Once upon a time, it took several months or even years for a business to be impacted by negative reviews. Oftentimes, the only way a business would earn a negative reputation is if they generated so much negative feedback that word-of-mouth would generally be bad. However, this took a great deal of time, which meant that the business could do serious damage control without worrying about immediate consequences.

However, all of that changed with the introduction of the Internet. Now businesses that have spent a lifetime building up a solid reputation can be destroyed by one or two negative reviews. What’s worse, anyone can instantly upload a negative review, which means that business owners may not even have the time to do damage control to turn the negative review into a positive one.

If you’re a business owner with a website (and you should be!), you need to protect your brand name from these negative reviews. Why you can’t control everything that a customer says and does, there are ways you can prevent a negative review from tarnishing your good reputation.

So what can you do to protect your brand name?

• Place tons of great feedback on your website. If a customer sends you an email letting you know how happy they are with your services, ask their permission to host it on your website. Your company website should be used as a platform for positive reviews and glowing testimonials. This way, you may be able to counteract any damage that is caused by a negative review on a third-party website.
• Speaking of negative reviews, if you happen to find one on a third-party website, you’ll want to address the review write away. Post a public response to the review and apologize for the customer’s experience with your business. Then post how you will address the problem in a manner that will please the customer. For example, you could offer a discount on their next purchase, or you could repair a product for free. Other customers will see how dedicated you are to customer service, which means you can turn a negative review into a glowing opportunity to make sales.
• Give every customer an opportunity to write a review for your business with flyers or a follow-up email. Simply send a follow-up email with “Rate Our Service” in the subject, and provide a link to your review page on your website or any other third-party sites.

Create A Review Strategy For Your Business

Websites like Kudzu, Google Places, Yahoo Places, Yelp, and CitySearch are great for company reviews. Many savvy internet users will take a look at reviews on these websites before they make a decision to buy. A great way to generate more reviews on these sites is to link to your review page from your website for easy reference. This means, for example, that on the reviews and testimonials page of your website you will feature reviews from all of your third-party sites. Kudzu, for example, provides a badge for your website that will link back to your review page.

Don’t let a negative review from an angry customer prevent your business from reaching out to new online customers. Use these tips and techniques to counteract negative reviews as well as quickly increase your company’s sales!

Elite Web Professionals provide a simple website design process and effective ways to promote websites online.  For information on how we can help you with your website needs, browse our website for more information on our website design services. We provide comprehensive search engine optimization, and pay-per-click advertising services to help you grow your business online.