Most businesses face the challenge of customers criticising them online. Yet many are finding that a negative can actually be turned into a positive.
Online reviews are vital for a modern business’s success, and traditional logic dictates that good reviews equal more business, while bad ones drive customers away. Yet there is a growing body of opinion that says bad reviews are actually beneficial for building integrity and credibility. After all, customers will be sceptical if every review of a product consists of gushing praise. For this reason, many businesses are adding review functionality to their own websites as well as maintaining profiles on external ones like TripAdvisor and Yelp.
Research by the ratings and reviews service provider Reevoo backs this up. In 2013, it found that 68% of people trust reviews more when they see both good and bad scores, and 95% suspect censorship or faked reviews when they don’t see any bad ones. Furthermore, five times as many consumers actively seek out bad reviews than a positive review. These customers also view five times as many pages on a given website.
Room for improvement
So the marketing benefits seem clear, but Reevoo’s cofounder Richard Anson also emphasises the role that negative feedback can play in helping you to improve your products and services. This sort of customer-led approach is already benefiting several forward-thinking businesses, he says.
“I know that [electrical retailer] Currys uses [its] customer feedback to guide [its] product buying process, and a large car brand we work with also sends all feedback to its engineers and R&D department so that it gets fed into product improvement.”
TripAdvisor shows a classic example of this in action: the St Ermin’s Hotel in London, which changed hands three times in five years, was receiving mediocre TripAdvisor reviews. These often cited outdated furnishings and poor service, and had caused the hotel to dip below 400th place in the ranking of more than 1,000 London hotels, well below its aspirations.
When new owners Amerimar Enterprises took over in 2010, they opted for a new course of action. They decided to not only renovate the hotel with specific reference to customer feedback, but also to ensure that online reviews would be central to monitoring standards in customer service. Six months after reopening, St Ermin’s had shot up to number 18 in the rankings.
Appropriate responses
While negative reviews are not necessarily something to be feared, it is essential to respond to them. The numbers reinforce this – some 85% of TripAdvisor users agree that a thoughtful response to a bad review will improve their impression of a hotel, and 80% say that seeing responses make them believe that “the hotel cares more about its guests”.
“If you get a bad review, it is often from a person who is engaged,” says digital consultant Sofie Sandell. “People who care enough to leave a comment will appreciate the very simple step of recognising that you have received the review. If you explain what you’re going to do about it and apologise if appropriate, then you’re more likely to get them back.”
Sandell favours the personal touch in responses. “I’ve been following the retailer John Lewis for years, and they are always humanising their customer support. So on Facebook they say ‘hi, this is Amy, please call this number and we will help you to resolve the problem’. I think using your name when replying makes the customer feel like a person, not just a client.”
Yet many businesses are still failing to grasp the importance of engaging with their customers. Sandell tells the story of working with a large luxury hotel that had a policy of not responding to reviews. “It’s as if someone has called you and you just remain silent on the other end. You have to acknowledge them, that’s what people want.
“Other brands make the person complaining feel stupid or as if there’s something wrong with them,” she adds, “and when you do that you definitely lose them.”
Anson believes the final piece of the puzzle is to have a joined up response across all channels, including your own site, external review sites and social media. “It is the case with too many businesses today that if you have a conversation with a brand on Twitter, and then six hours later phone their customer service, you’ll have the same conversation. As a consumer you’ll become even more irate as a result of that.”
Your guide to dealing with a bad review
1. Monitor networks
Make sure someone is responsible for regularly checking for bad reviews, whether they are on your own website, external review sites or social media. It should be possible to receive email alerts when comments are made on review sites, and software such as Brandwatch is available to track activity on social media.
2. Decide whether to reply publicly or privately
If you want your response to be known to other customers or think it will be useful, you should reply publicly. If the customer’s complaint is personal or complex, you may want to leave a short public message apologising briefly and asking them to email you to continue the conversation privately.
3. Take action
Often a simple apology suffices, but it may be that you need to take further measures. It is essential to respond quickly, so don’t get tied up in layers of bureaucracy – draw up guidelines for how to respond to different types of complaint and leave staff to work within them.
4. Follow up
Contact the customer again to check they are happy with the action you’ve taken, and if not consider further actions.
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