6 Ways To Fix Negative Online Reviews and Improve Your Brand Reputation

How do you fix negative online reviews hurting your brand? Can you communicate with angry customers without causing more damage?

It’s clear that we’re in the age of the internet — and there’s no going back. If your business is being haunted by a bad online review, your brand and your reputation face serious damage every time someone searches for your business or personal name.

After working with countless customers to create review management solutions, we’ve developed the following five steps to fix negative online reviews and stop them from harming your brand.

We can help you create a positive online reputation, even if you’re starting from zero or rebounding from reputational damage. Call us at 941-259-4554 for more information.

How To Fix Negative Online Reviews

Every business deals with a negative review at one time or another. When it comes to both positive and negative reviews, one strategy is clear: don’t ignore them.

Managing negative online reviews doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With the right mindset, you can respond to negative reviews in a way that salvages your relationship with potential customers and creates a positive online presence for your brand.

1. Don’t Panic — Every Business Gets a Negative Review at Some Point

Bad reviews are posted every day, affecting businesses of all sizes and from all industries.

When you spot a bad review of your firm, avoid a knee-jerk panic reaction. You aren’t the first, and you won’t be the last to be impacted by negative items online. The best response is to research proven ways to deal with the situation, which you’re already doing since you’re reading this post.

Remember: Keep your calm and don’t post any responses that could further inflate the issue.

2. Assess the Problem — What is the Customer Feedback Telling You?

When you first discover a bad review of your business, you might be tempted to ignore it completely. After all, what harm could come from leaving the bad review alone?

We hear this misconception all the time. Unfortunately, refusing to acknowledge that the review exists or do anything about it puts you at risk of customers seeing bad reviews at the top of Google search results, showing your business front and center in the worst light possible.

By leaving a negative review alone, it can easily be viewed, shared, and associated with your business anytime someone searches for it.

Instead, a better strategy is to determine what the review is trying to tell you. Is there a problem with your customer support team that you need to address? Are customers having difficulty with one of your products?

Figure out what the feedback is saying so you can properly address both the review and the situation to prevent issues from happening again.

Our clients come to us when they need to build or repair their online reputation and make things right with their target audience. Call us at 941-259-4554 to learn more.

3. Identify Real vs. Fake Reviews — Your Review Response Will Change Accordingly

To determine a review’s validity, ask yourself a few questions:

• Was the reviewer an actual client and not a bot, a disgruntled ex-employee, or a competitor?
• Did the experience described in the negative review really take place?
• If so, does the review provide an accurate description of what happened?

While tricky, determining the review’s authenticity is essential to know how best to move forward.

The most important thing here is to acknowledge the issue at hand and identify a solution calmly. If you avoid the problem, it will continue to negatively influence your customers.

4. Make a Plan — You Can Turn Negative Reviews Into Positive Experiences

By assessing the negative review, you can decide what the best review response is. Here are two scenarios:

If the Negative Review is Questionable: Research the Negative Feedback and Remove It

To maintain credibility, popular review sites like Google Reviews, Tripadvisor and RateMDs have established processes for filtering out spammy, malicious and false reviews. These processes are not perfect, however, and fake reviews can easily slip through the cracks.

If the negative review is veritably false or malicious, read the site’s terms of service to locate steps for removal. If your assessment falls within the scope of these rules, contact the site to get the negative review removal ball rolling.

If the Negative Review is Valid: Research the Customer Satisfaction Issue and Respond Accordingly

If the negative feedback is true and the negative experience has been validated, look deeper into the incident being described. Talk with employees and others involved to get the necessary background info. Do everything necessary to equip yourself with as much information as you can before you prepare a public response.

Do your best to see the problem from the customer’s perspective. If this is a first-time review or issue, it may be best to respond to the reviewer privately, at least before issuing a reply on a public platform like Google Reviews.

Finding solutions and addressing the underlying problem behind the scenes can mend fences with the client so they remove or change the review on their own.

5. Take Action — Turn Negative Reviews Into Positive Experiences

Dealing with the occasional negative review is a good reminder that you should be paying attention to both negative and positive reviews for the sake of business growth.

When you respond to negative reviews, potential customers are able to see how you provide customer support. Even if the comment the reviewer left is negative, future customers will trust that you take your audience seriously.

Moreover, it’s smart to encourage positive reviews from your happy customers as well. Ask your existing customers to review their experiences with your company. Not only will this show you proof of positive customer satisfaction levels, but you’ll be able to spot minor issues and head them off before they get larger.

InternetReputation.com provides the information and services you need to respond to negative reviews. Get started with a free online reputation analysis by calling 941-259-4554 today.

When Is It Time To Respond to the Review Publicly?

If your efforts at a private resolution either don’t produce a workable solution, fail to reach the customer, or weren’t feasible to begin with, it might be time to respond on the review site itself.

Now’s the time to take a thoughtful and measured approach. The following tips will help:

• Be positive
• Thank the client for the feedback
• Explain that you’re researching and addressing the problem
• Apologize
• Offer to make it right

Sometimes, a private or public response will generate positive feedback from the reviewer. The client may even delete the review completely. In either case, your efforts are worth it.

Keep in mind that this process may take a while, and by the time you’ve achieved any sort of positive response or resolution, the bad review will have been online and searchable throughout the entire process.

In this case, we recommend hiring an expert to help address the negative aftermath of a bad review. Get in touch with us by calling 941-259-4554 today.

Hire Online Reputation Management Experts

In addition to asking existing customers to leave reviews, smart business owners delegate the task of review management to a team of experts, such as those at Internet Reputation. As an online reputation management company, we offer review management campaigns to collect more positive reviews, mitigate negative reviews and turn any negatives into positives.

Negative online reviews happen to every business. Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed with the issue at hand. Instead, put a strategy in place to quickly and effectively respond when negativity comes up.

One bad review doesn’t have to ruin your reputation. No company is perfect by any means, and the correct response can nullify a terrible review.

Monitor the online conversation surrounding your brand and use the power offered by reputation management to place your company in the best possible light.

Get started with a free online reputation analysis by calling 941-259-4554 today.