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7 Deadly Sins of Responding to Negative Reviews

March 7, 2014
by Gradiva Couzin

In our recent book, “Five Stars: Putting Online Reviews to Work for Your Business,” we showed some examples of painfully poor business responses to negative online reviews on Yelp, Google+, and other online review venues. With the right response strategy in place, business owners can see negative reviews as an opportunity rather than a source of lost sleep!

Here are seven deadly sins we’ve found when looking at business responses to reviews; are you guilty of any of them?

Deadly Sin #1: Ignoring online reviews

The first rule of online reviews is pay attention to your online reviews. Ignoring them will not make them go away, it will just ensure that your business is not part of the conversation. We recommend that every business develop a sustainable process for monitoring online reviews. This can be as simple as having a staff member visit review sites on a regular basis, or as advanced as using a sophisticated monitoring tool such as Revinate or Brandseye.

Deadly Sin #2: Not publicly responding to reviews

In our research for our book, we heard from more than one industry insider that responses to online reviews – both positive and negative reviews – help prevent future negative reviews and give readers a good impression of the business. Most major online review venues, including Yelp, TripAdvisor and Google, allow businesses to respond to reviews. Don’t miss this opportunity to get your own words in front of future readers.

Deadly Sin #3: Having no process for making business changes based on reviews

In our research, the businesses with the best online reviews management system included a systemic, integrated process for their business to learn from its reviews. One hotel included TripAdvisor review discussion in their daily operations meetings. Why miss out on this free market research? As long as you don’t overreact (see Sin #4), online reviews can help you iron out some of your flaws, get ideas for improvement, and give credit where it’s due.

Deadly Sin #4: Overreacting and taking it personally

Especially for small businesses, a negative review can feel like a punch in the gut. Small business owners pour their heart and soul (and no small portion of their personal fortune) into their business, and a negative reviewer may callously discount all that with a click of a mouse. If a business owner tends to react emotionally to negative reviews, a more dispassionate replacement should be in charge of monitoring and responding to reviews. And remember: a single negative review doesn’t need to result in a massive overhaul of your business. Changes are needed when you’re seeing a pattern of reviews that show similar or consistent complaints.

Deadly Sin #5: Responding in haste

Feeling a bit upset by the unfair negative review you just received on Yelp? Give yourself at least a 24-hour cooling off period before responding. Just wait a bit. Really. Otherwise you’re going to end up with Sin #6…

Deadly Sin #6: A defensive or angry response

When dealing with negative online reviews, it’s important to remember that the target audience for your response is not the reviewer you’re responding to, it’s future readers of the review. Don’t use this space to argue with the reviewer, use it to make yourself look great to future readers by doing the following:

Apologize for the bad experience
State what you’re doing to make things better
Correct factual errors but don’t argue about opinions
Remain utterly and totally cool. Nobody wants to go to a business where the owner seems ready to explode due to a bit of criticism.
Include your contact information or a way for them to follow up

We provide more details on the best ingredients for negative review responses in Chapter 7 of our book.

Deadly Sin #7: Missing removal opportunities

If you think a review will get taken down just because it’s a load of hogwash, then you’re out of luck. That’s not going to happen. However, there are some reasons for which you may be able to legitimately get a review removed. For example, if a review is filled with secondhand information, or includes inappropriate language, it may violate the terms of service of the venue on which it is posted. Most venues such as Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Google+ allow a business owner to flag a review and leave a note explaining the problem – if you think the review violates the venue’s guidelines, we say, go for it!

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We hope this has been a helpful list! If you think we missed any sins, please let us know in the comments!

Prevent Negative Reviews: Manage Customer Expectations

January 18, 2014
by Jennifer Grappone

“Cash only, please. Thank you.”

This exceedingly polite handwritten sign is taped to the door of my neighborhood bakery. Every time I walk my dog past the bakery, I think about how the simplest acts of setting appropriate customer expectations can help prevent customer dissatisfaction, and may help prevent negative online reviews.

One of the common triggers that compels people to write negative reviews is when the customer experience does not match expectations. This can play out in lots of ways, but here’s one example, an excerpt from a Demandforce review in which a patient gives a poor rating, largely due to a mismatch between expectation and reality:

Some negative reviews are more preventable than others, and setting appropriate customer expectations is one practical step that businesses can take to prevent negative comments from creeping into their reviewscape.

Is there something about your business that could catch your customers off guard? Whether it’s a temporary inconvenience or a special feature that you’d never change about your business, if it has the potential to ruffle feathers or cause confusion, let people know about it as early as possible in the customer experience.

One example we give in our book Five Stars: Putting Online Reviews to Work for Your Business is a restaurant called The Raymond. Here’s an excerpt of what customers see after they make a reservation on OpenTable:

Please note that the Raymond is proud to offer both indoor and outdoor seating on our craftsman style covered, heated patios. If you have a preference please indicate in the Special Requests field, and we will do our best to accommodate your preference. However indoor or patio seating cannot be guaranteed.

This message does a couple of things right: First, it forewarns diners that they may be eating outside, eliminating the element of surprise from the customer experience. Second, it’s worded with marketing in mind, describing the patio seating as a desirable location, not a second choice. (The description of the patio is accurate – I’ve eaten there. And this is of course another way to set appropriate customer expectations: make sure your marketing efforts don’t mislead your customers about your products or services.)

One ecommerce site that does a good job of setting customer expectations is advanceautoparts.com. Here’s one example:

This store has an appealing offer of free shipping, but doesn’t want the customer to complete their order before seeing the fine print. The details link is prominently placed within the promotion, and leads to a page that clarifies important restrictions.

In another example, the red text on this product page should head off any potential mismatches between customer expectations and the actual purchase experience:

No additional discounts, in-store pickup only. Got it.

There’s nothing particularly difficult about taping a sign on a door, or adding a few important details to a promotion, reservation confirmation, or product page. The trick is in thinking through the customer experience that you provide and anticipating how it might not align with your customers’ preconceptions. This mindset can help you improve customer satisfaction, which can have a positive impact on your online reviews. Not sure where to start? Get insights by having a conversation with anyone on your staff who has direct customer interactions.

What are you doing to manage your customers’ expectations?