Negative Reviews Can Be Very Helpful

A bad review can help businesses in many ways when they manage appropriately and use the feedback to actually improve. 

After reading several reputation management articles and how to manage bad reviews suggestions I have summarize what I believe is very important to keep in mind to actually make a negative review and asset for your business.

It is very important to understand when and how to response to a negative review. 

When to respond: 

You genuinely need to make amends:  If you know there is the possibility something went wrong with the service or product and someone is legitimately upset about it, it’s typically in your best interest to engage them and to do your best to make it right. 

They’re misstating the facts: Speak up and politely let them know that they may have simply misunderstood something or perhaps they’re even getting you confused with another company. If it’s a matter of bad facts, you should step in to correct them.

When the review develops legs:  If a bad review is getting "me too" comments from other users, get in the conversation and help calm it down. Otherwise the issue might get bigger then what it really is. 

How to respond:

Once you decide a review is worth commenting on, you need to handle it with some finesse. 

Listen:  They’re commenting on the site because they want to be heard. Show them they have been, by making sure you fully understand what happened and how they feel about it. 

Be Honest:  Don’t make excuses. Don’t try to spin it to make yourself look like the victim. If you messed up, apologize and immediately diffuse the situation. If you didn’t mess up, then be honest about what happened. Without pointing fingers.

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Remain Calm: When you do respond to an online review  be civil and professional, and make sure to offer a solution when appropriate

Explain how will you be better: When ever possible explain what kind of corrective action will you be doing to ensure this is not happening again or at least get more control over unsatisfying situations. This way the reviewer and other readers (potential customers) will know you are really caring and you are truly working to give a better service or product. 

Say thank you: No matter how bad is the the review you should always thank the customer for his/her business and for taking the time to make a review. 

Keep track of good and bad 

My final suggestion is, keep track of all reviews,  good and bad, categorized them by departments so you can actually see which areas of your business are weak and you need to improve and which ones are  strong and you can use them to improve the other areas.