Drawbacks Of Having A Bad Reputation Online

“It takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”                                                                                             – Warren Buffett

In the current world of digital advancement, the Online Reputation of every business is crucial to its survival in the longer run. A consumer’s trust and certainty profoundly affect the organization’s primary concern for doing business. It is significant to keep the reputation intact as the business is at stake. Indeed, even high profile personalities and elite companies have to continuously monitor reactions of buyers or followers to keep up their reputation all over the internet. Reputation, in the earlier years, was based on the degree of how much satisfied the stakeholders are. But, this perception has quite changed and moved towards a customer centric approach on how people (generally the customer) perceive you/your brand over the internet.

A company lands up into a bad internet reputation when there is a breach of trust on the customer’s end and he/she ends up writing a negative review of you online. There are audit destinations actually for each business in the market and they have customers talking and examining the administrations and items offered by the company. A negative review has a tendency to spread quickly, easily and damage the reputation of the company. Hence it is significant to monitor and respond to negative reviews.

Let’s look at some of the drawbacks of having a bad reputation online.

Rise of Scepticism:            

We are in a world where businesses talk and work around the concept of developing faith in consumers through their engagements on social media channels. These thoughts have given the world new opportunities like brand association, brand equity, brand loyalty and many more. While advertising a product, businesses often tend to give false hopes to customers which they later find difficult to fulfil. This leads to mistrust of the customers and once it happens it is difficult to objectify the above-mentioned opportunities.

Deprivation of Company’s Intangible asset i.e. Employees:

We all prefer to buy products from companies that have a good reputation in the market. Similarly, we all want to work for a company which has a good reputation both online and offline. Individuals working for a company with bad reputation might start questioning their own products which will eventually lead to people quitting jobs. Hence, it is important for an online reputation monitoring system to inculcate positives and clean negatives to retain employees of a company.

Deterioration in Search Results:

A terrible online reputation can diminish a website ranking on engines like Google and Bing. Clients and customers are bound to proceed with products or services offered on the initial three pages of the web pages. They are more averse to jump to the second page on their first pursuit. A terrible online reputation can make the organization’s site rank on the third or fourth page or even a page past it. 

The Transactional Loss:

80% of the customers look and analyse the reviews on your products and services before buying anything from you. Positive reviews do play a role while negative reviews easily affect the sentiments of the potential customer’s willingness to associate with your brand. Reviews can be regarded as word-of-mouth for the online world. Negative publicity has a huge tendency to decrease your sales and hamper your reputation in the longer run.

You would have understood by now how costly and time-consuming affair is brand reputation monitoring in the long run which might have been damaged if not taken preventive measures at the right time. The type of expertise needed to deal with a company’s reputation is generally difficult to maintain by the company’s itself. Online reputation management deals with addressing damaging content associated with your brand and using customer feedback to solve problems hampering online brand reputation.

 With the concept of outsourcing emerging in the 21st century, many companies consult agencies to provide online brand reputation management services. Online reputation management agencies provide this technical expertise and help maintain your strong reputation sensibly. 

Online Reputation Manage has a team of experts and all effective tools for best online reputation management. We deal with everything related to your brand’s value in the online community. We also have a blog on Techniques to Improve Online Reputation.This community comprises search engines, online forums, blogs and of course, social media. They serve the purpose of their diverse clients from the Fortune 500 list.

TOP 3 FACTORS THAT AFFECT YOUR ONLINE REPUTATION

Back in the days when customers and clients used to deal face to face with the business, online reputation was neglected and wasn’t considered as a very important area of invest time and money in. But with time things change. Digitalisation took over and businesses, customers, clients started dealing and buying more on online than offline. Many a business who failed to improve their online reputation couldn’t fulfill the customer’s desire because these customers didn’t choose to deal such businesses in the first place simply because services and products of these businesses weren’t considered genuine. More over businesses with bad online reputation were considered (and are still being considered) as fraud, bogus, cheap who provide low quality products and services which has affected and is still affecting business with bad reputation as they are failing reach their business goals. More than 65% of the consumers conduct online research before making a purchase. So it becomes extremely important to pay attention to how your business looks online in terms of reputation. Many businesses have realised the importance of building a good online reputation and have also utilized the online reputation management services where as some are ignorant and have no knowledge about it. A good online reputation is not only important for business but also for individuals who operate through social media and similar platforms. These individuals are bloggers, vloggers, influencers, content creators, small business owners etc. For the ones who are striving to build such a reputation to meet their goals and serve their customers well, I have listed the top 3 factors that affects online reputation. Working on improving these XX factors will help businesses and individuals not only to gain more customers but also to retain them and build a good relationship to create loyalty between the business and the customer.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS

Today consumers have become vocal about their post purchase dissonance by giving reviews about the business over internet.In 2019, studies and research conducted by Bright Local in shows that 91% of the consumers who read positive reviews are more likely to use the business while 82% will not consider getting involved with the business after reading negative reviews. Getting reviewed is important. The more the reviews the better and even a few reviews are still better than none. So it is important to get reviewed. But what’s more important is the nature of review that is whether it is a positive review or a negative review. How you respond to them will decide the reputation you create for yourself in customer’s mind. We have covered a lot article on ‘How to handle negative reviews’.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Today everyone is on social media and yes you should consider having your business’s account on social media. Why? Because through social media you will able to engage with your customers easily in a more humanised casual manner. What is important is the consistency you show on social media with the content you post, the way you interact, your response time to a comment or query. Acknowledging your customers and their suggestions will indicate the customers that they are being heard. This way you will be able to improve your online reputation and customer perception towards your brand.

YOUR ONLINE EXISTENCE

Just like a brick and mortar store, your physical presence, your online presence is also important. Is your website as attractive as your physical store, can customers find what they looking for easily, are things clearly visible on your site, do you actively make changes in your site with every update in technology and algorithms. It’s the landing page you should consider enhancing. How to know if your landing page needs some changes?

Have a look at your bounce rate in your Google Analytics account for every landing page. A low bounce rate   indicates that customers spend a said amount of time on your site which is good for your business because you have their attention on the specific landing page whereas a high bounce rate indicates that customers don’t spend enough time on your landing page as they don’t find the content engaging enough. Not only that have blog for your website. Blog about relevant topic, products and services because a customer spend more time reading your views on a certain topic before engaging with your site. Ask your readers to give feedback at the end of the blog. Blogs not only improve your reputation in the customer’s eye but also improves your domain authority. Consistent blogging for 3-4 months will land you in top 20 SERPs in Google.

ULTIMATE GUIDE TO REMOVE NEGATIVE REVIEWS FROM GOOGLE

Image source @ www.pixabay.com

These days everyone rely on what others have to say about a product before actually buying it. Think about the last time you bought a product or went to restaurant because you found that others talk highly of the place. You got influenced by these reviews. Yes, you are right. We tend to choose a product based on the reviews it gets from others. Chances to you buying a certain product increases when you read more positive reviews. In a survey conducted by My Testimonial Engine it was found out that:
• 85% of customers read online reviews for business
• 72% of customers won’t take action before they read some reviews.

It was also found out that:
• 32% of the customers visit the business’s website after reading positive reviews
• 93% of customer spend more than 1 minute reading these reviews

So it becomes crucial for your business to gather as much genuine positive reviews as you can. But with positive reviews come negative reviews which is where the panic starts. Negative reviews can affect your business in a way that your business may come to the verge of shutting down. So below I have listed some of the best ways to tackle and handle these negative reviews.

Photo by Lisa Fotios

Negative Reviews are of two types:
• Fake negative review
• Genuine negative review

Fake negative review

A business would want as much positive reviews as it can to overshadow the negative ones. But it becomes really annoying when we come across a false review from someone. There are ways you can recognise if these reviews are fake or not. These reviews generally come out as:
• Full of slander and false
• Having grammatical errors
• The user has a fake name
• You have never done any business with this person
• It has illegal, inappropriate, offensive content
• It is irrelevant to your business
• There is a Conflict of interest

How to remove fake negative reviews from Google?

In such cases you must know how to remove these fake reviews. And yes, in cases like these you can remove the reviews. Follow the steps to remove negative reviews from Google:
• First you should know that you yourself cannot delete the review but can flag the fake review which Google will remove if it finds it inappropriate or if it violates any Google’s review policies.
• Go to Google My Business profile
• Click on the link on the Tool Number of reviews
• Search for the reviews that you find fake, click on the flag icon beside the comment and click on ‘Flag as Inappropriate’.
• Now wait till Google sees the flag and notifies you they decide to remove it or not.

If you find the review as false and full of slander, you can fill out a Google form for a legal removal request. This is for extreme situations and it has high requirements so consult your legal counsellor before proceeding on this path.You can also use google maps to flag inappropriate negative reviews. To do this:
• Open Google Maps and search for your business
• Under the star rating you will be able to see a numerated amount of reviews. Click on that
• Find the review you want to remove
• Click on the 3 vertical dots in the upper right corner of the window and click on “Flag as inappropriate

Genuine Negative reviews

These reviews are valid and they do not violate any Google review policies. So these reviews cannot be flagged and even if you do they won’t be removed by Google. But there are few things you can do to improve your online reputation.

Photo by pixelcreatures

Respond to the review and be prompt

According to Hosting Tribunal, more than 4 negative review about a company or product can decrease sales by 70%. So it becomes extremely important to address these customers and being apologetic about it. A prompt response shows that value their opinion and you care about the customer. A customer is very likely to remove the negative review if his/her problem is resolved. Be polite and mature about the response as this can win you over your angry customer.

Make an effort to solve the problem

Sometimes a response isn’t enough to the customer. If you keep getting negative reviews, then chances are that the problem is from your end and what you need to do is to change the way you do things. Yeah its stressful and require a lot of hard work sometimes but it’s worth it. The customer wants their problem to be solved and if you have the capacity to rectify your mistakes then give it your 100% as it will help you restore your relationship with the customer.

Photo by cottonbro

Requesting re-evaluation

When you have done all of above and remedied the issue, you can politely ask the customer to change their review. Don’t be pushy about it. In most cases the customer chances their review even on their own if you show your undivided attention to their issue.

Photo by Tumisu—148124

Learn from your experience

Every negative review can help you learn from your mistakes and improve your business over time. Making progress on these feedback will decrease the chances of getting negative reviews. To understand what exactly you are supposed to improve get in touch with your customers and ask their opinion.

Hire Online Reputation Consultants

If the situation is getting out of hand and you find yourself confused on how to do, what to do, don’t worry. There are plenty of Online Reputation Management Services to help you through the crisis. These services not only help you with rectifying your reputation but also help you improve your business’s reputation after the crisis is solved.

Conclusion

No business is perfect and there will always be flaws. Look at these flaws as areas for improvement and take reviews as feedback of how your business is performing. These reviews will help you improve your business and if you work on it then it will lead you to our ultimate goal. Accept more feedback in the form of reviews and encourage your customer to leave a review. Maybe send a push notification sometime later after the transaction. Reviews may come as both positive and negative but it’s the negative reviews that help you improve your business and not the positive ones. Treat the negative reviews as an opportunity to improvise your product.

Difference between Influence Marketing and Influencer Marketing

Role of Public Relations in Reputation Management

“PR is extremely important, and being able to use it in the right way means everything. You have to market your success.” – Lee Haney

 

Companies in the modern world are investing in huge finances to make their online presence strong. The colossal digital world is growing fast and opening up new avenues for companies. Not only trade dealings and acquisitions are happening over the internet but also potential customers are being tapped by various mechanisms. The digital world has emerged out stronger with ample opportunities for the companies to market its product or service over the internet. The online world may seem to be bright but it is dark at times and the darkness can destroy the reputation you struggled to build over these many years.

Companies are currently getting mindful of the significance, for selling products as well as for pulling in financial specialists and ability. This move is currently requiring business correspondences to utilize a progressively comprehensive methodology. Public Relations isn’t about only a product, yet is a key device to guarantee the great reputation of the organization, its staff and the general brand. This implies correspondences aren’t limited from brand to purchaser, yet in addition incorporate brand to partners – for example, representatives, investors, clients, potential clients and more extensive public. Business and income achievement isn’t simply associated with direct customers. Request and acknowledgement of product or an association are simply not associated with the feature or correspondence push of products alone. Today, for a business to succeed, partners past buyers should be in a state of harmony with the brand. Our present and imminent partners under strategy creators, purchasers, providers, merchants, conclusion pioneers, representatives, speculators, columnists and so forth – are for the most part basing their commitment and reliability to the item or corporate brand with the sum and nature of data they know.

You must have always attributed public relations to the spotlight of special events held in an organization but what you haven’t heard of is the behind the scenes work that public relations do to restore the reputation of firms that have suffered a crisis. Regardless of whether your business is a small local shop or a major brand, the role of public relations and crisis management is quite similar. Public relations must be seen and rehearsed as a completely coordinated brand and reputation management function. Organizations must envision, design and practice each believable situation that could cause harm or undue consideration. It has frequently been said that it’s not if an interchange emergency will happen, it’s when.

Public relation is an important aspect of reputation management. Promotions are losing their effect since it is one-way correspondence. What brands require today is to go past discourse to what we call ‘multilogue’ – numerous discussions on different stages. There is a requirement for a coordinated methodology, which incorporates likewise content. The sum total of what this has been is PR’s centre quality. That is the reason it’s an ideal fit. We are in the matter of narrating and substance creation, and brand caretakers are quick getting that. PR as it needs to change in accordance with these new requests and advance the manner in which it works on the off chance that it is to make the most of this chance. For example, to quantify a brands notoriety requires purchaser boards, conceivably centre gatherings, observing and examining. A great deal of this possible when a battle. It would presumably do a great deal of good if organizations centre their energies around counselling and usage instead of self-estimation. 

It isn’t unordinary for customers – and even correspondence experts themselves – to see PR  as a “customary” and “disconnected” discipline. Notwithstanding, PR must be seen and polished as a completely incorporated brand and notoriety the executives work. This starts with vital arranging that supports the brand’s centre character and informing, trailed by ceaseless brand checking and the board over different promoting disciplines utilizing an assortment of online apparatuses. Organizations must foresee, design and practice each possible situation that could cause harm or undue consideration, and they should guarantee that multi-disciplinary groups are spoken to when correspondence plans and apparatuses are created. Advertising specialists are key players at the table when those choices are made.

Organizations these days are looking forward to reputation monitoring services provided by agencies all over the globe. Reputation management services use the multi-disciplinary approach of maintaining the online reputation across the entire online community that comprises blogs, articles, forums, search engines and of course social media. Online Reputation Manage is one such agency that deals with restoring your business’s reputation encountered by a crisis. We have the best industrial experts with the most effective tools for online reputation management and promotional methods like digital marketing, app marketing, social media marketing and many more.

All You Needed to Know while selecting an Online Reputation Management Company

“Your reputation is more important than the last hundred million dollars.”                                                                                                 –  Rupert Murdoch

The world has shifted from Industrial age thinking to Informational age thinking where digital avenues have opened. Businesses are investing in huge finances to make their presence stronger. Not only are they dealing with their potential competitors but also acquiring new potential customers to join their league. The colossal internet space has given birth to newer strategies to be implemented across various business decisions. 

Advertising has been the most affected has been transformed from traditional platforms like Tv and radio to much more. Businesses found it easier to promote their products or services through traditional methods because it was always a one way communication. It was easier to monitor responses and promote their brand. But with the advent of the digital world, advertising online has become difficult as it now has two sides of it. Your customers may appreciate the product or service you offered but also aren’t afraid to take things in the public domain if they think that they are cheated or defrauded. So, it has become hard to monitor negative feedback and complaints. “Negatives get traction easily” is what we generally say and eventually hampers the reputation of a company in the longer run.

In this red ocean, businesses need to work quickly and effectively towards damage control and maintain their reputations. An online reputation management (ORM) company is one that specializes to address and monitor negative content related to you/your brand online and cleaning it up by using customer feedback. It does this by checking customer action identified with a brand. Keywords and hashtags are normally checked to utilize specific instruments. At the point when complaints are discovered the ORM organization works with the business being referred to make sense of how to make something happen and restore the reputation online.

According to reports, 76% of the customers trust online reviews before purchasing a service or a product. It’s a critical number and one that shows exactly how significant it is for a brand to build up a strong reputation, particularly on the web. With an ORM organization entrusted with the subtleties of observing and itemizing input, organizations can concentrate on the best way to roll out positive improvements to improve their items and administrations and subsequently, customer relations. Online reputation management along with being time consuming requires a lot of resources and tools. Investing more in manpower for it will make it more tedious and costly. Businesses now look for cost efficient ways of outsourcing by hiring a professional service freeing valuable time and manpower for themselves. The final results are absolutely justified, despite all the trouble. With the appropriate online reputation the executives, organizations can improve consumer loyalty, improve their rankings on search engines, and increment positive discernment. It additionally builds the possibilities of converting potential leads. Organizations likewise gain knowledge into customer requests and their rivals. This can assist them with remaining ahead and increase a firm solid footing in the market. 

New businesses, independent ventures and enormous organizations the same would do well to look for the services of an ORM agency. Regardless of whether their online nearness isn’t critical, it’s imperative to start building one as more buyers move to the web and web based life for their shopping needs. Online Reputation Manage is the best online reputation management agency that deals with restoring your business’s reputation encountered by a crisis. We have the most effective tools for online brand monitoring and promotional methods like digital marketing, app marketing, social media marketing and many more. We are well equipped with the best experts for brand reputation monitoring all over the online community which comprises blogs, articles, reviews, search engines, and of course social media.

Techniques to Improve Online Reputation

“Reputation is everything when it comes to building a digital brand”                                                                                    ― Stacey Kehoe

The colossal digital world with the advent of new technologies is going to grow stronger day by day. Businesses have been transformed into more user-friendly and customer-centric approaches to offer their product or service. Marketing has evolved a lot, thanks to technology in the digital world. Marketing in the traditional sense was just one way promotions through channels like TV and radio, it was a monologue. But with the advent of technology, marketing has become a dialogue between brands and customers. With customers sharing their feedback it has become difficult to monitor and manage responses and improve on the imperfections in product or service offered.

With customers shopping more and more online, the responses given by them are two sides of the same coin; positive and negative. Positive reviews instil faith in the stakeholders of the company i.e. vendors, suppliers, employees, investors, clients and ultimately customers. These reviews spread positive word of mouth and attract potential customers to use the new product or service your brand has to offer. Brands need to face criticism given by customers via negative reviews that can hamper their reputation in the long run if not monitored properly. Reputation Management has continued as before on a basic level since you, despite everything, need to have a decent brand picture for customers to confide in you. In any case, the requirement for it has reached out to the computerized world, too.

Your online reputation is how people perceive you over the internet. So, online reputation monitoring is an important aspect every brand should look for. Let us look at some of the ways you/your brand can improve your online reputation and help instil faith in your customers.

Commiserate with your customers

It is always harsh to take criticisms on your product but don’t respond to your customers vaguely in rage. Always try to think of the situation and respond in an empathetic manner. Comprehend the issue of a customer and recognize key focuses that prompted their response. Some have solid articulations you can react to right away. Others need all the more fleshing out; you can get more subtleties by asking follow-up inquiries. To the positive reviews, you can respond “thank you” or ask for a recommendation if any. This helps to highlight your welcoming gesture and the positives of your offerings. Potential customers are continually searching for a brand to trust, and they will probably search for recommendations from individuals they know or identify with. Featuring these positives likewise permits you to make a network with your supporters on the web.

Stay vigilant on social media

Brands have widened their utilization of social media to improve or keep up their picture. Customers are savvier online in light of the fact that they can without much of a stretch express their real thoughts about a product or service, regardless of whether it is sure or negative. These remarks may pick up footing and influence the customer’s impression of your organization. These can drag you down or lift you, and this reputation can keep going quite a while. Make numerous records to reinforce your reputation or fix it. React to input and remarks agreeably if negative, and thank clients if positive. Utilize the stage to deliver products or services, pass on your image message, and impact positive organization discernment. With the latest software like Mention and Google Alert you can also monitor where and what are your customers talking about your brand.

 Bring in more people to work for you

Your front end warriors will manage a wide range of customers and remarks on the web. They endure the worst part of tirades and grumblings. Put resources into them by giving them preparing projects and motivating forces that line up with your destinations. Update their abilities to assist them with speaking with your customers better. Likewise, give them rules to follow however permit them to be adaptable with their reaction. These are only a portion of the approaches to improve your image reputation on the web. This is a fundamental part of your business that you shouldn’t neglect. Actualize these to get the outcomes you need. But, bringing in more people makes it costly as an adequate amount of training is required to let them handle your reputation in the longer run.

 Hire the best agency

Online reputation management along with being time consuming requires a lot of resources and tools. Investing more in manpower for it will make it more tedious and costly. Businesses now look for cost efficient ways of outsourcing by hiring a professional service freeing valuable time and manpower for themselves. New businesses, independent ventures and enormous organizations the same would do well to look for the services of an ORM agency. Regardless of whether their online nearness isn’t critical, it’s imperative to start building one as more buyers move to the web and web based life for their shopping needs. Online Reputation Manage is the best reputation management agency that deals with restoring your business’s reputation encountered by a crisis. They have the most effective tools for online brand monitoring and promotional methods like digital marketing, app marketing, social media marketing and many more. They are well equipped with the best experts for brand reputation monitoring all over the online community which comprises blogs, articles, reviews, search engines, and of course social media.

What is more important: Character Or Personality

“Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open."                                                                                         – Elmer G. Letterman

Character refers to the sums of individual qualities that a person has which differentiates him/her from others. Character is simply a unique set of mental and moral qualities. Character is something which comes from within and is often long lived. A character takes far longer to figure out. It incorporates attributes that uncover themselves just in explicit—and regularly phenomenal—conditions, characteristics like genuineness, excellence, and generosity. Unexpectedly, research has demonstrated that character qualities are resolved to a great extent by heredity and are generally changeless. The seemingly increasingly significant qualities of character, then again, are progressively changing—however, not without great effort. Character attributes, instead of character qualities, depend on convictions (e.g., that trustworthiness and treating others well is significant—or not), and however convictions can be changed, it’s far more difficult than most figure it out.

Personality is the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual’s distinctive persona. Personality is easier to read through, and we’re all specialists at it. We judge individuals as interesting, outgoing, vivacious, hopeful, certain—just as excessively genuine, sluggish, negative, and timid—if not at that instance but after some point of time. However, we may require more than one communication to affirm the nearness of these sorts of traits, when we conclude they are, truth be told, present we’ve ordinarily done enough information to legitimize our decisions.

While personality is perceived as permanent, the character is something that is developed. Personality is what you seem to be whereas character is who you actually are! Character advancement isn’t just about looking great and wearing costly brands. It is additionally about building up one’s internal identity and being a decent individual. A good character definitely helps you create a winning personality. Character is the foundation of the personality you build over the years. Just as no worthy building can be erected without a good foundation, no lasting good personality can be built on a weak character.

We unwittingly connect personality to character for two fundamental reasons: we need to like individuals we effectively like, and the most dependable approach to survey an individual’s character is arduous and tedious. We really need to watch individuals in character-challenges circumstances so as to make dependable conclusions about their character. For instance, on the off chance that we watch somebody lie effectively, we can be sensibly sure from even only one occasion that they’ve done as such previously and will do so again later on, as the best indicator of future conduct is past conduct. In synopsis, the key point here is to be careful with the distinction between being pulled in to the outer (personality) and being pulled in to the inside (character.) A relationship can’t be established on personality alone; it is a character that assembles the relationship and prompts fulfilment and beneficial interaction. Hence, a character is much of greater importance as it inherently moulds your personality and makes it permanent. 

You must have come across this line quite often “Reputation Matters but character leads the way”. Reputation is the basis of leadership. It is built over many years, one word at a time, one action at a time, one deed at a time. Reputation is one of the powerful assets about what others think of us, and it’s the foundation of how we distinguish ourselves. The key goal in shaping this reputation is keeping the personal character as the driving factor. But what if you have a strong character but not quite able to build that strong reputation?

 With the advancing digital world, businesses and personalities are often worried about maintaining their online reputation as they are attacked by reputation hampering drivers like negative publicity, bad reviews, unflattering articles, derogatory comments, etc. anywhere on the internet. So, when businesses and individuals have that strong character to excel what they just need is an online reputation management system in place to monitor how people perceive them on the internet. Online reputation management services deal with addressing and monitoring negative content related to you/your brand online and using customer feedback to clean up any derogatory remarks made anywhere on the internet. Businesses and personalities often outsource their reputation monitoring to the best online reputation management agencies.  Online Reputation Manage is one such agency with the best industrial expertise and online reputation management tools to monitor you or your brand’s reputation in the online community i.e. blogs, articles, online forums, search engines and of course, social media. 

How to handle negative reviews

“I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better.”                                                                                                        – Elon Musk.

With the world moving towards digitalization, customers give their valuable feedback to the products and services offered by businesses. Feedback is the accurate measure which tells you/ your brand on what to improve. Feedback is often received from customers in the form of reviews, articles, blogs and of course comments on social media platforms that you/your brand engages on. Feedback is always considered as an invaluable measure because it helps you/your brand think from the customer’s perspective. And what better than customers themselves conveying both the good and bad aspects of the products or services offered.

The most important form of feedback is an online customer review. Customer reviews sway genuine business results and the choices potential customers make to belittle or not disparage certain outfits. Much the same as their impact in reality, reviews not just give individuals a superior thought of the adequacy and nature of a particular product or service– they strengthen superior-than-normal customer experience, something all customers look for. 88 percent have been influenced by an online customer service review when deciding what to buy. That’s why business must be accepting and engaging towards every customer review – good or bad, always. Responding to positive customer reviews isn’t actually worrisome but negative reviews are difficult to deal with considering that it is always hard to take harsh criticism.

Every business wants to see only positive reviews and comments about their product or services. The truth is that we don’t live in a perfect world, and you will get negative customer feedback, however hard you try to please your customer, there’s no way around it. But there are many ways you can tackle them and turn them into positive engagement. So, let us look at some ways to handle negative reviews :

Respond Pensively and Swiftly:

Customers often write negative reviews when they are angry about your product or service but this should not happen from your end. Your response should be prompt but in a swift manner. Very few people are skilled at presenting their criticism and so don’t take negative reviews as a personal attack and so avoid self-defense. It’s obvious to react to negative feedback but try to distance yourself from emotions and closed-mindedness. Document the incident properly and try to figure out how to handle it with positivity.

Take the issue offline:

Never make your customers reach out for you after they have posted a negative review.    Try to take the issue offline by asking for their email id or a personal contact number. Apologize for the displeasure with your product or service. The best part of taking the issue offline is you can properly listen to the query and resolve it. This technique can clearly tell what imperfections to improve and come back strong. Once you have resolved the query, you can take that extra step to offer him/her compensation or future discounts. Remember, avoid doing it publicly as it can cast a bad impression on your other existing or potential customers.

Request the reviews to be removed:

Most customer review sites won’t permit you to expel surveys. On account of one that is disparaging or denouncing, demand that the site bring it down. Commonly, you should guarantee your professional reference before making the solicitation. After the query is solved you can ask the customer to delete the review so that it doesn’t account to any further loss of customers. 

Monitor your presence over the internet:

In order to handle negative reviews, you first need to know what customers are saying and where are they saying it. The tools like Mention and Google Alert are commonly used to monitor when and where people talk about your brand. You can leverage your social media handles to interact with customers and even ask them questions on how happy they are using your product or service. This technique empowers customers to share fun stories in the form of reviews while boosting the social media engagement of your brand.

It might happen that after all the above mentioned steps, negative reviews still might stay on your website and so you need an online reputation management system in place. You must have understood by now that negative reviews hamper your online reputation in the longer run and so it’s necessary to eliminate them. With outsourcing becoming the new normal, companies nowadays are consulting reputation management agencies to handle negative reviews anywhere on the internet. Online reputation Manage is one such agency with the best industrial expertise for relevant review generation. It has the best online reputation management tools to monitor you or your brand’s reputation sensibly in the online community i.e. blogs, articles, online forums, search engines and of course, social media.