Why do I need to worry about negative reviews?

Digital marketing consultants specialize in Online Reputation Management (ORM), often building brand reputations from the ground up, and usually only with positive measures. From time to time, however, it is necessary to manage negative feedback and repair damaged reputations. There are few things more disheartening for businesses than negative reviews. You work hard to keep your customers happy but, despite your best efforts, sometimes things go wrong, or there is a misunderstanding, and negative feedback is the natural result. 

A negative review, while damaging in the short term, is not always a bad thing when viewed from a broader perspective. Provided you manage negative reviews correctly, they present opportunities for learning and growth, as well as the chance to strengthen your connection with your customers. However, if you ignore them, or manage them poorly, you could face bigger problems later on – especially if you don’t take the chance to rectify the shortcomings that they bring to light. Here are some tips on how you could do that.  

Removing bad reviews from Google

While it is good to be optimistic and try to shake off a bad review, it can be fatal to your business to ignore one. According to the Spiegel Research Center, 95% of online consumers read reviews before making a purchase decision. Using reviews as part of your online marketing strategy increases your conversion rates by 270%. Does this necessarily mean that the presence of bad reviews will reduce your sales? That is a difficult question to answer. It depends on several factors, such as your average number of positive reviews compared to your number of negative ones, and the specifics of your products. The extent to which a negative review sways a potential buyer is highly variable and depends on the reader and the circumstances.

Besides, there are indications that a negative review or two (provided you also have several positive ones, of course) can actually be a good thing. The Spiegel Research Center findings indicate that customers spend four times longer engaging with negative reviews, with a 67% increase in conversion rate. Customers often report that a few negative reviews help provide depth and insight on a product and build credibility. Many consumers grow suspicious if they see only positive reviews for a product. Reading a negative one doesn’t necessarily dissuade them from purchasing the product, because they are smart enough to understand that one dissatisfied customer does not automatically prove that a product is bad. What it does do is make them trust your brand more, because you are willing to let them see both the good and the bad reactions of previous customers. Again, this depends on having a good number of positive reviews to offset the negative.

That being said, there are times when you may prefer to remove a negative review. Perhaps the review was thoroughly unjustified and based on a genuine error or misunderstanding that was later resolved. It might contain material that is defamatory, deliberately fake or just plain wrong. It is possible to remove bad reviews from Google in these cases. 

What about “reputation management” companies, who claim to remove bad reviews?

Many businesses turn to online reputation management companies to make their bad reviews disappear. There is no shortage of these companies, some of them better than others. A good reputation management agency can offer several benefits, depending on the tactics they use. If they apply themselves properly, they can help you improve customer satisfaction by gaining insight into what is working and what isn’t. They can increase positive perceptions of your brand, and they can help make you a more effective player by analyzing your market and competitors. 

All of these benefits depend on deep engagement with your business, clientele, and market. Simply erasing bad reviews is not a solution on its own. If you decide to take online reputation management services, you should never do so just to get rid of negative reviews. In fact, you can sometimes manage your reputation more effectively by leaving the bad reviews where they are and addressing them directly.  

What are my options for dealing with bad reviews?

The key to dealing with bad reviews effectively is always to be responsive, never reactive. After receiving negative feedback, you may want to bend over backwards to appease the customer. You may simply want to make the review go away, or you may want to take disciplinary action against a staff member who could have potentially mishandled the transaction. One or all of these may be valid, depending on the circumstances. Still, the important thing is to take a step back and consider the content of the review carefully. What can you learn from it? What needs to change, if anything? Think about how you can leverage this review to boost your services and reputation, rather than merely viewing it as an attack against which you need to protect yourself. Once you and your marketing team have given it some thought, you could respond in one of the following four ways.

1. Repair your business

Having honestly assessed what the customer has said, what do you think it says about your business? Is it completely unfair or has it highlighted a problem that you can now rectify? A bad review can be a gift. There is a strong possibility that other customers have had the same negative experience but have not spoken up about it. This one, vociferous, unhappy client could be doing you a favour. You now have a golden opportunity to identify a fault, amend it, and come out better and stronger.

2. Erase negative reviews

Sometimes, however, you may feel that the review simply is not justified and is doing unwarranted damage to your reputation. In this case, there are options to erase them, which differ from platform to platform. When it comes to Google, there is the possibility of filing policy violation reports (more details on that below). Here are some other platforms that allow you to erase negative feedback.

Angie’s List remains one of the most trusted consumer review sites in North America, which means that a glowing review on the platform could do wonders for your brand. At the same time, a negative one could be devastating. There are three ways of having a review removed from the site: flagging the post as a terms violation, engaging directly with the poster and asking them to remove it, or taking legal action to have the review taken down. 

Insider Pages follows a similar set of rules to Angie’s List. You can report abuse to the site, and they then assess the review against their Terms and Conditions. If they find that there has been a violation, they will remove review promptly.

On Google My Business, you simply access your profile, click on the link that shows the number of reviews you have and click on the review in question. You then click ‘Flag as inappropriate’ and select from a dropdown list of violation types. It takes about a week for Google My Business to assess the review.

3. Respond to negative reviews

Where there is no clear violation in a negative review, the best thing to do is to respond to it directly. Do your best to resolve the customer’s complaint and you might find that they amend or remove the review themselves. Start by apologizing and showing sympathy for the customer’s negative experience. Acknowledge their concerns and show a willingness to make amends. Keep the communication short and try to move it offline if you can. Very often, you will find that all disgruntled customer needs is a little bit of personal attention.

4. Bury negative reviews

Taking steps to remove a review should be something you do only if it violates the platform’s rules or defames you in some way. When it is genuine, it is best to approach it head-on. Start by reaching out to the customer and seeing if there is a way you can resolve the complaint. If you can fix the problem, reach out to them and ask if they still feel the same way about your company. You may be able to get them to edit the review or take it down entirely. In this way, you have engaged directly with the customer, thus providing good service that will improve your reputation. You have gained valuable insight into your customers’ needs. At the same time, you have legitimately reversed a bad review. 

Is it a fake review? Respond anyway

Even if the review is fake, it is still worth your while to respond. Fake reviews mean that someone out there is deliberately trying to harm your business. You can respond by taking the higher ground. Answer the query as if it were genuine – do so on a public platform where other customers can see the interaction. Offer to replace the product (which they probably haven’t bought anyway) or give a full refund. Show a willingness to deliver excellent service and show the trolls up for what they are. You can use your social media platforms here, giving fans and loyal customers to pitch in with their own positive opinions about you and your products. 

The 9 Google Review Violations that can Remove a Google Review

As mentioned above, Google has nine criteria that qualify as violations of their terms and conditions and which you can cite to have a review taken down. They are as follows:

1. Spam and fake content: Google takes a very dim view of spam and fake reviews, as do most online platforms. It has automatic filters in place to keep them out, but some still get through. You can flag these and bring them to Google’s attention. 

2. Multiple negative reviews from the same person: People sometimes use multiple accounts to leave more than one review for a business. Doing so is against Google’s terms and conditions and you can flag these reviews for removal.

3. Inappropriate content, profanity, and racial terms: Profanity, racial slurs or similar inappropriate content is grounds for immediate removal.

4. Fraudulent reviews from competitors: In cases where you know a competitor has posted a bad review purely to hurt your reputation, you are well within your rights to flag the review. One tell-tale sign of this is when a person posts negative reviews about several companies in the same area and industry, and then leaves one excellent review on a particular business.

5. Oops! Wrong business. A customer may make a mistake and accidentally leave a review for you that was actually meant for somebody else. You will see this when the review seems to be talking about products that are unrelated to yours. You could respond directly to the review yourself, or you could flag it.

6. Leaving reviews at locations they didn’t visit: If you have a multi-location business, watch out for customers who post bad reviews about your branches that are well outside of the customer’s area. Whoever this person is, they are just launching a general attack on your brand, rather than addressing a particular experience.

7. Reviews that aren’t relevant to actual experience: Reviews are supposed to express first-hand experiences of your products or services. If people post comments about something they heard from a friend or something they read in an article, that is not a valid review, and you can have it taken down.

8. Inappropriate Images: People are allowed to submit reviews in the form of photos but the images in question need specifically to depict the experiences to which the review is referring. 

9. Reviews from current or former employees: Whether the review is good or bad, it violates Google’s guidelines if it is posted by an employee or former employee, as this is a clear conflict of interest. 

How to flag a Google review for Removal

Flagging a review for violating Google’s terms and conditions is very simple. Just follow these steps:

1. Find your business location on Google Maps.
2. Click on your business to see the reviews. Select ‘All Reviews’
3. Click the three dots on the top right corner of the offending review and select ‘Flag as inappropriate.’
4. Fill out the ‘Report a Policy Violation’ form and submit.

Amplify the Positive — Request for More Reviews

The best way to deal with bad reviews, aside from approaching the posters directly and learning from the experience, is to offset the negatives with more positive reviews. It isn’t difficult to gather positive online reviews. You can do so by following a few simple strategies:

• Ask your customers for reviews: When you know a customer is happy with your product, ask them to submit a review.

• Create incentives for reviews: This tactic should be used with caution. You can sometimes attract positive reviews by offering a discount on the next purchase or a similar small token. Be sure not to do this with an indifferent or dissatisfied customer, however. The point is to incentivize a happy customer to give feedback, not to make an unhappy customer appear happier.

• Post excellent reviews on all your platforms: One good review can prompt others. If someone reads good feedback on your Facebook newsfeed, they may be triggered to share a similar experience.

• Respond to negative reviews: As we’ve already seen, negative reviews can be turned around into positive ones if you approach unhappy customers and address their complaints. 

Request Reviews through Email

Review requests should be an integral part of your sales funnels. As the final step in a sale, it is a great idea to send out an email to recent buyers, asking them to post a review of the product or services they have just bought. When doing so, be sure to make it brief and let customers feel like it would be an easy thing to do. Frame your request politely and make sure that customers know that you know they would be doing a favour by posting the review. Finally, make sure that your request is in line with, and reinforces your brand.

The bottom line is that you shouldn’t necessarily worry about negative reviews, but you certainly need to deal with them and use the opportunities they provide to strengthen your service and brand.

Professional digital marketing consulting

Do you need help with your online marketing, from generating a great digital marketing strategy to dealing with negative reviews? Contact our team of digital marketing consultants for more information.