A bad review looming on Facebook or Google is definitely a bummer for a business. The sentiment expressed by Benjamin Franklin, “it takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it” rings slightly true in the 21st century when it comes to your online reputation.
In fact, studies show that one negative review is enough for 35% of a website’s visitors to decide not to buy, and three negative reviews can cost a business 59% fewer sales.
If you have received a bad online review, your first response may be to wonder whether or not you can simply delete the bad review and pretend as though nothing happened.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a way to remove negative reviews from major online platforms. But, don’t panic. Just because you can’t delete negative reviews online, doesn’t mean there is nothing you can do about it, and that your online reputation is destroyed forever.
Nearly every company receives negative reviews at one time or another. In fact, if you don’t have any negative reviews, your business may turn people off from looking too good to be true. More than two-thirds of users trust reviews more when they are a mix of positive and negative reviews.
What’s important isn’t necessarily that you received a negative review. What’s important moving forward is how you handle the negative review and what you do to boost positive reviews.
Here is a closer look at how you can control the online narrative of your company through a dedicated reputation management strategy, instead of wondering how to remove negative reviews.
Your online reputation is largely in your control (seriously)
You can’t control what others say about you, but you can control how you respond to customer reviews. And, how you respond plays a significant role in your online reputation and how customers feel about your business.
In fact, 30% of customers feel more positive about a business that responds to online reviews. Additionally, 95% of unsatisfied customers will return to a company if it manages to solve the issue quickly and efficiently.
A great way to accomplish this is to entrust a full-service reputation management software to help you control your online narrative. A full-service reputation management software will not only track your reviews but also provides access to representatives that will respond to reviews in real-time.
You can turn a customer’s online review into a positive website experience
Here’s an interesting fact. Negative reviews can actually be a positive driver for users to spend more time investigating your website. Stats show that people spend more than 5 times as long on a website when they read negative reviews.
This isn’t to say that your business should have a million negative reviews, but a couple can draw curious consumers into your website. Once on your website, you have the opportunity to put your best foot forward, and show your captive audience why your company is awesome.
It’s also critical to keep in mind that 95% of consumers suspect censorship or faked reviews if there aren’t any negative ones.
You can turn negative reviews into a personalized customer service experience
Experts like Neil Patel say your business needs more negative reviews. Maybe one reason is that negative reviews give your team a chance to reach out to dissatisfied customers and address their personal problems.
This type of customer service goes a long way in showing individual customers how much you care about their satisfaction and customer experience with your brand.
While it’s true you can’t delete a negative review, a negative review can provide an opportunity for you to show how good your team is at customer service. Additionally, once the interaction is over, you can ask the customer to change their negative review into a positive review.
You can elicit more positive online reviews
It’s normal for companies to get negative reviews, and there is a smart strategy for managing negative reviews. You can use full-service software to track your reviews and make sure you stay on top of responding to them.
Once you’ve done the hard work, you can spend the rest of your time seeking out happy customers and eliciting positive Facebook and Google reviews.
As a benchmark for how many reviews you should have, local businesses have an average of 39 Google reviews. If you have less, task your customer service team with reaching out to happy customers and asking for reviews.
Don’t worry about negative reviews; worry about responding swiftly to negative reviews
No business owner likes a negative review, but it’s also not the end of the world. Negative reviews show that your company is authentic and offers an opportunity for you to reach out and turn a negative experience into a positive one.
And, you don’t have to do all the hard work yourself. If you’re looking for help with your online review management, then contact us today. Our team will come up with the perfect solution for you.