The further along we get in the internet age, the more reliant people are becoming on review sites. Just two years ago (2017), it is estimated that 97% of customers looked at online reviews prior to making a purchase. This means that nearly everyone is going to look you up before they do business with you. This makes review sites more important now than ever before. When you get a negative review, you are risking someone not doing business with you. An important fact about negative reviews is that for every one negative review, it is estimated that at least 26 other people had the same experience but did not say anything. It is for this reason that you need to take negative reviews very seriously.

In a recent survey, it was reported that up to 85% of customers that read online reviews, believe them. In fact, they trust them just as much as they would if a friend told them. While that is a lot of trust to put into a stranger, we can see why they would. The majority of online reviews are honest. It is the other reviews that you have to worry about. Granted, they are all equally relevant, but there is little that can be done about fake reviews. Unless you can prove they are fake, none of the review sites will remove them. The key is to make sure that you get as many positive reviews that will eventually the negative review will be irrelevant. Fortunately for you, there are some things that you can do to make sure the negative reviews are kept to a minimum.

Respond

The best thing that you can do to keep the negative reviews from taking up all of the space on your review site is to respond to your customers. Make sure that when you do, you are in a good frame of mind. Don’t shoot from the hip. Take a few minutes to think about how the customer feels in this situation. Only after you have done that can you formulate an articulate response.

Another no-no is when companies use a cookie-cutter reply. The customer, as well as others, can see that you are replying the same way to each and every person. They will think that you are not really interested in hearing what the customer has to say. Each response that you provide to a customer should be done in such a way that they feel like you listened to their complaint.

The last thing that you want to avoid is taking the conversation out of the review site. It gives people the impression that you have something to hide. Keep all responses in full view of the public. That way they can see how you are responding to the customer.

It has been reported that up to 73% of customers will take the way a company responds into account. Additionally, they want to make sure that you are not making the same mistakes on a consistent basis. In essence, they want to know that you have learned from your mistake.

Claim

Make sure that you are knowledgeable of the review sites. Don’t just focus on the major ones. While it is true that they get more traffic, they are just as important as the lesser ones. This is not to say that one review site is better than the others. This is quite the opposite of what we are saying. They are all equally important. The reason is, every customer review should be considered. That means that we want you to focus on the good and the bad. Each and every customer should get a reply from you. Remember, they should all be unique.

In order to claim your business on all the review sites, you are going to want to conduct a search for them. Start off by simply putting your name or the name of your business and then putting the word “review” or “reviews” at the end of it. This will no doubt return a lot of sites. Create an account on each of them and claim your business. This will allow you to keep in constant contact with your customers. Remember, up to 75% of customers believe reviews they have read on review sites. This means you need to be there to “defend” your brand, if you will.

Solutions

Of the 97% of customers that read review sites, up to 87% of them want to see the company offer solutions to customers that have a legitimate complaint. This is not to say that they want to see you handing out free things. It simply means they want to see you making an effort to try to rectify the situation.

There are many ways that you can provide solutions to problems. The obvious one is to offer the customer a free replacement of the item that was not delivered as promised. Clearly, this cannot be done in all cases. If we are talking about a pack of gum or a loaf of bread, then that is easy enough to comp the customer. However, if we are talking about a car or a house, that may be a little extreme.

Another way is to collaborate with the customer and come to a solution that is equally beneficial. So, as we said above, if they got a bad loaf of bread, have them come in for a free fresh-baked loaf of bread. In the case of a bigger ticket item like the car or house, think more along the lines of free swag. So, in the case of a car. Think of offering them a free tank of gas, a car wash, or even some free items to put into the car. Basically, you need the customer, and customers that read review sites, to see that you are taking them seriously.

Conclusion

As you can see, customers have a lot to say about negative reviews. They put a lot of weight to the negative ones especially. This is because it is human nature to focus on the bad. It is the reason that everyone slows down to look at a car accident. Somehow, we want to see that someone is having a worse day than us. When you find these negative reviews, give them something else to read. Everyone likes a happy ending.