This is a question we get on the regular. The answer is no, but here are 5 tips on what you can do.
Have you gotten a negative review? How did you address it and would you have done anything differently given these 5 tips? Leave us a comment and let us know!
-Shanna
No time to watch the video? No prob, we got you.
What To Do If You Get a Bad Review
1. Regularly check your reviews on Yelp, Facebook, Google, and wherever else people might be leaving reviews on your business so that you know what is being said. (If you don’t know, search your business name and “reviews” and see what comes up).. You might even learn that your front desk staff has some bad habits you weren’t aware of that you can address.
2. Comment on your reviews. Respond to positive reviews by thanking them for supporting your business; respond to the negative ones with a heartfelt message like, “I’m sorry to hear this was your experience. Will you please connect with me directly at this email address? I want to make sure we address this appropriately and it never happens again.” Then actually do that.
3. Ask every customer to leave you a review. You can word it like this as they’re walking out the door, “If you had a positive experience today, would you please leave us a review on Yelp? We’d really appreciate it!” If a customer seems grumpy, but you know your staff did everything possible, just don’t mention it. The idea is to massively outweigh any negative reviews with many more positive reviews. If you have email addresses for your customers, send them an automatic follow up email after every visit, asking them to leave a positive review and provide links to those sites (and your business profile) to make it as easy as possible for them.
4. Turn a verbal testimonial into a positive review. If a customer thanks you and says something amazing about your company, take the opportunity to ask for a review. You can say something like, “That’s so wonderful to hear, thank you! If I send you a link, would you mind putting that on a Google review for us?” Again, make it as easy as possible for them to follow through by sending a link.
5. Flood your reviews with positive ones to bury a negative one. Have a grumpy customer leave something disparaging? Send out an email ask to all of your best customers (they can even be family or friends) and say, “Hey! We need your help! Will you please leave us a review? Here’s the link.” You could just say you realized you needed some more reviews and offer to buy them donuts.