How to Come Out on Top When Dealing with Negative Reviews

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March 21, 2016

Monitoring
› In today’s environment, understanding what is being said is critical.
› For those with large number of social media mentions, monitoring/alerts need to be on the scale of hourly
› For longer term, like material on Google search, monitoring can often be weekly
› Only pay for what is really needed

Importance of Early Detection

› Early detection, removal can prevent crisis
› Prevent information from spreading to other sites
› Address problem before more negative reviews
› Many ISPs only keep identifying information for a few months, so waiting too long could prevent your ability to identify the attacker
› Want to consider removal before statute of limitations expires

Tools for Handling Negative Reviews When They Appear Online

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› Draft response to review, ask author to contact company to resolve situation.

Example # 1.
Thank you for your review and I'm sorry to hear that you feel the blades are not lasting as long as previously. We have numerous quality checks throughout our manufacturing process, so this is not something we would expect. It may be helpful to know that the item fading is just a guideline and we recommend changing the cartridge when it begins to feel dull.  If you would like, give us a call at 1-800-_________.

Example #2.
I'm very sorry to hear that your power button has fallen out, but happy to hear that you have been loving your experience with our razor! Our manufacturing process is such that it should not allow things like this to happen, and we will check into it right away. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We are always happy to speak with our consumers about anything, so if you would like, please give us a call at 1-800-________!

› Change business conduct causing negative reviews
› Reviews provide great consumer research.
› Top businesses are using the information to inform business decisions.
› Contact website, ask for removal if review violates terms of service.
› Yelp generally prohibits writing negative reviews about your competitors.
› Yelp’s Terms of Service: “You may expose yourself to liability if, for example, Your Content contains material that is false, intentionally
misleading, or defamatory…”
› Yelp’s Content Guidelines: “Don't publicize other people's private information … and please don't post other people's full names unless you're referring to service providers who are commonly identified by their full names.”

Develop Strategy for Responding To Disgruntled Customers/Threats

› Businesses need to be more carful because disgruntled customers have so much power.
› Customers try to blackmail business by threatening negative reviews.
• The business needs a plan for how to handle this.
• In most cases, conceding is better for the business than obtaining a bad review.

Carrot - Provide Disgruntled Customer With Replacement
› If the customer is unhappy with the service or product, offer to replace it.
› This often results in them changing the review.

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