Business owners tend to panic when they see a negative review posted online. After all, nobody likes to be criticized, and it can be pretty shameful as your dirty laundry is out there for everybody (including prospective customers) to see.
Just like in real life, however, it’s important to look on the brighter side of things. You can still turn things around by turning that bad review into something good. According to Drive Traffic Media, a leading SEO company in Orange County, your reaction to a bad review can be more significant than the bad review itself. Here’s why:
Negative Reviews Improve SEO
Both positive and negative reviews have a chance of boosting your SEO and visibility. They show off feedback from customers, encourage searchers to learn more about your brand, and can even be optimized for keywords.
Positive reviews draw people in and encourage them to interact with your business. Negative reviews, on the other hand, make your business look more trustworthy as they give customers a good idea of what your product or service is like in a worst-case scenario.
When combined, they give an air of authenticity that both customers and search engines will find useful. You might even find that sites with overwhelmingly positive reviews rank lower than sites with mixed reviews!
Just remember that the number of positive and negative reviews isn’t what’s most important here—it’s how you react. Your response will set your customers’ expectations and tone for your brand more than any review can.
Negative Reviews Build Credibility
“If it’s too good to be true, then it probably isn’t.”
This quote holds even in the digital marketing world. Customers tend to be extra wary around businesses that have higher ratings as they’re well-aware of shady tactics like writing fake reviews and buying good reviews that some of them employ to boost their rankings. In fact, businesses with ratings ranging from 4.0 to 4.5 tend to fare a lot better than businesses with 5-star ratings!
According to Neil Patel, “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, 4.3 on Google, and 4.25 on TripAdvisor.”
So, instead of freaking out about that negative review you just got, embrace it and use it to your advantage. Who knows, they might even be so impressed with your customer service that they rescind their negative review!
Negative Reviews Help You Improve
According to ReviewInc, 65% of people don’t leave bad reviews even when they have a negative experience. What we can infer from this is that if a customer leaves a bad review, then they probably must have had a very compelling reason to.
So, use your negative reviews as reflection points. Try to understand why your customer is frustrated and act accordingly. Do you have faulty products? Do your customer service skills need improving? Did you promise something that you couldn’t deliver?
Because let’s face it—no business is perfect no matter how hard you try. You’re bound to hit a snag eventually, and there will always be room for improvement in all aspects of your business. This is especially important if you’ve got a ton of competitors. You need to be one step ahead of the others, and you can’t do that if you’re not made aware of areas of improvement.
Now, we’re not saying that all negative reviews you get will have useful information or even truthful! Sometimes people just want to be angry without explaining why. In that case, just ensure you leave a thoughtful response stating your side of the story and how you’re always striving to be better.
Conclusion
If you couldn’t already tell, reviews are essential for your marketing strategy. It’s important to stay on top of your reviews, thanking customers for positive reviews and apologizing for negative ones. You need to respond quickly as it shows you’re actively trying to improve and genuinely as it shows you care about your customers’ experiences.
Just remember to never let things get you down and always bounce back better than ever.
