In marketing and the total internet footprint, you usually run across reviews in search along with your website, social media and business industry listings when checking out your own business or that of a competitor or industry expert.
I often get asked a lot if I handle reviews, trying to get them removed or what to do with bad or illegitimate reviews.
Not a bad idea to do a search for your biz, see what comes up. #bizresearch Click To TweetFake reviews – it happens
It is easy to say that there are crappy people out there that will try to tarnish your brand by putting up false or fake reviews. I have been lucky enough for this not to happen to me, but it has happened to clients of mine. One guy even has a stalker who constantly is seeking out ways to try to ruin his business.
- You could contact the review hosting website to advise that it is fake and request it be taken down, but there are no guarantees.
- You could also respond to it, which isn’t a bad thing either and I usually suggest this to almost all of my clients. This way, onlookers can judge for themselves, likely agree that it is fake review, an old employee or hater or see that you did your due diligence to resolve the issue versus just ignoring it, if it remains on the review site.
- BURY IT – the best way to deal with this, continue reading for more on this.
Bad reviews – you can’t please everyone
There are tons of different types of people in the world and you have to know that your product or service either won’t work for everyone, there will be operator error or that you just can’t please everyone. Stop trying.
Stop trying to please everyone, it won’t happen, but bury bad reviews with good ones. #reviews Click To TweetSo again, you can’t please everyone and at some point in time during your business or where you work, there will be a bad review against you or your business. Sometimes it may be personal, not for you, but for them. Some people are insistent on getting things their way, right, wrong or indifferent and well, it just doesn’t always work that way. Sure, I’m for ‘the customer is right’ but there are times when… well, they aren’t. I am all for doing everything you can to make the client/customer happy, but even then, you can’t… walk away, it’s okay.
What to do – remember I said – BURY Them!
Think of the last time you looked at reviews at a hotel, restaurant or any product. There might have been a ton of great reviews, a mix of good and bad reviews and a ton of bad ones. Likely, the tons of bad ones are due to a poor business or lack of responsibility. Consider also how you thought about those reviews. Maybe a hotel had some bad customer service reviews. If they only had negative reviews, you’d likely take your business elsewhere. If they had good and bad reviews you might consider the dates of the reviews and maybe they went through management or staff issues. Consider if they had a ton of good reviews and a few negative ones – you might think, someone just wasn’t going to be happy or an ex-employee. Well, that’s what I think!
So, the point is… it is best to have more good reviews than bad and respond to the bad ones as soon as you see them trying to make it right or ask for clarification if they weren’t a customer, but be careful on this one. (Be sure you aren’t accusing a real customer who’s pissed as a fake one. Lol)
Keep in mind that the multitude of poor reviews might be poor marketing sense in that they didn’t think to work to bury their poor reviews, but I’m here to help with that.
How to Bury Them
Hopefully you have an email list or customer list that you can market to. I’d highly suggest reaching out to your current clients and ask them how you did and see if they would honor you with a review of their business. Keep in mind:
- What’s in it for them. Folks like to get something for doing something so consider a drawing of all those who completed a review each month/week, or give away something per review. It depends on what you can afford and your numbers.
- Make it easy. I’m all about keeping it easy for folks. Send them TO the places you need reviews. If you have poor reviews on Google, Yelp or the like, give them the link to your business listing there so they can leave their review there and not on another site you’ll have to manage.
- Consider your house. Consider housing reviews ON your website. You might not have negative reviews on your site (duh right) so you might want to solicit to the review sites first, then work on some reviews on your website. Plus, it’s an extra page on your site (that’s content) and likely they will mention a few keywords as they boast about your services or products. Score!
- Link to review sites. While you are working on adding more testimonials on your site, feel free to link to the other review sites there. Like, hey, feel free to check out our reviews on Google+, Yelp and Angie’s List and link directly to the place where they can find and add to them.
So, reach out to past and current clients and ask for reviews. You likely won’t get them unless you do ask, so why not. What is the worst they could do or say, no? Then, you are right where you are already. Give them incentive and make it easy for them to do it. Be appreciative!
Bottom Line
Bury negative reviews with good ones – solicit customers & by all means, make it easy & incentivize! #reviews Click To TweetHopefully this has helped with your concerns on reviews, negative reviews and what to do. If you need any help with burying yours via your email marketing, or setting it all up, contact me as I am happy to help.
~Kristen
I can SO relate to this, Kristen! As an author, reviews are huge (and I wrote about that last week :). When my novel came out last fall, almost all of the reviews are glowing. Then a truly nasty one came in. And a couple of other not-so-stellar ones.
What my book publicist said surprised me. She said it was actually good to have some bad reviews, in a sea of good ones, because it made all of them look more real. When all you have are stellar reviews, people begin to think only your friends and family have read and reviewed the book!
Made sense to me. And that’s exactly what you’re saying–bury the bad ones with an avalanche of good!
Love this!
That’s a great point Susan… and hopefully your friends would love you enough to actually read your book. lol
Great tips on testimonials (reviews). I have done this in the past for my organizing business and admin services business and for my clients businesses. I agree making it as easy as possible for the customer and giving them an incentive to add a review are great ways to get them to act on it now. I recommend doing a few mailing lists review requests a few times over the course of the year because people may be busy when the first email gets to them. So they may act on the second one instead. Thanks for sharing, Kristen. =)
Yep.. your email marketing list is a great place to ask for reviews. Thanks Sabrina.
We have been successful in asking for reviews from customers. We individualize it with a link to the necklace purchased. Sometimes I’ve asked for a review on our FB page & people seem to know what to do. What I would love is a quick comment that lets me know the product has arrived & they love it. It is an unsolicited review, I know all is well and we have pleased our customer.
That is great Roz… and also a great suggestion.
Great points here. I will say that if I got Amazon and a product doesn’t have at least a couple of low star reviews, I don’t trust it. It brings real life into view when they are there.
Yep… I pay attention to the stars and reviews as well Renee, thanks!
I’ve recently Googled both myself and my business and nothing bad came up, which is good. The only reviews I can find about my business are on my website. Maybe that’s because my business is less than 2 years old.
Not a bad thing, no bad reviews.. however, if you are Googling YOU, you should definitely come up Carol.
It’s a great idea to bury bad reviews in a heap of brilliant ones and to ask your followers to give reviews when needed. It doesn’t hurt to have a balance and as long as there are plenty of good testimonials chances are the bad reviews will reflect more on the writers than on the business.
Oh yes Tamuria, I often look at the poor review and see how they present themselves, sometimes I feel bad for the business, having to had to deal with them. lol
Good point, I am relatively new business so I haven’t had many reviews, and no bad ones yet. But I love the idea of burying the bad ones. I will try to make it easier for my clients to give reviews. Thanks for the motivation.
Good points, Kristen. I was all set to argue with your premise about burying negative reviews, but when I reached the end, I saw your strategy and agree with it. I also agree with your premise that bad reviews are a great way to educate your customers, clarify information that may have been misunderstood and to show superior customer service. Once again, you knocked it out of the (softball) park!
Thanks Toots… I can’t believe that you were ready to argue. lol Thanks Jackie!
Great idea if there is a bad review to deal with. I haven’t had to deal with myself however reviews can be so influential. As an entrepreneur I have become more aware that so many things such as this are just a perspective that may or may not be true and to take all comments, reviews, etc into consideration.
I’m with you Teresa.. haven’t had to deal with it myself either.. thankfully!
I definitely notice if a website has more positive reviews than negative and just expect that the negative (if there are fewer of those) was due to circumstances outside of the business’ abilities to help. I think its a great idea to continue to seek reviews and operate with a mindset of giving your customer the best possible experience. Thanks for the reminder to collect those reviews and to advertise them on my own site.
Thanks Jessica. Not only that, but I look at the date… because what if it was poor service at a restaurant or hotel, likely that person isn’t there any longer!
Good advice Kristen. I encountered a real estate agent who had a lengthly negative review. She had tried a service trying to get it removed but was unsuccessful. I suggested she ask for reviews from her current clients which is something she had not thought to do – duh!. Another was a restaurant. We were hesitant to go there, but the food and service were excellent. You bet we wrote a great review.
That is great Joyce, that you suggested that to a real estate agent, because likely the issue might not have been within her control, who knows. Thanks!
What great information! I encountered a grooming shop who was trying to bribe people to change their Yelp reviews. I suggested he change some of his customer service policies (and behavior, frankly) and gradually, the bad reviews began to change. I’ll pass this on!
Sad that folks have to bribe people to write good reviews. Glad that you suggested making some changes. I will also admit, Yelp can be kind of sheisty too. Thanks Jennifer
Great advice, Kristen. I like the resolution/solution kind of approach.
Thanks Jane… glad you liked it.
Share the good stuff! I love that insight. Early on I had solicited reviews for my book. (from friends and colleagues) I got quite a few.. and they had to READ the book first! We all have people we can reach out to and get the positive reviews we need,
thanks for a great article.
Perfect Alene and thanks for suggesting they read the book first… novel idea, right? lol
Great tips. I appreciate the ideas you have to bury the bad reviews. I’ve been fortunate thus far not to have bad reviews and I do host reviews on my site. I also check my name in google monthly to see what’s up. Good food for thought. Thanks!
Great idea to check out yourself for reviews and the like. Thanks Tandy.
Hi Kristen 🙂
This is awesome! Thanks so much for sharing how to deal with those “bad” reviews…..just bury them lol Love it! Simple! We just simply put them out of our minds and do not let them get to you. I have not had any yet, but when I do get them and I am sure I will….I will take your advice and just bury them 😉
Great share!!
I haven’t either Joan and hope I never do.. but I understand there are many folks out there that won’t ever be happy, no matter what!
I’ve always heard respond ASAP if there is a negative review, but asking your happy clients or customers for positive reviews just seems smart. Even if you don’t have negative reviews. Thanks so much for sharing, Kristen. Great post!
Thanks Brenda… and true, even if you don’t have any negative reviews now, you never know when you will and best to have them ahead of time.
Kristen – Thanks for this. I’ve discovered that reviews are the lifeblood of an author. I remember reading a NYT bestselling author stating “You wouldn’t believe what I did for reviews when I first started out.” At the time, I thought, “Oh yes I would!” But I agree with Susan Mary Malone, above; a poor review in a sea of good reviews makes them all seem more real.
Yea Joan, like folks are paying or overly soliciting reviews about a book nobody read just to make them seem better. I hear that.
When I got my first “bad” review for my book, I was mortified. And then, like Susan mentioned, I heard it was actually good to have a range of reviews, as all good reviews, seem “too good to be true”. I found something that Gary Vaynerchuk had posted about how to respond to bad reviews, and I did it and the woman was actually very kind and replied back to me. My book just didn’t appeal to her. I often wonder about people who take the time to write bad reviews, even when they haven’t read the book, or experienced the service. I immediately did what you suggest, and enlisted a bunch of good reviews to counter it. Great perspective in this post, Kristen, as it is always a wise move to counter the good with the bad.
Yea Bev.. as much as we want to be perfect for everyone, we have to know, we just aren’t and that’s okay… but surely your book kills it for many.. so focus on them!
Good advice here Kristen – love that you encourage your clients to reach out and/or respond to those who have given poor reviews. Too many trolls online?
Yes, many trolls and always good to show you are doing due diligence, thanks Deb.
Great ideas, all of these! I like the idea of simply drowning out any negative reviews with good ones. I’ve had people complain about things due to shipping (out of my control), didn’t like texture of a shake (after not following directions for how much liquid to add LOL), or just people who expect my services or products to be something different from what I offer (such as quick fixes! no sirree!!)… In those situations, I offer freebies, mail a note with a gift card, all sorts of different things I’ve tried to resolve the issue… and sometimes it works! Other times, no dice – and it just is what it is. Some customers simply cannot be satisfied, no matter what, and I have finally learned to accept this. So I do what I can, but I focus on finding more clients who are coachable and who are willing to leave positive testimonials!
Those are ALL great tips and suggestions Natalie and that is the thing, to make the effort, and do so online.. so others see that too… then focus on the ones who want to change… because it isn’t a magic pill or quick fix!
Great advice! I have a friend who deleted a negative comment and then the whole thing blew up… Just burying them with good comments is a much better strategy!
Yea.. that’s best.. or to respond to the negative comment w/o escalating it.. but sometimes people will never be happy… so bury them Kimberly. lol