A single bad online review can be like a BBQ sauce stain on the shirt of a small- or medium-sized business. It can compromise your whole appearance, and can be very hard to wash away.
That single indelible review that just sits there costing your business money. Imagine how many customers have been turned away at the sight of this meagre stain.
As you are well aware there is no way to remove a review on Yelp, Google, TripAdvisor or any of the other major review platforms without going through a slow appeal process. You should appeal unfair reviews, but in our experience, it doesn’t often work. The best solution is to reply to these negative reviews. This has two benefits:
- It can get the negative reviewer to change their review.
- It can recuperate your business image by persuading other readers that you are a good company, and that the reviewer is incorrect.
Now let’s look at some review responses that do these two things extremely well. These examples are rich in take-home ideas, and not lacking in entertainment value.
Correcting the reviewer’s expectations
Here is an example of one of the most common and infuriating types of reviewers: those whose expectations were wildly different from what your business actually advertises itself as. Hence they are disappointed, but not for a valid reason.
Take this review on a dive bar for example:
Wouldn’t recommend this to eat or for a quiet drink. I met some friends here at 3pm in the afternoon and the music was so loud we couldn’t hear each other. The service was terrible just to get a drink at the bar. The food was also terrible.
Then the dive bar owner responds honestly:
Megan, thank you for visiting our establishment, and your review. As you took to Yelp to voice your opinion, I would like to voice ours;
I read other reviews you posted on Yelp for places you have also visited. It seems you like quiet coffee shops and fancy food, none of which we have ever advertised to provide. Please note our Yelp description even says:
Ambience: Divey Noise Level: Loud
So if you’re gong to complain, I was hoping it would be about something that we actually advertise that we provide. We are primarily a loud, party type, bar atmosphere, serving a mean burger, hot wings, and a similar pub fare at RIDICULOUSLY low prices for Lower Manhattan. Where else in the area can you get a beer for $2? Where else can you get a nearly half-pound freshly made burger including a draft beer for only $10?
We have 4 stars on Yelp, but its not because our food will knock your socks off. The 4 stars are here because most of our customers come in looking for a fun time, and to get away from the mundane of the every day, while enjoying a simple, decent meal at low price.
I recommend you align your expectations with the type of establishment you are visiting, and do more research before you decide on a place that will work for your personal preferences. I give you 1 star as you are terrible at finding bars and restaurants that suit your tastes. I’ll give you more stars if you come back and have a drink with me.
It’s a satisfying read, because it says what so many small business owners want to say. It gives the business a human voice, that will make others empathise with this small business owner.
It is long so that it shows that the business owner really does care about his business and the customer’s satisfaction.
It even incorporates some advertising-type material in there. This is not always a good idea, but it doesn’t seem too salesy in this case when he starts talking about his low prices.
The tone is quite reasonable, and this garners trust, especially in comparison to the rather emotionally driven-negative review. However the response does have a bit of emotional retaliation in it, which is very risky and not always intentional.
Offer compensation
Here is a ruinous review that claims that a hair salon seriously harmed the reviewer. Due to the severity, the business owner sees it as being worthwhile to compensate the reviewer. This will 1) hopefully persuade them to take down the review, and 2) save face among others reading the review. We expect this compensation to repay itself many times over, because negative reviews can cost businesses countless dollars in lost customers.
Here are the main parts:
[…] she also badly cut my middle and ring finger on my right hand and
simply just wiped the blood and didn’t bother to apologize or anything. Now I am on my honeymoon with a very badly infected ring finger. […]
The response:
Because our salon goes to great lengths to provide the highest level of cleanliness and service, we take your comment very seriously, especially the claim that our services led to an infection. Please bring us the photographs of your infected finger so that we may evaluate them for purposes of compensating you for your discomfort during your honeymoon. The more troubling aspect is that your writing Yelp reviews on your honeymoon.
This response is quite good, but in some ways it is lacking.
The main thing it has is the offer of compensation. Very very good.
Also, it is apologetic and serious. Good, but it lacks the word ‘sorry’. This should be one of the first words. Also, it fails to mention talking to or reprimanding their staff for their fault. But the worst thing is the last sentence. It comes across as a bit snide considering the delicate circumstances.
Other negative review response techniques
There are a few too many techniques to provide examples for all of them, but here is a summary of the others:
- Emphasise positive aspects of a negative review, as well as addressing the negative
- Offer customer support for their problems
- Compliment the reviewer
- Use humour, to lighten the situation
- Or,
THE LAST RESORT: Defend Your Company
A very small but severe negative review may defy all reasoning. It may be appropriate for you to take the hard line measure, and stick up for your company and employees. This is extremely risky because it is hard to come across as the reasonable one in this situation, when other people read your review (because you are the accused, not the accussee). But when the customer is firmly in the wrong, it just might work…
DON’T DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY IF YOU WANT IT HANDLED RIGHT. THEY WAIT OVER A WEEK TO LET YOU KNOW – THEY LOST YOUR PAYMENT – THEY PROVIDE A PHONE NUMBER THAT NO ONE EVER ANSWERS. IF YOU HAVE A DEADLINE- LIKE CHRISTMAS – FORGET ABOUT IT . product is great – COMPANY is NOT
Ryan Clark, Liberty’s Co-founder and COO, here. I normall do not hop into Facebook rants but this one needed addressed. First of all, Ms. ▒▒▒▒▒ thank you for your order and your desire to support American Companies, Job Creation, Green Manufacturing and the Hiring of Vets. We did recieve your numerous voicemails and emails. The buck stops with me. This will I am sure will upset you but…my customer service team will not be helping you on the weekends. Your voicemail stated "it is the holidays and you should be working" and your email stated, "instead of doing my Christmas cards and enjoying the holiday spirit, I was dealing with this." Perhaps, you need to spend a bit more time embracing the holiday spirit. You see, my employees were home with their families doing their cards, baking cookies, etc. Family first, product second. If you want immediate service on a Saturday, try supporting a local your local retail establishment, such as Bill and Paul’s Sportshaus, People’s Food Co-op, Barnes Ace Hardware. As to your original complaint, we emailed within 24 hours of your order concerning Paypal issues. Second, we called your first thing this morning in response to your angry voicemail but you hung up on us when we introduced ourselves saying "I never want to speak with anyone from your company." Ms. ▒▒▒▒▒, we pride ourselves on doing things well, we pride ourselves on doing things right, we pride ourselves on doing things the American way. Not instant gratification, 24 hour shopping on Thanksgiving type of American way, but family and country type of American way. The way our grandparents did things type of American way. I am sorry you are upset and I will gladly give you your money back, but I am not sorry our employees were enjoying the holidays. That right is not exclusive to you. If you would like to discuss this on the phone, you may call my personal cell phone- 509-▒▒▒-▒▒▒▒. If I do not get back with you right away understand I may be eating dinner with my wife and kids. Please be advised we will not be shipping you your order, you will not be charged. I will not do business with anyone who threatens my employees the way you have. Merry Christmas!
This went viral. It’s such a genuine response, and it made so many people side strongly with the business owner over the initial reviewer. Our favourite thing about this response is how he stands up for his employees, and makes it a moral issue. He appeals to values that almost everyone holds, like spending holidays with your family.
The hardest part of this battle will always be finding the negative reviews and ratings in the first place however. Most businesses have negative reviews that they have never even seen, sitting there in various places across the web. That’s why we have created a tool called Jetrep that collects your reviews across the web into one place. It is has many more features that can do wonders for your online reputation, and you should have a look at it here.