Bad Yelp Reviews
Moments to Seize – Capitalizing on Negative Reviews
Ever since it was founded in 2004, Yelp has become a very popular site for posting reviews about products and services. Customers use Yelp to post their experiences with a business enterprise and give it a rating between 1 to 5 stars (with 5 being the top score). It goes without saying that the better the reviews, the higher the Yelp ratings. However, not many are aware of how many people actually read those reviews and base their decisions on them. In other words, your advertisements and publicity may win you the customer’s attention; your Yelp rating will win you their business and loyalty.
Yelp recommends responding to reviews as it can be a great way of building goodwill as well as of staying in touch with your customers. For this reason, they allow the feature of sending public or private messages. Unsurprisingly, Yelp also provides tips on reverting to both positive and bad Yelp reviews. For positive reviews, Yelp recommends a simple “thank you” with a positive assertion that you – as a business owner – care for their experience and feedback. When it comes to a negative review that has been posted, the advice has a lot more to offer.
Yelp recommends business owners to thank the negative reviewer for taking the time to provide their feedback still – but only after taking a deep breath! An honest assessment of the issues raised, as well as highlighting steps taken to prevent a recurrence is a good way to try and win back the customer. In cases where your company policy is clear on the rights and wrongs of the incident, express (and elaborate) that. Business owners have earned second chances merely by being polite. While you may not win over the disgruntled customer every time, the fact remains that by showing your concern, you could well win over others who research your business and reviews on Yelp.
Refraining from appearing rude, angry or condescending is also crucial because the internet never sleeps. People all over the world can access and read what has been posted and in trying to settle the issue, you could well end up driving other customers away. Even though you may be in the right, it would do your reputation no good if prospective customers read your response to a negative reviewer and come away with the impression that you’re reacting as immaturely as the reviewer.
While businesses everywhere would love to earn good reviews and better Yelp ratings, the fact remains that a good review cannot help you in staying ahead of your competition. A bad review, on the other hand, gives you the opportunity to improve, innovate and maintain the pole position in the race of business enterprises.