Nothing can damage your business more than online reviews. 93% of Americans read customer reviews and ratings before buying a product or a service.
One negative review won’t derail your business. But it can be a nail in your coffin, especially if you fail to respond to it. If you want your business to go the distance, you have to learn how to respond to a bad review on Google.
What should you do before a bad review comes in? How should you handle negative feedback? How should you respond to a mean comment or a review on Ripoff Report?
Answer these questions and you can soften the blow of negative customer reviews. Here is your quick guide on how to deal with a bad review.
Base Your Comments on Templates
You should prepare for responding to a bad review before you start getting reviews. You can come up with your own responses to reviews as they come in. But you risk writing something unprofessional or tasteless.
You should write a series of templates that you can edit depending on the reviews you receive. This cuts down on the time you spend on your bad review response. This also lets you make calm and considerate comments that won’t reflect badly on your company.
Write one template for positive reviews, one for mixed reviews, and one for bad reviews. Your comments should only be a few sentences long. Make sure you end each template with a signature that includes your name and the company name.
You should make modifications to your templates whenever you respond to several reviews at once. Copy-pasting the same template numerous times will make you seem inconsiderate. Change the diction and sentence structures to make each review feel natural.
Wait Before You Respond
A bad review is always difficult to read. Your kneejerk reaction will be to defend yourself and refute all of the negative comments against you.
Do not write your response as soon as the review comes in. You should wait until you have calmed down and can go through the review with a level head.
If you’re still upset after a day has passed, you should let someone else respond. If no one is available, you should not respond to the review at all. No response is better than an immature or petty response.
Look For Constructive Feedback
Once you’re ready to read the review, sit down and tackle it. Take notes as you go along, looking for points of feedback that you can use to change your company’s operations.
If an employee was named or mentioned, you should talk to that employee. You should figure out what exactly happened and how you can improve their performance. They may have made one or two mistakes that resulted in the negative review.
If the review states your product broke, you need to fix the product. You should talk with your product development team and make improvements right away.
Don’t just look at the star metric. Someone who gives you five stars may have some comments about how you can improve things. You should read through all of the reviews you’ve received and think of ways you can improve your operations.
Ask Questions When Comments Are Not Clear
Most reviews don’t amount to much. Someone may give one star and write, “Overrated,” without any clarifying details.
You should try asking for clarity. You can write out your negative review template and then write, “We’d like some clarity on your experience. What exactly did you not like?”
Some people may not respond to your question. Others may give very brief responses that don’t offer much in terms of constructive criticism. But asking for clarity makes you seem considerate, and it can improve your reputation after a bad review.
Be Empathetic
The key to learning how to reply to a bad review is to be empathetic. Never blame the customer for their experience. You should take responsibility for what went wrong.
You should ask the customer to reach out to you through your contact form. You can then give them your phone number or email and you can have an in-depth conversation with them. This will let you understand what went wrong and smooth things over.
Even if your customer is mean to you, you should be kind to them. Tell them how sorry you are that their experience went wrong and identify ways you will improve your company.
Confront Ripoff Report
Ripoff Report is a website that collects bad customer reviews. Members of the public can submit their reviews anonymously, and the website will post them without verifying them.
Ripoff Report manipulates search engine algorithms so their pages come up before other pages in search results. Someone may read a list of negative reviews about your company before they read about anything else.
If you get a page on Ripoff Report, you should act quickly. You can get a Netreputation Ripoff Report Guide and figure out how to remove your page.
The website offers a complaint investigation service. For a few thousand dollars, you can hire Ripoff Report to investigate the complaints against you.
Do not do this. The website rarely edits its pages. Use your money to build a website that will rank higher on search results and promote your company.
Master How to Respond to a Bad Review on Google
You must learn how to respond to a bad review on Google. Be ready for reviews before they come in. Draft templates that you can edit to reflect different comments.
When you get a negative review, take a moment to calm down. Then start skimming it for constructive critiques. Ask questions if you’re confused, but remain empathetic and take responsibility for mistakes.
Ripoff Report can be the first thing that customers see. Find a way to drop the website down so positive reviews come up first.
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