All customer reviews have value. As a business owner, it’s a good idea to repeat this truth to yourself every time you read a review. Many business owners who read confusing or negative reviews, for example, only see the potential for a public relations nightmare. After all, unflattering reviews can cast a business in a negative light that damages current relationships and limits opportunities to make strong, beneficial future ones. This fact doesn’t make these reviews worthless. Instead, every review can help you shape your business into something better.
Consider the following ways that you can use both good and bad reviews to make your business more successful.
Rebuild Broken Bridges
When a customer writes an angry review, you should listen to what they’re saying about you, your products and services, and your company overall. After considering their position, you can rebuild the relationship that you had with them by using their review as a starting point for a discussion about how you can do better. On the same platform in a reply format, state your concerns about whatever happened in regards to their complaint, outline in terms that are as clear as possible the ways you plan to address their problem and provide them with your contact information. This type of action shows the customer who gave negative feedback that you care about providing high-quality customer service. It also shows others who see the review and your response that you care more about rectifying bad experiences than those other business leaders in your industry who ignore bad reviews.
Address False Claims
Some people post misleading and negative reviews because they want to damage the reputation and business of a person they dislike, such as a former business partner or employer. Sometimes other business owners and their employees also post these types of claims on review websites, in comments on product pages, under related news articles and on social media to make their competitors look less appealing so that they can corner the market in their industry or in a specific geographic location. Instead of striking back in the same way, use bad reviews to recognize weak spots in your business practices that others can use against you. For example, if you don’t often discuss your business practices with the public via interviews, a competitor might try to claim that you have something to hide.
Use this type of statement to see how the public might misunderstand your actions and then change how you do things. One possibility: Restructure your public relations policies to schedule more face-to-face and online interactions with customers, especially Q&A sessions that pull back the curtain to reveal some of your company’s less public processes. Keep in mind that when you find reviews filled with lies, you also need to report them to relevant review sites, media outlets, and search engine companies by flagging the content so that the false claims don’t remain on the internet forever.
Improve Business Processes
Reviews bluntly state the things that you’re doing right and the things that you’re doing wrong with your business. You should always note anything mentioned in both positive and negative reviews that you should keep the same or change. This type of guidance can help you make improvements in every area of your business, including products and services, production processes and employee and customer relations. Reviews can even improve your advertising and marketing efforts. Some reviews might reveal which ads had the greatest impact or influence on consumer decisions. Also, positive reviews can provide you with additional promotional strategies. For example, many businesses use quotes from reviews as testimonials on their blogs, social media profiles, and other websites.
