The Dos & Don’ts Of Managing Online Customer Reviews
Online reviews of your business can be extremely frustrating because they are not always legitimate, they are not always favorable, and you rarely get a chance to post a response that has any effect on the initial review. For most businesses, it is common to get a good review and the occasional bad review. But how to manage online reviews if you start to get a line of bad reviews you don’t understand? You need to constantly manage your online reviews and you need to be active in addressing customer concerns.
Do Learn Something from Every Review
Whether you notice a pattern of bad customer service or you see product issues that are causing problems for many customers, it is important that you learn something from every review you get. Even if a review is positive, there are things you can get out of that review that will help you to understand what you are doing right and how your efforts are having a positive effect on your customers.
Do Try to Address Each Review
It can be a bit time consuming, but responding with a quick “Thank you” to every positive review will show your customers that you care about what they have to say. If you get a negative review, try to get your customer to engage you in private messages so you can solve the problem. When your customers see that you value every review, they will be more apt to leave reviews in the future.
Don’t Get Into Insult Wars
When you address a negative review and offer to resolve the situation privately, you are showing your customers that you want to try and make everyone happy. But some people do not want to be made happy. Some people simply want to complain and try and drag your company’s name into the mud. If, after several efforts to get the customer to try and engage you in a productive private discussion to solve the problem, a customer still insists on publicly throwing dirt on your company name, all you can do is discontinue the the conversation.
Simply end it with a comment such as “I am sorry we could not help you resolve your issue” and then stop responding. Never get into an Internet insult war with an angry customer because you will never win.
Don’t Try to Stifle Negative Reviews
Your company is going to get negative online reviews. The reviews themselves are not nearly as important as how you publicly handle them. You should always treat negative reviews with the same respect you treat positive reviews and always show a willingness to help. Do not ignore negative reviews and do not try to use negative information about the customer to get the review to turn in your favor. Simply address the issue and try to help the customer as best you can.
Online customer reviews can help you to learn a lot about your business and your customers. If you use reviews as a chance to improve your customer service and your product offering, then you can never go wrong.