The web can be fantastic for promoting your business but a bad review can come out of the blue and hurt hard. We look at the best way to tackle the trolls.
Encouraging customers to post feedback on your website can be dangerous terrain. For every positive account reassuring online customers that they won’t be wasting money by using your services, there may be ten others who are rude, abusive and spewing out vicious lies about your product. Indeed, the Advertising Standards Authority ruled last year that TripAdvisor could no longer imply its reviews could be “trusted”.
But how do you react when some anonymous troll has posted spittle-strewn invective about your company? What’s the proper procedure for dealing with negative complaints? And how do you get genuinely satisfied customers to post positive reviews?
Peter Mühlmann knows a thing or two about online reviews. In 2007, he founded online review platform Trustpilot in Denmark. Used by brands such as boohoo.com and Hostelworld.com to collect reviews and assess customer satisfaction, the site currently has five million consumer reviews of 60,000 businesses. Here he explains why maintaining an open dialogue with customers is essential, how it is possible to cultivate more positive comments and why no SME should ever be afraid of a negative review…
Remember: your company won’t be ruined by negative reviews
“Negative reviews aren’t necessarily very damaging,” says Peter. “Every consumer knows that no company is perfect. We make mistakes every day; all companies make mistakes… But as a consumer, you want to buy from a company who goes to great lengths to rectify their mistakes.”
Don’t react with anger
“What companies have to remember is you’re not replying to the person who wrote that bad review, you’re writing to hundreds of thousands of people who could be reading it instead. Do you go to war with the person who wrote it? Or do you say, ‘We’re sorry your item was late, here’s a bottle of wine?’ Some companies go after the person who left the review. That’s a really bad idea because then they turn one disgruntled customer and his/her negative review into an enemy for life.”
Never delete the offending review
“A company might remove a negative review, but it’s very likely that person who wrote it might go to 10 other websites under an IP blocker and just write something even worse. Then the story suddenly becomes, ‘You don’t care about your customers – you’re just trying to cover up your mistakes…’”
Every website should have a feedback section
“Companies should invite customers to leave reviews [on their websites]. It’s a way of mobilising happy people that otherwise might not have left their opinion. Also, by inviting customers to leave reviews, you will be perceived as more forthcoming and having a friendly dialogue.”
Reply to aggrieved customers
“Imagine if I had given you a bad service experience, and you’re so disgruntled you write something on Twitter,” says Peter. “Then, imagine if you suddenly got an email from us saying, ‘By now you should have received your item – we just want to make sure everything’s okay’. That diffuses your anger, because the company has reached out to you. The dialogue becomes much more friendly and constructive, and people are much more willing to give constructive advice rather than negative criticism.”
Customers appreciate transparency
“The online shopping experience today is characterised by an enormous amount of transparency. It doesn’t matter if you’re a big company or not. It’s very evident on the web what you’re good at and what you’re bad at.”
Use criticism to help your company
“In the old times, companies and consumers were seen as opposing forces where companies would trick consumers to get their money. That’s a very old school way of looking at things. Today, companies should strive to give good customer service every day. Through the medium of reviews, all companies can say, ‘Please, consumer, tell us how we are doing. We’d like to know as we’d like to get better’. As consumers, we have an obligation to give constructive criticism, but also to tell companies they did well. By giving honest criticism but also honest praise, we can make sure good companies are rewarded for good services. This way, companies aren’t chosen because they have the slickest marketing campaign or the lowest prices, but because they’re the best at what they do.”
WATCH: Trustpilot founder Peter Mühlmann tells us how to deal with negative reviews
published on http://www.iod.com/connect/5/b/marketingarticles/how-to-combat-negative-reviews/default