How to Respond to Negative Reviews

False Negative Reviews.

How do false negative reviews occur? The most common reason for false negative reviews is that the reviewer has an axe to grind. This can be a disgruntled employee of the company being reviewed, or a competitor. In some cases, the reviewer may have been hired by a third party to post a negative review. There are plenty of people who make a living doing this.

Perhaps the most galling of negative reviews are those left by customers who have received a satisfactory service but have always had an agenda to cheat you out of paying the full balance. This is pure theft and it’s a shame that it’s not recognised as fraud.

The Benefits of Responding to Negative Reviews.

Responding to negative reviews is one of the best ways to manage your reputation online. When you respond to negative reviews, you have the opportunity to resolve the issue at hand and improve the perception of your business..

As long as you respond quickly and appropriately, responding to negative reviews can actually help you. In fact, research shows that customers who see a response to a negative review are actually more likely to buy from the business than those who don’t see a response. In some cases, if they think the reviewer is unfair, they will show support for the company by taking the next step.

The first thing to do with a negative review is respond to it. Remember that you are responding as much for other readers as the person who left the review. If it’s not genuine, say that you believe it is a mistake as they are not a customer. Ask them to get in touch so that you may resolve it.

If the negative review is from a customer, respond in an apologetic way and arrange to get in touch. Do this even if you do not agree. You can revise your response later if the customer proves unreasonable. In the first instance, you just want to limit the damage and preserve your reputation.

2. Respond as soon as you are able to. You can edit responses whenever you like so if you are going to take time, at least leave a response to say that you are looking into it and will come back to them as soon as possible.

3. Introduce yourself as the owner of the business and take personal responsibility. This shows anyone reading that you are fully invested in your business and care about your customer’s satisfaction.

Let’s take a look at some specific circumstances and a few ways that you can either reduce the potential damage or improve the rating.

If the customer is genuinely unhappy.

If your customer is genuinely unhappy with the service, the only solution is to communicate with them to resolve the issue. Once resolved, it is reasonable to ask them to adjust their feedback.

If the customer has left a glowing review but hasn’t given 5-stars.

It’s tricky if the star rating doesn’t match up with the review. It’s quite common to see positive comments and 4 stars. Some customers believe that a 4 star review is positive and think that they are being fair to you. To a business owner who has worked hard to maintain 5 stars over a long period of time, it can be devastating. 4 stars is not devastating. There is even a school of thought that says it’s better to have a few flaws showing as it seems more genuine.

While I don’t subscribe to that school of thought, I also don’t think that a few 4-star reviews needs to be too damaging. Overall, I think that higher reviews in number, and quality, give the best results.

I recommend responding to a 4-star review in the same positive way that you would respond to a 5-star review but I would contact the customer directly and ask what needs to happen to turn that 4-stars into 5.

If the comments are positive but the reviewer has left 3-stars or less, again, respond with gratitude but contact your customer to ask why. Sometimes they misunderstand the system or do not know what effect their rating has on your business.

If the customer is unreasonable.

Since Covid, we seem to live in an angrier world and business owners are reporting more unreasonable customers. Part of this is the rise in use of online services and recognition of the power of reviews. A negative review is a powerful weapon in the hands of a consumer.

If a customer has unreasonable expectations.

Sometimes the customer is unreasonable about expecting services you didn’t quote for and sometimes they are just in a bad mood or having a bad day. They can use their power to take it out on you and your business. The worst are those who use that power to try to avoid paying the final bill. I’ve recently heard from a client who has had this problem with a client who was in the police force. That is criminal but what do you do?

I know that the instinct is not to bow down to these tyrants or to hit back with an angry response but you have to think with your head not your heart when it comes to business if you want to grow. What is the cost of your response? If that review and/or your response will deter potential customers, the cost of your pride could be several thousand pounds and in the worst-case scenario, can lead to the downfall of your business.

You can only have a frank discussion with the customer to find out what the real issue is. Some will have a genuine grievance that they haven’t told you about. You know how children will say they have a tummy ache regardless of what is really bothering them? They don’t know how to express the real discomfort but they want you to know that they have a problem. Some customers are like that. They feel awkward about being honest. It’s up to you to make it comfortable for them to be honest with you

My rational advice is to give the customer what they want as long as it is reasonable. Like you, I find it painful to give in to unreasonable demands but the business comes first. Part of the cost of being in business is doing things you don’t want to do for the sake of the business.

How to Deal with False Reviews.

This image shows a message from a fake reviewer. I receive these regularly. There is no doubt that false reviews are out there. Don’t get involved as you are likely to get caught and your listing could be suspended. If you suspect competitors of faking reviews, leave them to it or report them. It will only be a matter of time before they are caught.

Clicking on that will take you to a list of reasons why the review may be inappropriate. All you can do from here is choose the reason why the review is inappropriate and trust Google to make the right judgement. When they notify you of their decision, you may have a chance to appeal.

The inappropriate review system has recently changed and is a bit inconsistent. never-the-less, start by reporting in this manner and see what happens. If the review is clearly spam, the process should be automatic. If in doubt, screenshot the review and email it to help@staging.growlocaluk.com and we will advise.

Last time I reported a review for a client, I received a call from Google asking me to explain why. The reason was that the negative review was for a different company with a similar name. We knew this because the review, mentioned a sign written van and my client doesn’t have vans of his own.

If you’ve done all you can, what’s next?

If your customer will not change their review and Google will not remove false reviews, you may just have to live with a negative review. All you can do is respond to it in a positive way so that anyone seeing your response will judge you as someone who cares about the business.

There is still the problem that your review average may be affected. The best way to deal with this is to make a concerted effort to ask for more reviews to dilute the negative review.