NEGATIVE ONLINE REVIEWS - WHAT TO DO?
Consumer opinions. Good ones? You love them. Bad but balanced? Hate to see them, but try to listen and learn, right? But, when they’re both bad AND unfair? They make you boiling mad and defensive!Why? Because you know you did all you could to help solve their issue. Your people went above and beyond the call of duty and handled the customer with respect, care and kindness. You bent your normal store policies for them.
And, yet, they are still unhappy! Why? They didn’t get what they wanted.
In the past, you knew this customer was one that, unfortunately (but not for lack of trying) might be one of the few that was going to be (at least for a while) unhappy with your store. What could they do to REALLY hurt your business? They could talk about their unhappiness with their friends over a meal, they could write the Better Business Bureau, they could go on TV.
In my 20 years of retail, no matter how unhappy a customer was with a store where I worked, I never saw one of them - even after much threatening to do so - go to the BBB or to the local TV station. I even saw that, when they calmed down over time, they came back and bought again!
Today, though, it is a completely different story for retailers. Now, this very unhappy and frustrated and unfair customer can do more damage to your business in 1 day than you ever thought possible. How?
Through using social media.
I hear you saying, ” Come on, Leslie, how are they really going to hurt my overall business - even if they’re really angry and use social media to tell their friends?”
Here’s the answer: Google.
Google indexes in REAL TIME now, Facebook Page comments and Twitter. Real time, not 3 months after the comment is made, but real time. Those negative comments index permanently. You can’t get rid of them.
Google also has decided (much to the chagrin of many retailers) that negative opinions about your store or product are important to consumers typing in the keywords of what they are searching for and so, if you don’t have a strategy in place to move those negative opinions down to the second page of organic Google search results (and this can be done, by the way) , ANY negative opinions about your store or the products you carry will be on the first page of Google organic search results when consumers are searching for what you have to sell.
No matter how true. No matter how untrue. No matter how unfair. No matter how old. YIKES!
What’s a retailer to do? Call me. No, seriously, this is a MAJOR issue, a new paradigm and calls for three things:
1. You must train your staff on how media that is free and social has given all of the power of your brand’s equity over to the consumer. (I know this makes a lot of people upset and angry, but it’s already happened and it’s not something anyone of us can stop. It is a given.)
2. You must re-align your customer service completely around the customer and not think of it as a “cost center to be managed.” It is not this anymore. It is now a significant revenue center for your business - if your unhappy (and unfair) customers are so well treated that they become advocates - online and offline - for your brand and tell their friends about it.
3. The strategic building of your online reputation.
There is NOTHING as powerful for your brand as a customer who in their heart of hearts knows they have lied to you, taken advantage of your normal policies and treated you unfairly online to get their way, but then gets what they want. It is just this “unfair” customer who will end up being your biggest brand ambassador and will generate more revenue for you through word of mouth than you ever could have “saved” by not caving in.
Will you know this customer has done this for you? Not necessarily. Will you know if they’re still unhappy? Ask Google.
Adelphia commented:
Way to go on this essay, helepd a ton.
Hessy commented:
I'm sohkced that I found this info so easily.
Jeff Frank commented:
A word of caution if you are trying to get your good customers to contradict a negative review -- you are probably OK if you stick to local review sites like Merchant Circle. However, if your customer base is nationwide you may run into problems. The major national review sites like Yelp.com, rateitall.com and my3cents.com use sophisticated filtering software for incoming reviews. If they receive multiple 4 star or 5 star reviews coming in from customers who are first time reviewers the chances are very high that those reviews will be filtered out and will not appear on their websites. In addition if they suspect that the customers were directed to them by your company, that is an automatic disqualification.
honest campowner commented:
I have had the experience of a vindictive customer (he was evicted for fighting, being drunk, and finally smoking crack on our family campground property) go home and blitz the internet with outright lies about our small business establishment. Those postings still exist and anyone thinking of patronizing our camping grounds can easily read it. The comments were been seen by many pre-booked incoming customers who mentioned it to us recently on arrival, and if course we don't for sure exactly know how many cancellation or drive-bys were caused by it, but I truly believe many did as well. It all came as a shock to us, in our low-tech business, just happily running our place with happy people camping. We were so unprepared for such an attack, it actually caused a lot of upset and stress for us as well as longtime staff who were hurt by the comments, because nobody did anything wrong at all. After trying to have to the bad posts removed (unsucessful) and reading over the review sites' policies, it seems now we will now have to spend extra energy and time out of our very busy day serving our customers, to bother our 99.9% happy customers to please make time in their day to go to thier computer (if they have one) and post a review about their good experiences with us. Our business depends on travelling public, and having just one horrible review sitting online, without any positive reviews would definitely hurt us. So I have to take on this extra task plus feel a bit uncomfortable to try and solicit customers to go online and post on our behalf, as I feel this is extra work for them too. But what else can I do? It's obviously not enough anymore to have good ratings by professional inspectors, and great word of mouth by repeat customers. It is very unfair to a business to have some of their good patronage publicly trashed by one crazy person. It seems bizarre that now, with all these review sites on the interned, every person in the world is magically authorized to analyze and inspect us like the trained tourism authorities used to (at least they had training in our industry standards, requirements for comfort, health, cleanliness, etc). How is it that anyone can say whatever they feel like and lie about someone elses livelihood with no repercussions at all? It is like the wild west. I think that at the very least, if the review site will not identify the person complaining, or remove untrue reviews on request by management, then they should at least have a policy of removing negative reviews every 6 months or so. At least there would be a a fair turnover for the companies that rarely get reviews. Also I think all reviews should include a reply button for managers to counter the bad review with their own facts of the customer's transaction. In future I would like to see persons who give false bad reviews should be required to identify themselves-even just to the review site - who would hold their name unless required to be released by legal means, that would inhibit those purposely defaming innocent business owners. Hopefully the laws will catch up with the speed of technology and cowards and liars will no longer have free rein over the honest working people.
www.SofasAndSectionals.com commented:
As an online retailer, I can tell you that negative reviews along with positive add credibility to your company. Obviously you want the positive to significantly outweigh the negative, but to have a mix, whether its out there in the webosphere, or on a review portion of your site, adds an authentic touch to your profile. Negative reviews can also be informative to prospective customers on what they should be watching out for...it does not necessarily put them off provided its not a blanket type bad review. There is a fine balance where negative tips over and becomes destructive.
leslie carothers commented:
Hi Bella: I own The Kaleidoscope Partnership (www.tkpartnership.com) a social media agency for the home furnishings and related industries. Social media is a critical component in managing a business's online reputation as it allows for positive keyword enriched content to move up on Google to displace the negative online reviews and move them down off the first page of organic search rankings.
Bella commented:
Leslie, which company are you working in?
Stephen VP Sales commented:
The internet is a double-edged sword. It provides industry avenues to reach consumers in more ways than ever. It also provides consumers a 'platform' to respond to poor customer service. For generations, unhappy consumers had no vehicle to reach out to other prospective buyers and warn of less than professional service. As merchants, we can be vigilant and pro-active in many ways...RESPOND to negative posts offering solutions. But far more important...if we are diligent...and provide exceptional service and more important (r.e. this issue) maintain some post/sale contact with the consumer to ensure their satisfaction...this issue...is a non-issue. The customer is not always right...but never...ever...let them know that...
Southerngirl commented:
I'm so glad to find this discussion! Unfortunatley not enough "middle class/"average consumer" gets to sound off to you furniure buyers/suppliers! I have recently bought very expensive Lexington furniture. It has all had to be replaced because of "season splits". Before that, 3 years ago, a very expensive Tommy Bahama wood frame couch had to be replaced because of "season splits"! I love the furniture company I deal with, as I have had no problem with them, so far, but I am almost feeling sorry for them! I know "in my heart of hearts", as was used in the article we're referencing, that I did NOT lie to my furniture company about anything! All of the furniture that has had to be replaced, was from overseas! The furniture (leather sofa/ottoman/chair) I bought that was made here, in North Carolina, we had no problems with! Because of this fact, I had a piece made for my NC made Sofa, that fits perfectly behind it, and holds all of our family pictures safely. Also we bought a flip-flop table made up north(NY state)from their hard maple. It also, is sturdy, heavy, and sound with no "season splits"! We made sure $9000 worth of hickory flooring was made here (Virginia) My daughter and son-in-law are purchasing only North Carolina or US made furniture for their new home. I may have only spent about $30,000 in the last 5 years, but I worked very hard for that money! It will stay here, in the States, from now on, when my family buys furniture. .....do ya'll see where this is going? (P.S. Yes, I understand properly seasoned wood for furniture...my g-grandfather was a North Carolina furniture maker-we have a professionally maintained humidifier with our heat pump)
Heath Combs commented:
Once on Amazon I posted a negative review about a product I didn't receive from a shipper. The company personally got in touch with me, corrected the problem, and Amazon allows you to remove bad reviews that you've posted if you need to, which I did. So yes, they can disappear. (kinda stinks you can't do that with google, or so it sounds like) I've also had the opposite happen and really ripped a company online whose customer service was terrible who'd delivered a faulty product. They pretty much did nothing to help. This was for a $15 purchase too, mind you. I did go to the BBB (three of them actually), and I forwarded X company on those emails so they'd know the stink I was raising. I continued to get form emails that pretty much said nothing from the offending company. After more than a month they refunded my money, but it was such a hassle. (this was over Christmas gift too)
I make sure to never order from them when I see my seller options now.
If there's a check, there ought to be a balance, even if it's online. As a customer I try to make a balanced decision based on the comments I see, not just make a call off the first bad one.
Anybody seen complaintsboard . com?
leslie carothers commented:
Thank you Richard and Gina for your comments!
It's a shame, but what you are both saying is,unfortunately, the new reality of business for all brands-big and small-including our personal "brands", as well. We, as owners, but also as consumers, are really completely in charge of a company's reputation.
This is why it is SO IMPORTANT to train your entire internal team to understand this new paradigm so they understand the implications of their customer interactions.
In this new world, customer service, marketing, sales, PR, etc. are all areas that need to be released from their "silos." They now all interlock since they are all consumer facing and the online consumer has the power to amplify both the good interactions and, unfortunately, the bad.
Sales managers may never know what hit them if a customer service team is having negative customer interactions and those same customers are amplifying that displeasure through social media channels.
This isn't something, either, that is immediately apparent to a CEO or company owner. It's a slow leak which aggregates over time into hundreds of negative online reviews.
What does this mean? It means that, when a customer is searching by keyword for what you have to sell, the first things they will see are all the negative comments.
Do you think that consumer will know enough to say to themselves "Oh, that's just a few crazy consumers and this company is really a great company in general?"
Maybe. But, chances are, those negative reviews will encourage them to look elsewhere for what they want to buy. After all, "why take a chance?
I think, Richard, your idea of asking happy customers to post positive reviews on online opinion sites like Yelp, Google, etc. is exactly spot on. For a company doing this well, look to Gallery Furniture in Houston as an example.
Social media is the vehicle to positive online reputation management-positive content is the key that turns on the engine.
Richard Sexton commented:
Bravo for addressing this issue which hangs over our heads like the Sword of Damocles! Among our many challenges as retailers is this new one: Do we do what we know is fair and right? Or do we let customers dictate our policies in return for not posting a negative review? In the long run, it is better to avoid any negative reviews because, as Leslie correctly points out, these reviews NEVER disappear. So consider it the cost of "reputation management" and move on. Of course, some bad reviews may appear no matter what you do, so having a strategy in place to deal with it proactively is a big help. Having your friend post false reviews is not one of those strategies, but asking happy customers to post reviews is certainly a good initiative.
Gina McClung commented:
How many times has a customer become enraged over a misunderstanding. After a few hours they calm down you reexplain what you said the first time, they understand and everybody is happy. Not anymore, now they can spend the hours needed to calm down completely trashing your reputation, your company and your products. Damage Done.
