What Companies Have Been Hurt by Bad Reviews

Practice yous work hard to earn great reviews for your concern?

If so, yous're not alone. Most businesses strive to get equally many v-star reviews every bit possible. And information technology's non hard to imagine why.

Earlier yous buy something online, bulldoze beyond town to a eating house you've never tried, or download an app, what's the showtime thing you do?

Y'all probably check the reviews. If they're bad, yous probably won't purchase an item or try a new restaurant. Merely if they're good, you'll likely give it a attempt.

And so you should practise everything in your power to try and get five-star reviews across the board and forestall whatever negative reviews, correct?

Actually, that shouldn't be your goal.

Believe it or not, earning perfect reviews isn't disquisitional for your business. In fact, negative reviews can actually help your business in ways you lot may have never expected.

If yous've put all of your focus on avoiding negative reviews, you lot're going about reviews all wrong.

Y'all may find that hard to believe, but it'due south true.

Hither'due south why you need negative reviews and some of the ways that they can exist beneficial for your business.

The importance of negative reviews and how they can help your business grow

Earlier the digital era, we all relied on our friends and families for testimonials. But now, nosotros rely on so many other factors to make our final decisions about companies.

Discover more statistics at Statista

Information technology appears that trustworthy reviews now have a bigger influence on online purchase decisions than family and friends do for 68% of Usa shoppers.

Recommendations from friends and family unit influence just 42% of consumers.

Instead, rewards programs, brand reputation, and trustworthy online reviews have taken the place of good, old-fashioned discussion-of-oral fissure recommendations.

A 2017 study by Power Reviews once once more confirms the growing consumer dependence on ratings and reviews.

Today, 97% of consumers read product reviews before making a purchase conclusion. 89% of them consider online reviews to be an essential resource in the process.

On the flip side, 85% of consumers await for negative reviews in order to make informed buy decisions. And this number skyrockets to 91% among consumers from the ages of 18-29.

Why?

Because bad reviews requite customers a sense of the worst-case scenario. They want to know what can go wrong to empathise only how much it will affair to them.

Also many positive reviews can seem fake to some shoppers, and then you take to watch out.

But how do consumers determine if a review is truly authentic and trustworthy?

BrightLocal'south study shows that Facebook and Yelp are the ii most-trusted review sources for local searches. Google comes in third.

Out of all these review platforms, Yelp seems to have the most strict rules and regulations.

This explains the fact that the average review score on Yelp is 3.65, which is the lowest out of these platforms. The average reviews on the other major platforms are 4.42 on Facebook, iv.three on Google, and 4.25 on Tripadvisor.

Therefore, Yelp may exist the most reliable place to judge reviews.

And these ratings matter for your bottom line. An extra rating star on Yelp translates into a 5% to 9% revenue growth, which is an impressive only dangerous correlation.

Reviews really can brand or break your make'southward growth. But on whatever platform, you volition inevitably receive some negative reviews. And so, how practise you lot respond to them?

You should kickoff by coming up with a game plan.

Create a game plan before you respond to negativity

The way that a concern treats a negative review can tell you a lot most them.

Don't panic. Don't ignore them. Instead, embrace them.

Some brands like Wendy's are even using negative reviews equally a run a risk to make a splash on social media and get viral.

Yet you choose to encompass negative reviews, you demand to come up upwards with a game plan before you lot say annihilation back to your customers.

But customers wait businesses to respond to their reviews quickly. 51.7% of consumers wait businesses to reply to their negative review within seven days.

So if you do happen to receive a negative review, you need to human activity fast.

Being enlightened of your customers' complaints should be your number-ane priority for client service.

The first thing yous need to keep in listen is that not all negative reviews are valuable.

There are two types of negative reviews.

The first type is reviews from disappointed customers who take had a existent negative experience like those who were part of the Vow to Exist Chic wedding ceremony rental scandal:

And and then, there are the troll types who seek attending and potential monetary gain.

Some people might want to take advantage of the leverage that leaving a bad review might give them past blackmailing you lot or threatening to leave a bad review if y'all don't give them a refund.

And you tin can't insure your business against trolls.

Constructive feedback, on the other hand, is a gold mine for any business. It is a form of valuable, direct, instructional feedback from the people who matter most.

And a negative review will only stay negative forever if yous ignore it and never accost it.

And so having a game plan to respond to these complaints is what will gear up you apart from companies who choose to ignore them.

Decide on a communication strategy that will match your make identity and tone of voice. Try to proceed it consistent across all review platforms.

Zappos never fails to respond to negative customer reviews, and they give their responses a positive twist. Have a look at a recent response they gave to a complaint on their Facebook page.

The make offered to ship the customer a new replacement pair, and they recommended that she continue or give away the shoes that don't fit.

Information technology's pretty hard to argue with an attitude like that.

Depending on the personality of your brand, you can choose to be friendly and conversational similar Zappos or more formal but tactful like Marriott.

Whichever way you cull to get, brand sure that you remain genuine. Don't respond with a template. Take the fourth dimension to really investigate each issue and reply accordingly.

Yous should think of each negative review every bit an opportunity to show your customers that you care.

Here's what Marina Cheal, Primary Marketing Officer at Reevoo, said at the Motor Trader Pinnacle last year:

"Rich reviews bulldoze date and people stay on site longer. Bad reviews are a brilliant way of showing that if something does become wrong you have credibility in how you bargain with the issue. It shows you care about the customer."

Believe information technology or non, bad reviews have the power to improve your conversion rates, too.

Bad reviews improve your conversion rates

If your business gets only positive reviews, consumers might question whether those reviews are legitimate or not. Not everyone will, but those who are a footling bit more cautious might.

And with so many fake and paid reviews circulating on virtually every review platform, this is condign a real issue.

Amazon'southward fake positive review problem has recently become huge.

Equally the average rating has risen, the average review weight has taken a huge nosedive.

There are even Facebook groups that incentivize people to write false reviews of Amazon products.

On the other hand, having a salubrious mix of both positive and negative reviews will help build trust in your business more than chop-chop.

A study by Northwestern University's Spiegel Research Center discovered that likelihood of someone purchasing a production with five reviews is 270% greater than a product with no reviews.

That means having five reviews, whether good or bad, can increase your number of purchases by nearly four times.

And a mixture of proficient and bad is helpful and so that y'all don't fall into the "likewise-good-to-be-true" category.

Then, what is a salubrious mix of proficient and bad reviews?

What amount of bad reviews will boost your conversion rates instead of driving customers away?

Anywhere between 4.2 and 4.5 stars is an ideal average.

More stars does not equal more than sales. When your positive reviews appear with a few negative reviews, yous reduce buyer skepticism.

But you apparently you don't want to finish upwards with too low of an average. A lot of customers use rating filters to simplify their searches, so you may not even show up when they search for products if your average reviews are beneath four stars.

If your ratings are low, don't fret. It actually doesn't take a lot to increase your ratings.

A contempo report of TripAdvisor plant that i-tertiary of the hotels were able to increment their rounded ratings by half a star or more inside six months of their first management response.

In a nutshell, hither's the logic that this all boils down to:

Customers actively seek authentic and trustworthy businesses. No business concern is perfect, so negative reviews will clinch those who read them that the reviews are authentic.

Negative reviews show your man side

Negative reviews are a perfect phase for you to smoothen every bit a business organization with top-notch customer service. It is an opportunity to show that there are actual people behind your business.

Client service is not simply about profitable a purchase. It'south about solving any issues that come up upward before, during, or afterward a purchase and preventing them from happening again.

Poor client service will cost your company big time.

Tons of consumers take abandoned a business due to poor customer service. Every bit you can run into, this effigy has grown over the last couple of years.

And it's only going to keep increasing.

So customer service is withal a huge deciding cistron for customers making purchase decisions and for y'all retaining existing customers.

According to numbers from Kingfisher Inc, acquiring a new customer is 5 times every bit expensive equally retaining an existing customer.

Responding to negative reviews will help you go on your current customers coming back for more than.

It'south a practiced thought to respond to all reviews — both adept and bad.

On the one paw, your negative reviews requite your company a chance to show it's human being side.

On the other, responding to positive reviews volition help y'all show appreciation for your happy customers, whose reviews matter virtually in the long run.

The biggest challenge to responding to every review is that you may receive an overwhelming quantity of reviews. Quite ofttimes, it requires a whole squad of client service heroes to handle reviews on all channels.

And all of your customer service reps demand to know how to respond well.

Here are some essential tips to keep in mind when replying to negative reviews.

1. Get to the bottom of the result. Always endeavor to verify what the reviewer says by conducting a quick internal investigation with your staff.

Yous always want to endeavor to understand what happened.

two. Hold back your emotions and do not get defensive. Sometimes, the reviews volition be unfair and even imitation. Remember to ever stay respectful and factual in your response like Amazon in the instance below.

3. Show 18-carat empathy. Sometimes, the only affair that a disappointed customer needs is a unproblematic amends.

When you respond to reviews with an honest apology, your customers will know that y'all truly intendance.

4. Accept the problem offline. If you feel like the issue is escalating, it makes sense to continue the give-and-take privately rather than commenting back and forth.

5. Respect the rules. Many businesses offer discounts and coupons to brand up for their mistakes, but some platforms consider this a violation of trust or even bribing.

Like in the example to a higher place, email the coupon or discount instead of posting it on a social media site.

Never forget to tell your side of the story to defend your make, either.

Don't be afraid to tell your side of the story

Bad reviews are not ever your mistake. But when a number of things add upward to a negative client experience, your business might suffer.

If somebody were to falsely accuse yous of a crime, you would do anything in your power to prove your innocence.

When a review is only untrue, you might need to do the same.

Sometimes, y'all need to share your side of what really happened.

That way, future customers who come across your page and see negative reviews can read your account of the story and make an informed decision for themselves about what really happened.

When you tin can gracefully articulate the facts and show off the benefits of your business at the same time, you can take a negative situation and spin it into a positive one.

When you satisfy your customers, you'll encourage them to stay loyal to you.

Satisfying unhappy customers encourages loyalty

Answering each and every customer review is a must. Simply it's fifty-fifty more of import to actually solve your customers' issues.

Zero is more than disappointing than a regular "nosotros apologize for any inconvenience caused" type of response with nil but a agglomeration of meaningless words.

That'south not helpful or satisfying. It's annoying.

And existence timely with your detailed solution is also important.

Data from HBR shows that brands that respond to customer issues rapidly accept more chances to retain customers.

The quicker yous respond, the more customers volition be willing to pay for your products and services in the future.

In this study, customers were willing to spend nearly $20 more than for a ticket from an airline that responded to their complaints in less than five minutes.

That same study found that customers of wireless carriers who got their issues resolved with customer service reps were willing to pay $8 more than for their wireless plans.

Simply what is even more fascinating is that customers were willing to pay an actress $6 for wireless services from the brand even if the carrier didn't solve their problems. Just getting a response was plenty to make willing to pay a piddling flake more than.

Obviously, at that place are customer bug that you can't resolve for a number of reasons.

But this written report shows that even a simple expression of empathy can go a long way in diffusing frustration and providing proficient client service.

Delta's pizza party is a bang-up case of how brands tin provide adept client service through empathy.

They ordered 600 pizzas for their passengers who experienced delays because of severe weather in Atlanta.

Here's what Julieta McCurry, Delta's Managing Director of U.Due south. Marketing Communications and Sponsorships, said:

"Empathy ever has and continues to drive our experience design, service and delivery. With a new yr, nosotros renew that delivery."

Some other benefit of responding to angry customers is engaging them in a conversation. Making a personal connectedness with a dissatisfied customer can make all the deviation.

When your customer service reps exercise this, it's a expert idea to have them sign their initials or names when responding.

This way, customers will feel more comfy following up on their issues afterwards on. Many brands use this, including Burt'southward Bees.

Encourage client service agents to add together their names to tickets and responses for a personal bear upon.

All in all, you should always think of negative feedback as a chance to improve.

Negative feedback is an opportunity to improve

Customer satisfaction has never been more important than it is today.

Around one-half of all startups fail. And that's not just true nearly tech startups. That'due south true of businesses in nearly every industry.

Take a wait at this 2017 graph from Failory. The highest failure charge per unit occurs in the information industry where 63% of startups fail.

Just having a sound customer retention strategy tin can increase your odds of success, and review management is a large role of it.

Care for every kind of feedback you receive as a gift. It is a costless piece of information that you tin use to meliorate and grow your business.

In that location is no amend way to know if your business organization does well than request your customers.

That'due south why there are and then many businesses carry out customer surveys every yr.

Big brands spend tons of resources on conducting customer satisfaction surveys fifty-fifty though customers often abandon them without finishing them.

Every bit you can see, it'southward difficult to become customers to complete surveys. That means that getting voluntary feedback is invaluable.

It can help you uncover and resolve key consumer pain points. This, in turn, can help your business abound.

Merely look at how Domino'southward recovered from the viral prank video scandal back in 2009 calling their production "edible cardboard."

Their stock went from $4 per share in 2008 to $215 per share in 2017.

Keep in heed that not every customer will bother to get out a negative review.

All the same, the ones that do are probably not lonely. At that place will be a lot of customers who feel the same way but never express their opinions. They but leave without you even knowing.

It's e'er expert to bear witness dear to your unhappy customers and strive for a 2d chance with them. Only that'southward not the only way to utilise negative reviews for your concern growth.

If you dig deeper into those reviews, you will be able to detect actual business ideas. This is peculiarly truthful for digital businesses like SaaS or other web-based services.

Many of these businesses apply tools like UserVoice to bring customers into the product development process itself.

Here's how it works.

When a customer is unhappy about sure aspects of the product, customer service agents encourage the user to submit a feature request in UserVoice.

If the feature gets enough upvotes, information technology ends upwards on the product roadmap.

No one can tell yous how to improve your services or products better than your ain customers, so never miss a chance to mind to what they have to say.

For instance, Buffer used customer feedback to validate the idea of having a video upload characteristic. This thought came from a client request.

Buffer presently implemented this feature, and it was a success in terms of customer collaboration.

Don't view all of your negative reviews every bit threats. Strive to larn from them and use them to improve every bit a company.

Determination

Most businesses do everything they can to avoid negative reviews. And in many means, this makes sense.

Simply not all negative reviews are bad. In fact, they tin exist helpful in several means.

Bad reviews help build trust. Today, ownership false reviews is as easy as getting any other service, which makes information technology difficult for shoppers to identify businesses with trustworthy ratings.

Negative reviews create a good for you balance and assist shoppers see that your public reviews are trustworthy. Ultimately, they'll trust your business more because of them.

Negative feedback is also a gold mine of opportunity. But you need a game plan earlier you reply to a customer.

When information technology comes to customer interactions, practice y'all want to exist casual, formal, or somewhere in the center? You should determine this before you brainstorm responding.

Customer complaints are a powerful tool to uncover internal problems on time and fix them before they go out of control. For this reason, they tin aid to boost your conversion rates.

Then, it is of import to monitor all review platforms regularly.

This feedback provides invaluable insights into customer satisfaction, which would otherwise require more effort and resources.

Information technology too provides a take a chance to showcase your customer care excellence and your human side. Be empathetic with reviews and apologize when you should.

Y'all shouldn't ignore any reviews whether they're positive or negative. Answering your customers' feedback promptly and consistently translates into bodily sales increases.

This means that every review that remains unanswered is a lost opportunity to retain existing customers and attract new prospects.

You as well need to address reviews that aren't true. Yous need to defend your make confronting imitation claims. In most cases, that'due south amend than ignoring them.

When yous satisfy unhappy customers, yous'll exist encouraging brand loyalty. And negative feedback is merely an opportunity to improve overall.

Simply never forget to treat your happy customers with as much care and attention every bit the ones who complain. Happy customers are the best marketing. And information technology's a free opportunity.

Each review is a free piece of information that you can use to grow your business. Care for each one as a gift.

In what ways accept negative reviews benefited your business?

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Source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/your-business-needs-negative-reviews/

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