Thursday, July 25, 2013

Tips For Responding To Negative Ratings and Reviews Online

As a business owner you want to do whatever you can to ensure that your customers are getting the best products and services possible, but sometimes you won't be able to please every single customer that walks through your door.  Ratings and reviews have become a way for people to tell others about their experiences with businesses, and thanks to the internet they've become an essential tool for consumers. 

Custom Smart Homes ratings are usually very positive, but some businesses haven't been as lucky.  When you receive a bad rating online you may be eager to reply, but some businesses don't use the best practices for responding to negative ratings.  If you're determined to respond to some negative ratings are reviews your customers have made, make sure you follow these rules to ensure that you're doing it correctly.

Have a plan

If you don't have a way to fix whatever the customer said was negative about your business, don't bother to respond to their rating or review.  Simply saying that the customer is wrong and that your business is great won't do anything to help your image, you need to show the negative rater and other readers that you're doing what you can to ensure that same problem doesn't occur again.  If they're complaining about customer service, say that you're currently reviewing your customer service techniques.  If they're complaining about your product or service, say that you're working on a way to fix it.

Be Timely

If you're noticing a bad rating that was posted a year ago, don't write out a response to it.  When it comes to responding to negative ratings or reviews, timing is everything.  If you respond to old ones the account that posted it may no longer be active, or people reading it will wonder why it took you so long to respond to it.  If you're going to respond make sure that it's to something that was posted recently, otherwise you'll be wasting your time.

Make Different Responses


One of the worst things a company can do when they're responding to negative ratings and reviews is to use the same response for each one.  Copied and pasted responses don't look good to others that are reading them, and they make it seem like your company truly doesn't care about how the customers feel.  If you're doing to respond sit down and think of an individual response for each individual review/rating.  

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