Leggo Your Ego
I am a curious student and find myself reading Google reviews frequently. The higher the ticket, the more the Google reviews have an impact on my purchase decision. I have to imagine I am not the only seeker of that online social proof out there. Recently in my browsing I have noticed this trend where business owners see the Google review reply as an opportunity to respond to their customers in the worst possible manner.
This is a trend I have been following for a while now, but the inspiration for today's tidbit came from a company we will keep anonymous. The company has a 4.2 on Google and every single one of the negative reviews revolve around the owner who is called out by name in the reviews. This owner’s ego must be larger than life, for they felt the only way to handle the negative publicity was to respond to the reviewers with legal jargon and nothing but a defensive attitude. Maybe my observation is incorrect, but as I read the reviews there seemed to be a negative trend all centered around the owner. Because of this trend, I decided to scope out the competitor’s Google reviews instead.
The moral of the story is this: just because you have the ability doesn’t mean you need to take the opportunity. In business, Google reviews and their responses are crucial to the next six to eight months of work. The responses need to be crisp, match the tone of your company’s brand, and outline a customer experience that matches what you are selling.
Today's tidbit: How to handle negative reviews and spin them in a positive manner.
1. Acknowledge your mistakes in front of your audience. When someone is so frustrated that they take to the internet to leave a review then something had to go wrong with your delivery of services or product. In your response admit that you were wrong for all of the other potential customers watching. Most reasonable customers know a company is going to make mistakes and it is how you handle those mistakes that set you apart. So acknowledge those mistakes.
2. Apologize to the reviewer again. You probably already have had a conversation with the reviewing customer in question, but now is the time to go back and say it for the benefit of the potential customers reading that you apologized. Let them know that you are sincerely sorry for the lack of service. Leave the ego at the door.
3. Provide them the opportunity for you to give it one more shot. No one is ever lost. I often tell my employees if we can handle the hardest customer, it makes it easy handling the customers that don’t complain. So give them one more shot, show the reader that you are relentless at getting better and making the customer experience top notch. Offer a phone number for the customer to use in order to discuss further solutions or outline a new idea for a resolution.
Some of this may seem trivial but go read the reviews of a company that's scoring a 4.5 or less on Google. You will see patterns in the reviews and some crazy responses from businesses or owners. It doesn’t have to be this way. If you are reading this and haven’t been responding to every. single. one. of your online reviews, take the time to learn how to respond on Google, Facebook, Yelp, or wherever else your customers are talking about you. Remember, we respond, not for the reviewing customer, but for the potential customer who’s looking for that sense of online social proof. Customers want to see you using the technology as it is designed and they want to see how you respond to both the best and worst reviews. If you are responding how I suggested above then your prospective clients get to be the judge and jury.
Enjoy,
