1-Minute Marketing — Reputation Management Success
The internet is made up of micro-communities of users that generate referrals and word of mouth buzz. These micro-communities are powerful tools to get new customers in the door and reinforce your brand, but unexplored negative comments can lead potential customers away. Social media has made customer opinions a permanent part of the webscape and and the reviews and comments that your customers leave on websites like Yelp and Foursquare can have an impact on whether someone will try your business.
But how do you respond to criticism of your business online? Some business owners take an aggressive approach and try to intimidate the customers who leave the critical comments. As you might already be able to guess, this may cause the customer to spread their criticism to more of their friends, along with a story of how the owner couldn’t accept feedback. The key points to keep in mind when reading online comments: it’s not personal (even though it feels that way) and it’s providing you an opportunity to talk about your company and services.
You need to respond to every negative comment, but do it in a way that either seeks clarification or outlines how you have addressed the problem. When you acknowledge a customer’s comment and address it appropriately, that customer may have better feelings about your business, and other customers and prospects will see that you were responsive and engaged.
Being responsive to negative customer comments creates the dialogue intended by review sites and is an opportunity to demonstrate how your company is a committed part of the community.