As a business owner, you are probably aware of the reviews your company has received on sites like Facebook, Google, and Yelp. You may know from personal experience that receiving a positive review can make you feel good about yourself; and likewise, that seeing a negative one can cause you to feel angry or simply hurt.
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For today’s business owners, negative reviews are just a fact of life. No matter how exemplary your customer service or how satisfying your products, sooner or later you’re going to encounter a dissatisfied customer.
These days, most business owners have to contend with online reviews, posted to sites like Google, Yelp, and Facebook. For some business owners, however, online reviews present some unique complications. Take, for example, those who work in healthcare professions. These business owners will naturally want to engage their patients and respond to online feedback, but in doing so, they have to keep regulatory compliance in mind—and in particular, HIPAA.
Everybody likes to receive praise, to be told that they’re doing their job well. By contrast, most of us bristle at criticism and would really rather not receive negative feedback. For today’s business owners, however, both of these outcomes are fairly common. Thanks to online review platforms—whether Facebook, Yelp, or Google—feedback can come at any time. The nature of that feedback can be hard to predict, but it’s always important to take it seriously. After all, online reviews have a major impact on your business’ online reputation.
Generally speaking, consumers prefer not to blaze new trails. Rather than do something completely new, they’d prefer to follow in the footsteps of other buyers, sticking to those things that are tested and verified. This is fundamental human psychology; you probably wouldn’t want to be the first person to try a new medical supplement or diet product, for instance, but may feel far more confident about it if you know that other people have done it and had a positive experience.
Small business owners typically feel immense pride in their companies, their products, and their services—so when a customer offers laudatory feedback, it’s gratifying on a personal level. However, the inverse is also true. When customers leave negative comments or bad reviews, it can feel like a personal insult—even though it’s rarely intended as such. The sting of negative feedback is even more pronounced when it happens at a public review site, such as Facebook, Yelp, or Google.
It’s only natural to want to respond to negative reviews—but is that actually a good idea, from the standpoint of marketing or even basic PR? That’s what we’ll be addressing in this post.
Many business owners have a complicated relationship with customer feedback—especially that which is offered through anonymous online review sites. Receiving praise from a customer is always a good feeling; receiving critical feedback, while painful, can at least point toward opportunities for growth. Sometimes online reviews can simply be mean-spirited, highly negative in their tone but lacking any substantive tips for improvement. These tend to be the most frustrating of all.
