The more negative remarks, comments, and mentions you get on the Internet, the worse your reputation becomes. This is an important correlation, since your reputation is one of the factors new customers look at when deciding where to take their business.
Although you cannot “physically” change any content about your company online (unless you posted it yourself), here are a few things you should do every time you get a negative review online:
Reach Out and Talk
The number one way you can turn a negative review into a “positive” is to fix the problem. If a customer has had a bad experience, you need to get in touch with them. Find out what went wrong in the process, why their experience was so bad, and what you can do to make it better.
Picture the classic situation when your food is too cold or the order somehow got confused and you didn’t get what you wanted. What happens next?
A manager will approach you and say something like:
“Excuse me, is everything okay? Oh… I’m SO sorry to hear that. What can we do to make things better?”
That’s right. The manager (sometimes even the owner) will come out to address the concerns head on, and go above and beyond to make things right. Take their lead when it comes to boosting the rep of your own business. An interactive company will get less negative mentions over the long haul as compared to a company that just ignores all negative remarks.
How Do You Reach Out?
The best way to get in touch with an unsatisfied customer is via the method they chose to leave the review. If they wrote a blog post, leave a comment or contact them via their contact page. If they left a bad review in your product reviews section, contact them via the email you have on file.
If you find that they are saying bad things about you on social media, get in touch in that fashion. Social media, especially Twitter, is a great way to monitor what’s being said about you online.
How Can You Improve?
Another way to make the unsatisfied customer feel like their matter was truly resolved is to ask them how they think you should improve the experience for other customers. This makes them feel that they are a part of the process, and that their experience won’t be in vain.