Sometimes, humans err and so do businesses. Businesses are managed by humans and human legs can come in the way of the services. You don’t have to bite yourself so hard if you make mistakes but that does not take away the fact that some mistakes could be very costly, especially when they result in negative reviews.
Negative reviews could be scary and no business wants that. But as a business, you cannot always expect a whitewash positive review. In fact, a whitewash positive review score could indicate that the reviews are fakes.
Up to 70% of customers will trust your brand or product more if you have positive reviews but most customers will begin to lose trust if you have a perfect score of positive reviews. Customers understand that you can make mistakes sometimes and several other factors can result in negative reviews. But this does not justify having a lot of negative reviews. It may be okay to have a few negative reviews but it becomes a major issue if you have a lot of negative reviews. How do you turn the tide if negative reviews keep flooding your review page? How do you use the reviews to your advantage? How can you turn your negative reviews into more sales?
In this part of the series, we present some key points you need to know to turn your negative reviews into more sales and improve your business accordingly. Here are some important things you need to know.
Respond to Negative Reviews Quickly
One of the first things you need to do when customers drop reviews on your page is to respond to those reviews. For businesses that are reviewed across multiple platforms such as Yelp.com, Facebook.com, and so forth, they can collect the reviews together in a centralized point to enable them to respond appropriately.
Of course, you need to respond to every single review you have but you need to pay close attention to the negative reviews. To really turn the hand of the clock, you need to be careful how and when you respond to negative reviews. Your customers want to know that you care and they want to know if they can trust you. Your response to their review can give them the clue that they need and you need to make sure you make the most of the opportunity presented by the review.
When Should You Respond?
Knowing when you should respond to customer reviews is important. It can determine whether or not your customers will feel better about the service you provide. It is extremely important that you respond promptly to every review you have. However, you need to be very prompt when responding to negative reviews.
How you see the reviews are also important. Rather than seeing them as bad, you can see the negative reviews as “constructive criticisms”. That way, you will be able to learn from them and improve your business. It is important to note that your customers are most likely going to take note of how prompt you are in responding to their reviews. Ensure you do not drag the review for too long. Responding fast can show them that you not only care but that you are trustworthy.
How Do You Respond?
Of course, you should respond fast but you should also know how to respond. How you respond to a negative customer review can determine if the negative review will be turned into more sales.
To respond appropriately, you should start by putting yourself in the customers’ position. Imagine how you would have felt if you were in their shoe. This will help you to understand how they are feeling and therefore craft a perfect response.
Most importantly, you need to apologize for your mistakes. You should center your response around an apology. Apologize for the situation and also for the way you made the customer feel. This will show the customer that you have taken responsibility for the mistake and are ready to make amends. When responding to customers’ complaints, you need to stay professional. The response is not a ground for argument; therefore make sure you do not enter into any form of argument with the customer. Also, make sure you do not end up making excuses or laying the blame on someone else. Of course, you should never insult your customers if you want your business to succeed.
Put Emotions Aside
Your emotions can get in the way during your response, especially if you have devoted a lot of time to make the service or product work. However, understand that your customers are keys to the success of your business and put your emotions aside.
Focus on making the customer feel comfortable. However, some negative reviews may just be a troll on your business. For such negative reviews, it is best for you to keep silent because the reviewer will never be satisfied and could end up causing an uproar.
Offer Solutions
It is not all about responding to the negative reviews, to really achieve the desired results, you should also offer solutions and make things work. Your customers are actually looking for solutions. Therefore, your words will seem empty if you fail to offer solutions, even if you respond promptly. It is necessary to do everything you can to make the process work. If the problem persists, you can contact your customer personally through email or phone for further solutions. Taking the situation private can further reassure your customers that you are dedicated to serving them.
Finally, you can make use of platforms like Wiremo for reviews for seamless monitoring and keeping tabs on the reviews. An interesting thing with Wiremo is that it makes the reviewing process easy and simple. This means that your customers can leave more reviews and you can easily manage and market those reviews.
Are Negative Reviews Really Bad?
A few negative reviews are not bad but it becomes bad if the negative reviews become excessive. In fact, negative reviews are needed to balance things up. They show the human side of you and also point hands to the things you are doing wrong. Besides, you can make the most of the negative reviews and turn the table around. Negative reviews can be turned into more sales. It all depends on how you handle negative reviews.
You can choose to respond appropriately to the customer, apologize for the mistake that was made and act on the problem to correct it. This will show the customer that you care and also show the human side of you.
Customers really want to know that you care. Beyond the mistakes, they want to know that you are always available to serve them. You may not easily get this opportunity if all you have are positive reviews. However, negative reviews present the opportunity to you on the platter of gold, allowing you to chart your course and get your customers to trust in you.
Better Customer Service
Up to 97% of consumers across the world are saying that customer service is a vital factor when it comes to brand loyalty. This means that you should prioritize successfully dealing with customer feedback now than ever.
Negative reviews present you with an opportunity to deal with customer feedback. It is an opportunity for you to provide exceptional customer service. The result of such exceptional customer service is obviously improved loyalty to your brand and brand loyalty results in more sales and business growth.
Planning For the Future
Negative reviews help you to plan for the future of your business. This is why you need to see each of your negative reviews as a constructive criticism. It is an opportunity to improve and once you figure out what needs to be improved, you are on your way to success.
Furthermore, with negative reviews, you can have a valuable learning experience. However, you need to make sure that none of your customers will experience the same issue again in the future. A negative review may be bitter at first, but it always gives a fantastic experience in the future, when handled well.
Focus on Getting More Positive Reviews
While you can turn your negative reviews to more sales, you will have a hard time turning them into sales if all you have are negative reviews or if you have a bunch of negative reviews.
No business wants to have below 4-star review and you cannot afford to have as poor as 2-star review on a 5 point scale. Customers will begin to lose trust in you when they see a lot of negative reviews.
This means that you need to do everything it takes to improve your positive reviews. You can start by improving your local SEO or boosting your conversion. You should also strive to get more feedback from your customers who have had a positive experience with your service. Obviously, satisfied customers are usually less inclined to leave positive reviews than unsatisfied ones. However, you need to sit at the edge of your seat and be determined in getting more customers to leave positive reviews for you.
How do you get more positive reviews? There are many ways you can genuinely get more positive reviews. You can start by being awesome and offering stellar services as well as great products.
You can also engage your community and be active in the online community. Engaging with your social media fans can make a lot of difference and help you to get more positive reviews.
Most importantly, you need to ask. Some customers do not leave reviews because they forgot or they do not think about it as important. Some may also see the process as rigorous and difficult. You don’t just need to ask customers to leave reviews on your service, you need to guide them in leaving the reviews. That way, you will make the process easy for them and get more positive reviews.
Two important things you need to know when dealing with customer reviews are: ensure you do not force customers to leave positive reviews. Just ask customers to leave reviews based on their experience. Secondly, never delete a negative review unless the customer is going against your stated terms.
Lastly, there are many platforms available today to manage customer reviews but you need a seamless platform such as Wiremo to easily interact with your customers and their reviews. The beauty of Wiremo is that it presents interactive features that allow you to respond and share your reviews and also make your business to stand out before your customers. Wiremo is designed to help you grow your business with ease and to stand shoulder high above the competition in your industry.
