StepRep is a great product that helps small businesses know when they have been mentioned online. With so many review sites, blogs, forums, social sites etc. to check it can be easy to miss a mention or review. Luckily, StepRep does all the checking for you – every single day.

Unfortunately, StepRep can’t stop negative reviews from coming in. Nor can we respond to them for you. It is very important to respond in a timely and professional matter to these negative posts and comments because word of mouth can spread very fast online.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. You can learn a lot from your negative reviews. They can tell you service and quality trends at your business (i.e. if you have a problem employee).
2. It’s important to respond to negative reviews because it will show the reviewer and other potential customers that you care and are willing to make changes.
3. You can encourage your loyal and satisfied customers to post reviews online as well so that they are represented.

Responding to negative reviews:

DO:

• Stay positive and professional. Your response may be seen and judged by many potential customers.
• Acknowledge the facts and apologize. Even if you think it’s impossible, or that the person is lying, it’s best to just offer a sincere apology.
• Use your name and title. This adds credibility to the response.
• Offer a resolution. Let the customer know what will be done to correct the issues they experienced.
• Once you’ve corrected the issues, invite the customer to give your business another chance.
• Be thankful. Thank a customer for their patronage despite their bad experience.

DON’T

• Take reviews personally.
• Bribe the reviewer to remove or change their review. It comes off as insincere and desperate.
• Be defensive or critical of the reviewer.  Even if a reviewer called you or your business an offensive term, do not stoop to their level with your response.
• Fake positive reviews.
• Start a public argument. If you are adamant the reviewer is wrong in their review and has malicious intentions, don’t stage a public defense. It’s best to send a private response to the customer who wrote the review. If you are going to post publicly, stay positive and professional.
• Type in all-caps. Typing in capital letters indicates yelling. Even if your reply is not meant to be angry, all-caps can make it appear that way.

It can be hard to handle negative comments online, but if you take the advice above and stay positive and professional at all times you’ll find that many customers will be willing to give your business a second chance.