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Turning Negative Customer Reviews into Lemonade!

October 16, 2011

You know the importance of getting customer reviews to move your business to the top of the local search maps. What happens when you get negative reviews? If 4 out of 5 potential customers are influenced by customer reviews, how do you get rid of 

the negative reviews?  In this post, I will shares with you a framework that can turn negative customer reviews into a positive marketing strategy and improve your business’s customer service.  Lemons can become lemonade!  Enjoy the post.

Every Business Gets Negative Reviews

You got complaints in your business long before online customer reviews. Every business does. Maybe the customer doesn’t understand how your products works; they don’t follow instructions; their expectations are different from yours; some people like apples, others like oranges. Whatever the reason, you will get negative customer reviews. Its’ called “owning a business.”

The Power of Social Media

There is an old statistic that every positive comment is told to three other people; every negative comment is told to ten other people. The speed, the real time, the viral nature of social media sites has changes the rules of the game.

The power of social media windows your business to the world. Programs like Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Yelp, Google Reviews leaves your business open to the world. The viral power of these social networks can work positively for your business; it can work negatively for your business. Look at social media sites as an opportunity not a burden. If truth be told, most people do not complain on social media sites until they have exhausted the other business complaint channels.

Learn About Your Business

Negative reviews can teach you about your business. When a customer takes the time to complain about a product or your business operations, they are telling you where you can improve your business. Learn from the negative reviews.

Take this example from LL.Bean.

“L.L. Bean is another brand that acts fast on poorly-reviewed products. When the company sees more than six negative reviews on a product, a manager must immediately respond to the disgruntled customers and begin investigating the product’s potential flaws. If there is no immediate ways to improve the product, L.L. Bean doesn’t hesitate to remove it completely from the site.” Erin Mulligan Nelson. “Why Terrible Online Reviews Are Actually Good For You—Your Customers Are Telling You How to Make Your Product Better”.

Builds Credibility for Your Business

When people see a business response online about a negative review, they are more likely to believe the business cares about its customers. The Maritz study found that 83% of the complaints that received a reply liked or loved the fact that the company responded. It’s the old adage of turning a lemon into lemonade. It really works with people.

Improves Customer Services

Customer service used to be what you did on the phone and what you did in your store. Now what you do online is part of your customer service program. When people see that you handle complains well, your customer service ratings go up.

Foster Customer Interaction

In the digital economy, interaction with customers is the name of the game. Technology allows us to interactive with our customers online. Instead of waiting for customers to initiate this interaction, businesses can use the social media sites to engage customers even over negative comments. People will participate in these forms of discussion even more so than positive discussions. The best content about your brand does not come from you. It comes from your customers. Engaging a community of customers is the secret to online success.

Conclusion

Negative reviews are not all bad. When you look at them from a framework of learning, interacting, engaging customers, and demonstrating customer service, you can turn online negative customer reviews into a positive online marketing strategy for your business. You can turn lemons into lemonade!

Share your comments and questions in the Comment Section below.  Thank you.

Al Hanzal,
View more posts by Al Hanzal

Filed under: Customer Service,Marketing,Online Marketing