Negative Reviews: How to Win Them?

Basic Facts:

Are online reviews of your business important? According to BCJBranding’s statistics for 2023, yes. Why? 95% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase.

This data was analyzed from a pool of 60,000 customer records to identify how review management has changed in the last five years and how it will impact businesses in the future.

One of the most common findings is that people do not leave neutral reviews; they showcase either the highly positive or negative.

Highly negative reviews don’t mean poor service, however, it is the frustration of the reviewer that is exaggerated online.

The most common reasons for negative reviews are as follows:

• Customers leave negative reviews to improve their customer experience, possibly highlighting the weaknesses in your operational processes.

• They are trying to get a response on a specific issue that the operational team has not addressed yet.

• Customers may write negative reviews for social advocacy, warning potential customers to avoid having difficult experiences with your team.

• Lack of alternative communication channels or one SPOC may, in rare cases, lead to a negative review.

• Some customers believe that only public accountability may lead an organization to take serious action toward their concerns.

• In extremely rare cases, some customers may exaggerate their negative experiences in the form of a review to gain leverage and receive additional compensation; this is especially true for small businesses. However, it’s important to remember that these cases are the exception, not the rule.

Now that we have the Why’s of the negative reviews let’s delve deeper into how to win them:

The most important fact about negative reviews is that they increase your chances of being an authentic brand. This is not just based on the customer’s negative reviews but also on how you reply to them. Another important aspect of a negative review is that it shows your business as an authentic brand, as 82% of shoppers specifically seek negative reviews.

Now, to get to the best part, How to win the negative reviews:

• Look at the negative reviews and quickly categorize them into authentic and fake reviews.

• This categorization works better when you know how to deal with each category.

• The next step is to identify the customer experience as a case study to address authentic negative reviews.

• Pay close attention to what went wrong with the specific case. Understanding how you can quickly resolve the issue will help you identify the area of improvement.

• This also gives you a chance to increase your service recovery paradox by quickly addressing the negative review and finding a solution to convert a customer with a bad experience into a loyal, retaining customer.

• This step is important because it gives your customer a chance to edit or delete a negative review and turn it into a positive one if asked.

Now that we know what works let’s also look at what doesn’t.

• Once a review is posted, only two entities can remove the negative review: the customer who posted it and the review site.

• The best way to deal with an authentic review is to reply with a well-crafted response within 24-48 hours.

• The best way to deal with a fake review is to report it and ask the review website to take it down.

5 Most Important things to remember when dealing with Negative reviews

• Be polite in your review replies.

• Be prompt, as suggested earlier, and reply to all reviews within 24-48 hours of posting.

• Take the discussion offline to manage the service recovery paradox and solve the issue amicably.

• how improvement in customer experience and share how the team plans to solve the issue.

• Encourage feedback from all active clients, as this increases the brand’s authenticity.

The best way to prevent negative reviews is to monitor review websites at equal intervals. Create simple, well-crafted reply templates for quick response times.
One thing to remember is that negative reviews are an inevitable part of operating a business, but they don’t have to be detrimental. With the right and timely response, you can use criticism to build trust with your clients.