Positive reviews will always help your business grow, by letting you know what you’re doing well and bringing you new customers through reputation. But negative reviews can also be part of the growth process.
While it is always rewarding to read a good review, as a business owner you need to be aware of the fact that bad reviews are also part of reality. It can be disappointing and demoralizing to come across a bad review, but you don’t need to look at them as blows that will destroy your business. On the contrary, they should be seen as valuable lessons that will give you a better insight of what is not working and needs immediate action.
Instead of having customers that don’t talk and don’t express their opinions, leaving you to live with the impression that everything is perfect, you should be grateful for every piece of information they are willing to offer. Fortunately, we, the Premier Pups team, didn’t have to learn that the hard way.
Our bad reviews were not that bad. And we always fixed the problem immediately. As any respectable business should. We are confident that you are doing the best you can to get your hands on your positive reviews. But, this time, we will take a closer look at how these bad reviews can actually help your business.
Any reviews are good reviews
The moment you stumble upon a negative review, you feel your blood starting to boil, you instantly start to sweat, and you can already sense that horrible headache that is coming your way. You panic and you are afraid that your brand and business will be seriously hit by that. Positive reviews require a lot of effort from your side, and that’s a fact, but you shouldn’t resume your entire activity to getting good reviews.
You can’t make everyone love you. That’s also a fact. You need to be strong and actually admit the fact that bad reviews can also help. How can these be of any help? Just have the patience to continue reading, as we are about to give you several good arguments on this subject, showing you that we are not talking nonsense.
Online reviews will significantly impact shopping behaviors
Receiving recommendations and suggestions from family and friends can indeed be useful, but things work so differently these days. With the help of technology and the Internet, we don’t have to rely on the pieces of advice offered by the people we know. It is extremely easy to check out what other people have to say about a certain product, service, brand, or company before deciding whether it is what you were looking for or you need to continue searching.
For example, 68% of the shoppers in the United States are influenced in a bigger degree by online reviews that by the recommendations offered by their family and friends, according to the blog post of Neil Patel.
So, it’s no wonder that everybody is looking at online reviews first, wishing to see a lot of positive ones, before deciding what is worth buying from their point of view. In fact, it doesn’t matter that you provided a detailed description of the product and did your best to explain what it does and how it will improve life quality because the online reviews of that particular product will weigh more in the decisional process of a client.
But aren’t positive reviews all you want to aim for?
Yes and no. Yes, positive reviews are what you should aim for. No, that won’t happen all the time. However, bad reviews are not always something that will bring your business down. On the contrary, they will help you in ways you can’t currently imagine, in case you handle them properly. For example, when someone is checking a product out, he or she will also look at the not-so positive reviews of that product, if they exist.
This is done not because people want to know what to avoid, but in order to find out more information about the product and make sure that they will end up making an informed choice. You see, what didn’t work for a particular client, may work very well for another. Each customer will have a separate and individual experience with a product, so it doesn’t hurt at all to see both the good sides and bad sides of an item, before deciding whether it will suit their needs.
While one of your goals would be to have positive reviews only, do have in mind that this is not a realistic expectation. Plus people will think that the reviews for your products or services are fake because there isn’t such a thing as a perfect product or service. In other words, a bad review will keep things well rooted in reality and will show everybody that even if your business is not perfect, you do your best to meet all demands.
You know how to handle a positive review. How about a bad one?
Well, the best thing to do in this kind of situation is to try and fix it the best way you can. However, you first have to read it carefully and see if that is a serious concern or complain and if you should take it seriously.
In case the answer is yes, the next step would be directly contacting the customer and ask him about the problem, and how you and your team could solve it. In case the customer behaves in a way normal people should, you will manage to find a way to make them happy again. Then return to the review and answer shortly and politely in a manner that suggests both parties managed to come to a mutual agreement.
The other option would be directly addressing the bad review in a public manner. In your reply, ask your customer about the problem, ways you could try and solve it and offer a contact option dedicated to the customer satisfaction part of your business.
And that’s how you turn a bad review into a positive review.
Conclusion
So, instead of constantly fearing a bad review, it’s better for you to accept that, at some point, you may receive one. Even if this happens, it’s not the end of the world and it doesn’t mean that your business is going to sink. Be professional and diplomatic about it and you will only have to gain out of it.
Author bio:
Jason Goldstein works as a Marketing Specialist for Premier Pups and Premier Pups Reviews. He takes great pride in partnering with the best-certified breeders in Ohio to offer the highest quality, cutest puppies for adoption. He looks forward to sharing his love for pets with people through the agency.
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