Customer feedback is an unavoidable aspect of online brand reputation management. If you run an online business, you will definitely get customer feedback on your products and services.
It is important to note that customer reviews will not always be in favor of your business. At some point, almost every retailer would receive negative feedback.
The good news is that both positive and negative reviews serve as opportunities to enhance your brand’s reputation and strengthen your sense of business integrity and credibility.
To help you make the most of those opportunities, we’ve put together common types of reviews retailers can expect to receive and how you should handle them.
TYPE 1: “YOU’RE AWESOME”
This is the category of reviews that come from customers who are actually your fans. They love your products and services and keep coming back for more while leaving positive reviews on your website.
So here, you don’t need to do anything but feel good about yourself and bask in the glory of positive customer vibes around your brand, right?
Wrong.
If used carefully, positive reviews can help you further enhance your reputation and attract more leads and conversions.
How to respond;
- thank you customer. Respond to each and every review in a personalized way to show gratitude to customers and let them know you care about their business.
- Mention your brand name in your answer. This will help your business rank higher in the SERPs.
- Promote your products/services in the comment. Many of your prospects would be reading your responses to assess your accountability and responsibility. Give them a reason to test your offers by saying something interesting about the product or mentioning your upcoming rank in response to reviews from your existing customers.
TYPE 2: “I ASKED FOR SOMETHING AND GOT SOMETHING ELSE”
This is where you (the seller) went wrong. You sent the wrong item or the wrong size. Maybe, the item was damaged in transit. The product was delivered late.
Slips like these can happen when you sell online, and there’s nothing wrong with that. What’s wrong is not taking responsibility for your mistakes and not responding to such reviews and addressing the issue, further frustrating the customer.
How to answer:
- Admit it. You know that you are the one who was wrong, so admit your mistake and apologize. Sometimes even a simple apology does most of the reputation repair work.
- Don’t blame others (the shipping company or bad weather) although technically it was not your fault. This will make you appear even more irresponsible and will damage the responsibility and integrity of your business.
- Emphasize that this is unusual.. Your prospects must be reading those not-so-great reviews. Therefore, inform the interested customer and potential customers in your response that this is not how things generally work in your business.
- He offered a quick fix. Address the issue immediately and offer a favorable solution so the customer knows you care.
GUY 3: HELLO I’M HERE TO DESTROY YOUR REPUTATION
These are illegitimate reviews that arise with the sole purpose of attacking your company’s reputation. Fake and dishonest reviews can come from unethical competitors, unhappy customers, or people who have personal grudges against the business owner or anyone in the business.
How to answer:
- Do not delete the comment or review.. This will make it look like you are hiding something and make people more suspicious of your business and your offers.
- Submit a removal request. Please provide the review platform with the evidence to prove that the review is not genuine and legitimate so that the platform itself removes it safely.
Don’t be a victim of online reviews, take control of your reputation
Even if you offer the best product on the market and are the preferred choice for most local shoppers, negative reviews can still happen to your business. They may be based on an outright lie resulting from the frustration of one of your competitors or they may be the result of a misunderstanding.
Whatever the source of the review or the underlying reason, a negative review will do the damage it’s supposed to do, anyway. Instead of sitting back and wondering why this happened to you when you were only selling the best quality, take steps to control your declining reputation.
In addition to following the recommendations above, you may want to consider hiring a professional reputation management company to deal with customer reviews efficiently while maintaining a positive online presence.
