Your business received a less-than-sparkling review on a local review site. What you do next is really important. Here are suggestions for how to handle a negative review.

• Before You Start: Your business received a less-than-sparkling review on a local review site.
• Learning Level: 3 | Building Skills
• Article Last Updated: Sunday, December 4, 2011

Your Reputation Management Plan

If you developed a reputation management strategy when you got on social media, you already have a plan for dealing with negative review. However, many businesses don’t think about creating a reputation management plan until after they receive a negative review.

If your business doesn’t have a reputation management plan, now is the time to start one. Use the suggestions below to figure out your response to this situation. Invest a little extra time to decide how to handle other situations in the future and write up a formal policy and procedure statement. You’ll be glad to have this plan the next time you find a negative review.

Reputation Management Suggestions

If you don’t have a reputation management plan, here are some guidelines to help you navigate your response.

• Wait until you have a cool head. While a quick response is a good idea, a hot response is always a bad response. If you are upset about the review, leave it alone until you are ready to deal with it rationally instead of emotionally.
• You don’t have to respond at all. Many business people read their reviews but choose never to respond to the reviewer in public or in private. It’s a personal decision that your business must make. There is no right or wrong answer here, only what fits best with your business culture.
• Figure out the facts of the situation. Hopefully, if a member of your staff made a mistake or had an accident, you already know about the situation. If you don’t know about the situation in the review, research the event with your staff. This is not a witch hunt or a time to figure out who to blame. It’s just about the facts. Your staff will be more open with you if they trust that you are really researching the situation.
• Do you owe the customer an apology or amends? Sometimes the wrong thing happens and customers receive a different experience than you like to give. Admit you were wrong and offer to make it right.
• Walk a mile in the customer’s shoes. See your business the way they see it and talk about their experience. This is not the time to ask the customer to walk in your shoes or to justify why things went wrong. It’s not the customer’s problem if your staff is short because of illnesses or an expected delivery didn’t arrive.
• Don’t threaten the reviewer or review site. A customer has a right to express an opinion of your business. The local review site is legally protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. You should consult an attorney to be aware of the legalities of the situation before you threaten lawsuits.

Your turn: Has your business received a negative review? What is your strategy for dealing with negative reviews?

Related Articles:

• Create A Blog Comment Policy
• Are People Talking About My Business Online?
• Local Review Sites
• Blog Trolls
• Write Great Social Media Goals