We've all seen them, negative business reviews. From yelp to google to Angie's List - people make their opinions known. Whether these are positive, glowing reviews or a horrible, scathing negative review, people judge your business based on these reviews. The good news? There are actually positives about negative reviews of your business!
We know you want to see nothing but happy customers and awesome things said about your facility and your employees - so what's a business owner to do when the reviews are anything but positive? Read on.
How Negative Reviews Affect Business
Naturally, when you encounter a less than stellar review of your business the initial reaction is to become defensive. When faced with these reviews many owners choose to ignore the reviews or blame the customers. It is normal to react in this way, but instead you should consider whether there is a way to get your happy, satisfied customers to leave their feedback. Maybe an incentive - like a free wash or a day of free drying - can get those customers to leave their feedback for potential customers to find. Choose this as an opportunity to not only drown out the negative nay-sayers but to grow your business as well. Incentives for your loyal customers increase their loyalty to your brand. Who doesn't want that?
Instead of being offended by those negative reviews - choose to be intrigued. Is the person writing this review uncovering a hole or flaw in your business? Read deeper into the review. Did they come in during a busy time and find no machines open? It might be time to expand or rearrange machines to make room for more. Were there lots of machines out of order? Consider investing in a routine maintenance plan for your machines so that there are fewer machines down. Complaints about a specific employee? Use this as an opportunity to host a training day for your employees to implement new customer service procedures and to help them hone their customer service skills. Years ago customer satisfaction surveys told owners this valuable information. Today, reviews on the internet are the new barometer by which business owners need to be measuring their performance.
The biggest positive to negative reviews is that potential customers get to watch your customer service in action. Instead of ignoring the review, answer it honestly and head on. Acknowledge the customers complaint and address the problem. Offer to help the customer remedy the situation and then contact them directly. People will be watching to see what you do. Show them that you don't run from issues - you handle them reasonably and fairly. Even if you resolved the issue in person with the complainant, go back online and respond to the review with a summary of how you handled the situation. This type of reaction builds trust with potential and existing customers. It also shows that you take pride in your business and take customer issues seriously.
Recent research has shown that 88 percent of customers trust online reviews as much as they do personal recommendations. With that in mind, you as a business owner, owe it to yourself and your business to turn every negative review into an opportunity to improve. A staggering 72 percent of customers say that a positive review makes them trust a business more - another reason to incentivize your happy and loyal customers to post their own reviews of your business.
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