By AIYA Marketing 06.06.2022
The Impact of Online Reviews
AIYA Marketing Agency
As a business owner, you're no stranger to the concept of negative reviews. These reviews can seriously impact your business. Every time a negative review pops up on Google searches, you have the potential to lose customers. Forbes revealed that roughly 90% of all customers conduct research about a business online before making a purchasing decision and 84% of these customers trust online reviews as much as they do a recommendation from a friend or family member.
To better understand how negative reviews can bring damages to business regardless of sizes, let's look at some major significant downside effects:
Undermine Business Reputation
For business owners, reputation is as important as business revenue and profits. Negative reviews have the power to damage your hard-earned reputation because one negative review has many times the impact that one positive review does. Potential customers lose trust and hesitate to purchase from a business with a bad reputation and questionable credibility.
Low Search Engine Ranking
Google's search algorithm and ranking system are based on many factors, and online review rating is one of the them. Negative review ratings make your business to rank poorly because they lower your rating while search engine algorithms recommended the highest-rated businesses first in search results. Ultimately, low ranking leads to fewer potential customers finding your website and engaging with your business.
Drive Customers Away
Negative reviews tends to drive away customers from your business to your competitors. In most cases, customers have several choices when it comes to making a purchase. Why would they choose a business with bad reputation over other highly recommended ones? Forbes has shown that one negative review alone will typically drive away 22% of customers. In other words, an estimated two out of every ten customers are driven away by just one negative review.
Loss of Revenue/Profit
According to Womply research, bad reviews on Google, Facebook, Womply research, bad Step 3: Apologize After acknowledging the issue and appreciating the reviewer, you should offer an apology. Not only does an apology appease the customer, but it also shows others that you care about providing a high quality service. Here's an example: “We apologize that our service did not satisfy your expectations. We aim to do our best to providing excellent service to all customers. Your satisfaction is our number one priority.”Your apology should be sincere and demonstrates that your business sets a high standard and intends to serve.
Step 4: Provide an Explanation In order to clear up misunderstanding for particular reviewer, you'll need to provide more information to address the situation. However, don't try to make excuses and take responsibility instead. Here's an example of an in-depth explanation: “We experienced a serious technical issue with our online ordering system, which caused us to lose valuable information about our online order. As a result, your order was messed up...”After clearing up and addressing the issue, you should give them reassurance that the same issue will never occur and encourage the reviewer to give your business another chance.
Step 5: Compensate the Reviewer Appropriately At the end, it is recommended to encourage the customer to com back to your business again by offering compensation such as 20% credit on their next purchase or service. It is much more incentive than a simple apology. Example: 1. Discount on next visit/purchase 2. Complimentary gift In the digital era, online reviews either drive customers to your business or to your competitors. Responding to a negative review is part of maintaining your business reputation. If you ignore negative reviews, customers are unlikely to return and may continue to share their negative feelings with others offline, which causes further damage to your business's reputation in the community. If you would like to be proactive and keep negative feedback offline with a simple solution, get in touch with us to learn more.
Contact: (888) 622-0811reviews on Google, Facebook, and Yelp have a significant effect on business revenue. Statistically, a business with a 1-1.5 star rating reports 33% less revenue than one with a rating on the higher end. Forbes also reports that 94% of customers avoid a business with bad reviews and low rating. Negative reviews will not only do harm to your business reputation, they will also affect business revenue and profit.
Tips on How to Respond to Negative Reviews
Creating a good reputation requires careful effort, sometimes taking months or even years to establish. Not responding to negative reviews tells potential customers that you don't care about your reputation and your customers. Acknowledge their review and thank the customers for their feedback. This shows that you have class and a willingness to improve and respect the customer's time.
Step 1: Get Access To Respond
Before responding a negative reviews, you should understand and get access to these review platforms. Here are some of the most popular online platforms that customers are likely to commend on:
Each platform has its own process for business owner to claim business profiles and manage online review. But don't worry! There are detailed steps on each platform for your reference.
Step 2: Acknowledge the Issue
Whenever you encounter a negative review from Google,Facebook,Yelp or other reviewing sites, it's important to acknowledge the issue that is brought up by the review. For example, you can start your response like: “Dear Customer, Thank you for providing your feedback and informing us about this issue.”Appreciate the customer for bringing the situation to your attention, even if you think that there is some misunderstanding or the reviewer is being too critical.
Step 3: Apologize After acknowledging the issue and appreciating the reviewer, you should offer an apology. Not only does an apology appease the customer, but it also shows others that you care about providing a high quality service. Here's an example: “We apologize that our service did not satisfy your expectations. We aim to do our best to providing excellent service to all customers. Your satisfaction is our number one priority.”Your apology should be sincere and demonstrates that your business sets a high standard and intends to serve.
Step 4: Provide an Explanation In order to clear up misunderstanding for particular reviewer, you'll need to provide more information to address the situation. However, don't try to make excuses and take responsibility instead. Here's an example of an in-depth explanation: “We experienced a serious technical issue with our online ordering system, which caused us to lose valuable information about our online order. As a result, your order was messed up...”After clearing up and addressing the issue, you should give them reassurance that the same issue will never occur and encourage the reviewer to give your business another chance.
Step 5: Compensate the Reviewer Appropriately
At the end, it is recommended to encourage the customer to com back to your business again by offering compensation such as 20% credit on their next purchase or service. It is much more incentive than a simple apology.
Example: 1. Discount on next visit/purchase 2. Complimentary gift
In the digital era, online reviews either drive customers to your business or to your competitors. Responding to a negative review is part of maintaining your business reputation. If you ignore negative reviews, customers are unlikely to return and may continue to share their negative feelings with others offline, which causes further damage to your business's reputation in the community. If you would like to be proactive and keep negative feedback offline with a simple solution, get in touch with us to learn more.
Contact: (888) 622-0811
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