With the growth of the internet and social media, your online reputation is more important than ever. Anyone can do a quick check on your business and everyone has the power to critique it online.
What does a search on Google or Facebook tell clients about your business? As a business owner, you can’t afford to ignore a bad review. According to Inc.com, 84 percent of people trust online reviews as much as a friend’s recommendation. Research shows that 91 percent of people regularly read online reviews.
A smart business will have a plan in place to solicit reviews from their customers, monitor all of their reviews and absolutely respond to them (good or bad). Customers will understand seeing a small amount of negative reviews and may even be suspicious if a business has 100 percent positive feedback.
A negative review should be seen as an opportunity to solve a problem to make a customer happy. Besides demonstrating your great customer service to perspective customers, it can result in the unhappy customer editing their review from negative to positive.
Have you received a review on Google that you believe is fraudulent? You can dispute a Google review if if violates their guidelines. This is done through the “support” link on your Google my business page.