Best Ways to Handle Negative Reviews

Do negative reviews make you cower in fear? If so, you’re not alone—many business owners dread negative reviews so much, they tend to ignore them and hope they’ll just disappear. But pretending like those negative reviews don’t exist will only make the problem bigger. And there are many ways that negative reviews can have a positive impact on your business.

Types of Negative Reviews

If you’re bringing in a lot of online reviews, it’s inevitable that not every single review will be completely positive. And while many businesses cringe at the thought of any negative review, there are many types of negative reviews you might receive, and some of them may even be helpful to your business. A company I work with frequently, Shopper Approved, has a lot of strategies to deal with these negative reviews.

Most of those negative reviews won’t be a scathing discourse from an angry customer. They might have some positive points sprinkled in with the negative. And they might actually include some valid points you can use to your advantage.

Negative reviews can help you learn information about your company, like manufacturing defects, freight rates, or shipping times. So consider negative reviews as free market research, and then take those insights and use them to change your processes for the better.

Impact of Negative Reviews

Though having a great online reputation is important for any business, a few negative reviews can be really powerful in bringing in new customers. Sounds a little backward, right? But hear us out: those negative reviews are getting a lot of attention from your potential customers. They may scan a few of the positive reviews, but they’re really looking out for the negative reviews—not to see how bad your business is, but to justify the decision they’ve already made to buy from your business.

That’s right—these customers already want to buy something from you. They’ve all but made the decision in their mind. They’re simply looking for negative reviews to evaluate the risk involved with their decision.

Why You Should Respond to Negative Reviews

If consumers are reading negative comments to evaluate risk, you can encourage them to complete the sale just by responding to those negative reviews. However, you do need to carefully consider what you say in your response. You’ll want to use this opportunity to resolve any concerns and minimize the perceived risk.

For example, if a customer leaves a review saying they like the product, but it stopped working after a few days, you can quickly respond saying you’ll send them a new one, free of charge. Other potential customers will be encouraged when they see that they’ll get the same treatment if there’s any problem with their product.

Just by responding to those negative reviews, you’ll be able to leverage those negative reviews to make more sales. This is your chance to share the good part of the story, where you set things right and show off your high level of customer service. If there’s a happy ending, customers will be glad to support your business.

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Acceptable Responses to Negative Reviews

Now that you know not all negative reviews are hurtful to your business, you might be wondering how to respond to those reviews. What can you say to make things better? You’ll probably get better at responding over time, but here are some tips to get you started:

• Greet the customer.
• Thank them for their feedback.
• Summarize one positive point from their review.
• Discuss their concerns.
• State your company values.
• Invite the customer to contact you offline, or explain how you want to fix the situation.

If you get a terrible review on Google, it is possible to try deleting the review altogether. There’s no guarantee Google will accept your petition, but you can try:

• Sign in to Google My Business or open Google Maps to your location.
• Find the negative review.
• Click the three vertical dots on the right of the review.
• Select “Flag as inappropriate.”
• Fill out the report and submit it.

Ready to Take on Those Negative Reviews?

Now that you have a greater understanding of the power of negative reviews and how to respond to them, they probably don’t seem so threatening anymore, right? So, don’t be afraid to face those negative reviews head-on. Once you do, you’ll unleash the full potential of online reviews to help your business grow.