Lori Shepherd, founder of 25SecondsPR, has worked for 15-plus years as a public relations/communications strategist in the Silicon Valley area. As a guest columnist, she’ll be sharing on Moguldom.com her perspective on inclusion in the tech sphere, her insights about emerging tech innovators making a difference, and veteran innovators who already have. Why 25 Seconds? “25 seconds tops is the time a public relations professional has to pique an influencer’s attention with a compelling pitch,” Lori says. Email Lori at lori@25secondspr.com.
It happened to me. My 25SecondsPR office received a voice message last year from a person seeking directions to a building where I share office space in downtown Oakland, California.
He was calling for directions to attend a job interview at 25SecondsPR — a job interview I never scheduled nor a job that existed. Within minutes of this person leaving the voice message, he also left a Google+ notification business rating for my business. It was a 1-Star rating. I was livid.
After a little investigation, I discovered that the person who left the rating intended to leave it for another company. Not mine.
Despite the mistake and pleas to Google to remove it, the low rating is still quite visible to date.
Welcome to the odd business practice of online reviews, where deserved or not, ratings wield unfair power.
Whether you run a conventional brick-and-mortar enterprise or operate entirely in virtual space, negative online reviews are a reality and an inevitability you will have to deal with at some point. And, not just occasionally, but often and repeatedly.
It’s simply a fact of life: there are dozens of sites on the Internet, either locally- or nationally-based, where your customers can share their thoughts about your business’s performance (or lack thereof).
Potential customers know this and may very well go searching for these reviews before they decide to patronize your website or establishment. They are especially likely to search for this
information if you’re running a business online since you don’t have a physical location to visit where they can check you out for themselves.
So how should you handle unfavorable or even hostile online reviews? Just ignore them and hope that doing a good job will be rewarded in the end?
No, this is what you absolutely should not do. In my situation, I took the opportunity to engage a PR tactic of addressing the review head on. I even appealed to the company for which the bad review was intended, which worked out favorably.
When it happens to you, know that as long as the site hosting the review allows you to respond, you should do so, and as quickly as possible after the review appears.
Here are some tips on how to answer those less-than-glowing reviews from past customers.
When you get a bad review, you should confront its content but not the reviewer. Never let it get personal. Address the complaint directly and explain what went wrong (if anything did) and promise that you’ll do everything in your power to make sure such a problem never arises again.
If a negative review is particularly nasty you should still respond, but in those cases, a simple, straightforward apology is probably the best approach.
In instances of racist feedback on Yelp, Google+ and other rating platforms, you should promptly report them so that they’re reviewed and removed. Conducting yourself with dignity will make the best impression possible in these circumstances.
You want to provide answers and explanations, but even if you think a review is unfair or over-the-top, your responses should not be aggressive, accusatory or overly detailed. Stay calm, be direct, keep it brief and stay on point, in a conversational and friendly tone.
Instead of defensiveness, you should exude confidence. It will help convey the message that you’re on top of things and unlikely to make the same mistake twice.
Occasionally you may run across a reviewer with an axe to grind. But in instances when negative reviews meant something did go wrong in your interactions with a customer, you must be ready to accept responsibility for that. The customer may not always be right, but they should always be taken seriously, and if you can’t find a way to admit culpability you won’t be able to learn anything new or helpful.
Rather than being offended, you should see negative reviews as vital feedback that offer opportunities to improve your customer service and overall business performance—because that’s exactly what they are.
Talk about negative reviews with staff and employees to see if you can get to the bottom of what occurred. Try to identify any specific incidents or situations that led to conflict or
misunderstanding before responding, so the reviewer (and other readers) will know you took the charges seriously and were determined to find answers.
If you determine an employee was at fault, don’t hang them out to dry in public. It is better to take responsibility for the problem yourself before apologizing and assuring the reviewer that you’ve taken steps to address their concerns and prevent future trouble. Even if the complainant has no plans to do business with you again, others who read your response will be impressed with your proactive attitude.
If the complaints of your customers seem similar, it could mean you have a systematic issue that must be acknowledged and addressed.
Remember, managing bad reviews doesn’t mean crafting a diplomatic or marketing-savvy response alone. You want to adjust your practices and the behavior of your employees to decrease the incidence of bad reviews in the future. As your business matures your frequency of bad reviews should decline, and if it doesn’t, it means the lessons you should be learning aren’t being absorbed.
Everyone knows things happen in business, and in life, which is beyond your control. Deliveries may be delayed, someone may quit or go AWOL unexpectedly, water pipes may burst, or HVAC systems may break down, noisy street repairs out front may wreck your employees’ concentration, you might be worried about or distracted by something going on at home … The list of possibilities is endless.
But regardless of the mitigating circumstances you cannot and should not make excuses.
In case you’ve forgotten, the Golden Rule says “treat others as you’d like to be treated.” With kindness, respect, and empathy. This is a great motto for living and exactly how you should train your employees to respond to customers, even if they’re unreasonable or difficult.
Handling negative reviews with this attitude will prevent you from responding with sarcasm, defensiveness, hostility or any other reactive emotion that might stain your reputation and cost you even more customers.