How To Turn A Negative Reviews For Your Katy Business Into An Opportunity For Success.
Are you a business owner who recently received a negative review online? Rather it was to your GMB profile, Facebook, or Yelp, a bad review can put you into a tailspin. Let our local SEO firm in Katy show you how to get out of it by taking a negative review and using it to a great advantage for your business.
When it comes to local search engine optimization there are two keys to success, the key we are going to focus on today is reviews. If you don’t yet have a GMB listing, then read why Google My Business is essential to your success. But what do you do when you or someone on your staff had a bad day and things take a slight turn for the worse because one of your clients is unhappy? For a business owner who maintains high standards, reviews make you shine. However, we have all had those bad days or customers where no matter how much we go over and above the call of duty to make them happy they seem impossible to please. In the end they tarnish our spotless reputation leaving a one-star review and negative feedback. This can be a business owner worst nightmare because this is where potential clients looking for your services do their online research. Some businesses are so frightened to get a negative review that they don't even ask for a reviews at all, this can tank your local SEO results. As an SEO firm in Katy, we offer reputation management and have flipped the game using five simple tips that we will share with you to keep on shining like the superstar business you are/ Here is how we turn a negative into a positive to create a steady influx of leads and even more loyal clients.
The Five Tips To Handle A Bad Review
Tip # 1 Respond Immediately When You See A One Star Review
Here is where you’re going to take a bad review and turn it into an opportunity for greatness. Its all in how you respond that can make or break your business for years to come. First you want to put yourself in your customer shoes, almost everyone wants the same things from any business rather you are a hairdresser or a general contractor:
1. They want someone who arrives promptly
2. They want you to treat them with courtesy and respect
3. They want you to do your job, while they job may be different if they know you gave it you’re all this goes a long ways.
When I read most negative review it contains one of these three elements. How should you approach it? The first thing is to respond immediately, as soon as you see a customer leaves a review you want to go onto your GMB dashboard or whatever platform the customer reported to and reach out, the same goes for positive reviews.
The first thing you must do is issue a public apology for any inconvenience that you or your team caused, regardless of how insignificant this may appear. Next you want to offer them your personal information as the owner of XYZ company in Katy and assure them that once they contact you, you will resolve their complaint. An alternative would be to contact them to discuss the problem. We have seen in a few cases where this approach has made the customer update their review without our client ever asking them to.
# 2 Stay Cool, Calm, and Collective
There are times when you may have already contacted the customer and tried to remedy the issue, but again you can’t make everyone happy. The review they leave is in their control but the way you respond is entirely up to you. The worst thing you can do is respond in anger or frustration. Remember that people are not only going to read this one-star review, but they will see how you reacted.
Were you kind and considerate?
Did you apologize and offer to resolve the issue?
Or did you respond in an uproar and respond to a negative, in a negative way?
Remember what Momma taught you: two wrongs don’t make it right!
One day while I was looking for a local photographer for my daughter maternity photoshoot, I saw a listing that had over 500 reviews. There were 499 positive and only one negative. However, on the negative review the photographer actually had the audacity to tell her client who left a negative testimonial " The reason you are unsatisfied with your photographs is not the quality of my work but the subject matter. You are so ugly that I am surprised my camera still works after I shot you and your husband. " While the 499 other reviews were stellar the way this photographer handle the situation made me question her moral compass, so I hired someone else. This is why I stress the importance of using bad reviews as an opportunity for greatness. A wise man once told me that whatever you respond to in writing including a review can come back to haunt you. Anyone can return a blow for a blow and you don't want to make matters worse. The way you respond can impact your business more than the actual review they left.
Here are a few ways we recommend resolving the issue:
Refund: I know that no business owner wants to have to issue a refunds, we have been fortunate enough not to have to. However it is the cost of doing business. Once you issue a refund the customer may fix or remove their review.
Redo: Go back and resolve their complaint. Leave a reply such as " We would be happy to return tomorrow to resolve your complaint" then follow through without complaint or grumbling. People are far more forgiving then we give them credit for and when you’re willing to play ball and own the mistake they often will update their review and give you a second chance the next time they need your services.
#3 Automation Review Platform
If you are dealing with your reviews this can be a tedious process so let us introduce you to the platform our local SEO team in Katy created. Our platform Rapid Response will streamlines the entire process and is included in our SEO packages. However we also offer R & T as a pay to use platform. The purpose of this platform is to use automated technology that will lighten the load of having to respond rapidly to all of your reviews and feedback.
R & R has plenty of additional benefits including monitoring, managing, replying via a templet, disputing a bad review, or flagging a reviews that you receive.
Get A Free Local SEO Report For Your Katy Business
Would you like me or my team at Your Business Bakery (YBB Digital Marketing) to review your online marketing recipe? During this call we will review your current strategy including your GMB profiles to show you how you stack up against the competiton. We will show you what is going right and what needs to be improved to reach even more clients online, so if its time to get serious about building a business that runs efficiently lets chat. We understand how to help you excel online to grow your business to the next level. Here is your chance to get in the game and make 2022 the best year in business you have ever experience. It all starts by clicking the link below to schedule your lead flow acceleration session.