Tips on how to handle customer reviews

With today’s world of internet connectivity, access to public opinion is a click away. How does public opinion affect you? Your existing customers have access to your potential customers via social media and other review-based sites where they are expressing their opinions about your products or services. Their influence is powerful and far reaching. Together, we’re going to have a closer look at why customer reviews are important to your business, address any fears you may have towards customer feedback, call out faux pas in handling reviews, and outline steps to help you engage in this feedback.

Customer reviews matter

While customers are publishing their views about their interactions with your business, potential clients – about 77 per cent of them in fact – read online reviews before buying, according to business.com.  Various sources report on studies showing that 70 to 88 per cent of consumers incorporate online reviews into their purchasing decisions.

Still think customer reviews are no big deal? Did you know that nearly 23 million Canadians have a social media account and two thirds of those users log into their accounts daily to like, follow, connect with and comment on brands, businesses, and people? And if social media was not enough, sites like Google My Business, Trip Advisor, and Yelp are dedicated to customer ratings and reviews. As customers post about their experience with your products or services, they are shaping your business reputation online.

Overcome your fears

Your fears are real. When customers are judging you, they may be kind or cruel and sometimes even unfair. They may give you a bad reputation, chase away potential customers or behave maliciously to cause harm to your business. As real as those concerns are, customer reviews are feedback on your products and services, a weapon that you can use to learn, improve, grow, and become more competitive.

Set aside yours emotions and focus on the main message in a review. You may be able to extract constructive feedback, making your fears dissipate and your business improve.

Avoid Faux Pas

Everyone makes mistakes online and offline. Addressing online customer reviews is a delicate matter. Here are 3 faux pas that often result from the way that some business owners perceive reviews:

1. Take control of customer reviews and pick and choose what to make visible on your site.
2. Enable customers to provide reviews directly on your site but moderate reviews where you accept good reviews and reject bad ones.
3. Open up your site for all reviews but delete all negative reviews.

If you attempt to suppress, reject or delete the voice of disgruntled customers, you will only entice them to hit you harder. You may be able to control what becomes visible on your own site but you don’t control the Internet. As we saw earlier, customers have access to many sites that they can post to.

We talked about the fear of how negative reviews influence buyers’ decisions. Buyers also pay attention to your response, your ability to remedy a situation and to listen and respond to what customers are saying about your business. Acknowledge the dissatisfaction of a customer even in situations where you are unwilling or unable to meet their needs. That alone would help you avoid customer retaliation and show others that you are listening.

Seize the opportunity to engage

We just touched on an opportunity to engage with your customers by acknowledging their dissatisfaction. But, what if you make it easy for your customers to connect with you for feedback? What if all reviews – good and bad – took place on your site instead of the customers’ social media accounts or other random review sites? With a customer review app on your site

1. You would make it easier for yourself to keep a close ear to what is being said about you.
2. You create a direct channel for your customers to connect with you and other customers.
3. You give yourself the opportunity to respond publically to all feedback.
4. You improve your own response time, which may avoid a reported problem from going spiral.
5. You exude more confidence in the products and services you offer.
6. You actively take part in shaping your reputation online.

Be proud of good reviews. Be humbled by the negative ones. If you’re falling short in an area and a customer points it out, or if mistakes happened because of products or staff, put your ego aside and figure out how you’re going to respond. Consider doing the following:

1. Thank your customer for the feedback almost immediately and let him/her know you’re looking into the issue.
2. Bring the matter internally for root-cause analysis.
3. Draft a solution, even if the decision is to do nothing.
4. Let your unhappy customer know how you plan on addressing the issue. If the fix is to do nothing, consider reassuring the customer that this is a one-time matter, that you’ll be monitoring closely or whatever else applies.

Should you jump at every negative comment and take immediate action as prescribed above? You may be surprised by this, but the answer is no. Remember that you have happy customers that you want to be thanking as well. Have a quick read of these 8 Amazing Examples of Business Owners Responding to Reviews, positive and negative, and get inspired.

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