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And there you have it, the one review that would kill the perfect score of your business just made it to your listing.
Whether you like it or not, bad reviews will always be part of your business, no matter how outstanding your product and service is.
An honest mistake, a misunderstanding, a really bad service experience or just a moody client having a bad day. The reasons behind a user leaving a bad review would make a never-ending list.
There are different ways to solve a bad review, but every case is also different. In this post, I’ll go through the most common ways to take the bad out of a bad review.
Before You Start
1) Get all the information you need to know about the review you want to have cleaned. Analyze your review closely.
2) Know what not to do and not to count on. Taking legal action as an option is easy, but it would do more harm than good. A lawsuit is not applicable in most cases, and a follow-up might expensively lead to nowhere.
How to Fix a Bad Review?
1) Reply, and Do it Quickly
Most review platforms like Facebook, Google my Business, Yelp, and Angie’s List allow you to reply to the negative review directly. Write a clear response to your upset customer, an explanation of what exactly happened, or a sincere apology if the fault falls on your business. Take real reviews as an opportunity to improve your product/service.
2) Bury it 10 Feet Underground
Well, not literally, but if you have enough good reviews to outdo the bad one, your customers will oversee the “Lone Star”.
3) Get Some Dirt to Bury Your Review
If you are like most businesses, you most likely won’t have that many reviews, even for successful businesses like yours. Encourage some reviews from your satisfied customers, but make sure to follow the guidelines.
For example, Yelp does not encourage reviews, you can only go as far as saying we are on Yelp.
4) Ask Them If You Can Make Them Change Their Mind
If the review is not clear enough, ask for details about their service experience, offer an apology and compensation if needed. Be professional.
5) Ask Them to Remove the Bad Review
Same as before, reach out to the client and get an explanation, after all, you are meant to take all criticism coming from your customers. And if possible, ask nicely to please remove the review.
6) Have the Review Removed from the Page
Sometimes an angry customer might have left a review for the incorrect business and yours was the unlucky one that took the heat, or simply the review makes absolutely no sense. Review the guidelines for the page and ask them to remove the review, if they can’t or won’t (which is more likely to happen), use the REPLY option to let readers know that the review is not related to you.
7) Create a Social Following
This is more of a way to prevent a bad review from appearing, but it can help you get fewer bad reviews to affect your overall rating. Have your customers, friends, and followers know about you through social media and make them like you. Bottom line, no one would talk bad about a good friend, would they?
8) Promote the Site That Has the Best Reviews
Sometimes, you don’t even know which of your listings are the ones claimed, or the three low-score reviews are on that account you no longer have access to. Direct your customers to the right listing, use your website and social profiles to do so.
Be on Top of Your Online Reputation
Keep Your Business Profiles up to Date
Stay on top of new reviews and duplicate listings. If for example, you hire reputation management service, and they won’t let you know which listings they claimed, you can run the risk of creating a new one and end up with duplicate profiles.
Don’t Act Impulsively
Respond quickly to your review but take the time to think about it first. It’s better to leave a late reply than an unprofessional one.
After all reviews good or bad leave you with insights for your business. take advantage of them to improve the areas of your business that need to be taken care of or get new ideas to make your customers happier.
