The silver lining to negative online reviews

At some point, every business experiences the unrestrained lashing of the disgruntled customer. The hardest part? Not taking it personally and refraining from typing up the first explosive and oh-so-satisfying snarky rebuttal you can come up with and hitting the “post” button stat.

Deep breath… Here are some facts to think about that will help you reconsider negative business reviews as an opportunity, rather than a threat, to the livelihood of your business.

Bad reviews make you look like a REAL BUSINESS

When you research a business on Yelp.com and see only 5 star reviews, what’s your first thought? “Hmm… I wonder if these are real…” Ring a bell? It should, because 100% satisfaction is the main ingredient for suspicion. In fact, 30% of consumers assume false information when all the reviews are positive. According to social commerce company, Reevoo, 68% of consumers trust Yelp pages more when bad reviews are mixed in with the good.

There’s an added bonus! Research from the Journal of Consumer Research suggests that if a negative review was written politely, regardless of the content, you may actually experience a boost in sales. A politely written negative review causes consumers to see your brand as honest, cheerful, down-to-earth, and wholesome. In their study, they even found that consumers are willing to pay more, significantly more, with tactfully written negative reviews because they increase your services likability and trustworthiness. Who knew?!

All publicity is good publicity… well, kinda.

Ever heard the saying, “all publicity is good publicity?” Maybe that’s not always the case, but it seems to ring true in a study published by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The study found that negative book reviews written by established authors dropped sales by 15% on average. No big surprise there. However, they also discovered that negative book reviews increased sales on average of 45% for relatively unknown authors. Seriously.

Why? Analysis shows that by making consumers aware of a product or service they otherwise wouldn’t know about caused an increase in sales simply due to the law of large numbers. Statistically speaking, an increase in the number of people who know about your business translates into more people who are going to buy your services.

Use negative reviews as a catalyst for building a roadmap and making improvements

It feels great to be showered with 5 star ratings by customers who love everything you’re doing. However, you learn more about your weaknesses and can more easily identify areas for improvement when you receive feedback from those who aren’t so ecstatic about your service. Mine the data from all your negative reviews to gain a better understanding of who your target markets are. This information is gold! It’s a no-frills, not-worried-about-your-feelings kind of authentic feedback that gets straight to the point.

When reading through them, ask yourself:

• What did the customer want that we didn’t provide? More classes? Different times? Poor customer service? Bad instructor?
• Should/can we provide it? Are they upset about something we don’t offer? If so, can adding it to our offering create a new revenue source? Is it cost efficient?
• Did we break a promise? If so, what can we do to fix it moving forward?
• Is there a pattern? If you can spot a trend, it’s a pretty good indicator of an area for improvement; or as we like to put it, “an opportunity.”

It’s difficult to not internalize bad reviews, but this is business. Remember they’re not criticizing you personally, they’re sharing their single experience at your establishment. This isn’t about you. Capitalize on it. Exploit their feedback to become even more successful. The best revenge is massive success, so use their ammo to propel your business forward.

Demonstrate customer service - Join the convo!

Consumers love to see interactions between businesses and customers on social media. Ideally, your response should include an invitation for the customer to talk with you or a rep on a private channel. This allows you to humanize and personalize the experience and demonstrate customer care. More importantly, should the interaction go south, it’s not on blast for your entire customer base to see (AKA preventative damage control).

• Do it quickly! Timely responses communicate that you value their opinion. However, hasty responses do not. If you need some time to cool off, take that time!
• Kill them with kindness. Address the concern politely and diplomatically with a few sentences. The stark difference in tone may discredit them to other readers. Be sincere; be careful to avoid sounding condescending.

If all goes well, you might just convert one of these disgruntled customers to a loyal “lifer.” Just remember, a couple of bad reviews probably won’t destroy the reputation of your business. In fact, it might just create some unforeseen credibility.

Feel Free to Get Creative!

When the world gives you lemons, get creative! It’s your business, so feel free to set the tone. A little bit of tasteful sarcasm can go a long way in conveying that you’re human too. Here are a few examples of businesses who exercised some more unorthodox marketing techniques.

If you can’t beat them, join them!

Do you have any advice for handling negative reviews? Tell us your creative ideas in the comments below! Good luck!