Every business owner knows that having a negative online reputation and bad reviews can affect business big time. It’s a fact that negative online reviews affects buying decisions and this clearly translates to less and less people buying from you. Many people avoid local businesses completely (talking on my own account) with a negative online reputation.
In today’s digital connected lifestyle, if you have a bad reputation online with people posting negative online reviews about you, it can decrease your overall revenue and business. What can you do if your business has a couple of these negative reviews online?
Online reputation management tips
Understand the problem: This is the first step and you should study the source and everything related to the problem. Are people complaining about bad customer service? Are you giving them what they are expecting? If this is a customer service problem, identify the areas in your customer service team and correct them. If you don’t fix this, it will continue to happen.
Respond to the negative comments: Respond to all the negative comments and reviews about your business in a timely and professional manner. Engage with the reader to understand their concerns and how you can fix the issue they are experiencing. Do this publicly so that people can see that you care and that the negative ereview can be turned into a positive one.
Listing outposts: Use Google Alerts or any other monitoring outposts so that you are notified as soon as negative comments or mentions are posted about your brand online. This will help you to be notified as soon as these are posted.
Encourage positive reviews: Always encourage positive reviews about your business. Reach out to your customers and ask them to share their positive experiences with their own social circles. Always ask for feedback from your clients and what their experience in using your business was.
