How Bad for my Business are Bad Reviews

How Bad for my Business are Bad Reviews?

If you've been in business for very long and if you have served enough people, you are going to have some bad reviews as a result of human nature.

Some human beings are naturally nasty.  It will be impossible to please people that are impossible to please.

If you get such reviews, you need to reply to them, regardless of the platform.  Reply courteously and honestly.  You are better off to take the high road here and be as conciliatory as you can be.  Don't become what you despise!

Most people are like most people and you are like most people, too.  So, you will make mistakes.  Admit it and try to fix it if you have deserved a less than favorable review.  Reply and try and offer a solution and ask for a chance to win them back or keep their business.

On the other hand, if you've got mostly bad reviews ... you are either grossly negligent in your administration or you should be looking for something else to do.  Regarding grossly negligent, maybe you are a new owner or manager of a business that was previously deserving of the bad reviews.  If this is the case, hustle and get some good reviews on top of them.

Make sure that you have visited every reviews platform and proclaimed that the business is under new management or ownership or both.  When you can, reach out to those that have had bad experiences and try to get them to come back for another try with you, making some offer that would be hard to refuse to "give you a chance" with them.

If you can recover them, ask them to revise their former review or write a new one.

Unanswered, mediocre or negative reviews will stiff-arm your would be new clients.

• Just one recent, negative review will send perhaps 20% of those packing that were considering doing business with you.
• If they see two or three in close order, your looking at about 60% bale-outs.
• Make that 4 or more and you've lost over 70% of consumers - (nearly ALL of them that are checking your reviews)

PERSONAL TESTIMONY VS EYE WITNESSES

It is like you are in court, you see.  You are called to provide your account, your testimony.

Your potential customers are the jury.

They hear your "story", what you promise in ads or on your website and maybe it sounds good.  But then, your customers come to testify against you, and the jury is filled with their peers.

Get a few of them to chime in with what they claim about you and the jury is going to believe them, not you.

Sorry about that.  It doesn't matter if you are "innocent" of all charges or not.

CONVENTIONAL MARKETING VS CUSTOMER REVIEWS

Put your message out there and state it clearly.  Pack some punch and make those promises!

... but make sure that when they go look at your reviews, they are backing up what you have promised.