularly in the early stages of your website’s launch. Firstly, it can help drive traffic to your site that you might not have had if your page isn’t ranking well yet. And second, it helps build your brand because even if someone doesn’t click on an Ad, they may see it and remember you next time they search for your particular product or service.

You can also completely control your budget with Adwords, by setting a limit to your daily spend and then adjusting as you go.

When Can You Begin to See Results?

Again, be patient. Climbing up the google ladder takes time. Follow the above steps, build your presence on social media and keep an eye on how people interact with your website, and make changes as necessary.

Good luck!

Helpful Links

Here are some related articles you might find useful:

• Backlinko – The Definitive Guide to Guest Blogging by Brian Dean
• Smart Passive Income – Your Website Is Up—Now What? 5 Things You Can Do To Market and Promote Your Website
• Search Engine Watch – 30 Free Ways To Market Your Small Business Site
• Forbes – 10 Proven Ways To Market Your Website

Still need help with your new website?

Rivmedia Web Design specialises in creating and maintaining high-quality, purpose-driven websites that convert visitors into customers. Get in touch with us today and let’s chat about how you can get the most out of your website.

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