Businesses with over four negative reviews online will lose as much as 70 percent of their expected sales. This proves that a bad online reputation can really hurt a company. It could even affect your chances of getting high customer retention, no matter what else you do. If your business is suffering from a major setback after receiving negative reviews online, here are some ways that you can change the situation around.
Do A Thorough Analysis Of Your Online Reputation
Ideally, you want your target customers to see up-to-date positive reviews about your company online, but that will not happen if there’s even one piece of bad feedback posted on a reputable review site like Complaints Base. Aside from that, you must also assess your company’s past and present digital footprint.
You can use this to see if there is something online that could tarnish your company’s reputation. If you find a previous action that could hurt your name, you must try to look for ways to correct it. You can take the case of US Airways. In 2014, someone from their company accidentally uploaded an inappropriate image on Twitter as a reply to a customer complaint. The company immediately apologized for the blunder.
But despite the controversy, the company earned at least 14,000 more followers at that time. This proved that there is still a chance to turn a bad situation into something good. If you’ve found several things that need attention or this is completely out of your wheelhouse, hire a reputation management agency.
Respond To Reviews ASAP
You can never stop your customers from posting positive or negative feedback on social media or on different review sites. This is their way of commending a good business practice or warning others about poor service. Either way, their feedback can have a major effect on your online reputation. That is why you need to reply to their online comments to let them know that you value their opinion. Make it a point to reply to any negative consumer reviews after posting. This will help the company regain the trust of its customers again, despite their previous negative experiences.
Make It Easier For Your Customers To Give You Good Reviews
Perhaps the best way to combat a negative review is to give them the kind of products and services that will make a positive mark. If you give them what they are expecting you to, they will be happy to talk about your company positively on review sites. The more positive review you have, the better your online business reputation will be. In addition, you can ask those who previously gave you a negative review to remove their unfavorable feedback to clean your reputation online.
Remember, improving a bad online reputation and turning it around to your advantage is not an easy task. You must exert a lot of effort to influence your rankings. That is why you need to encourage your customers to put in good words for your company to negate the bad ones. As soon as you fix all your issues and make them feel that you are doing everything to give them a good service, then your online reputation will start to get better.
