Seriously – negative reviews HELP you!
No…that’s not a typo. We’re actually serious, because despite whether you want to hear customer complaints or not, they really can save your business.
As business owners, we tend to take it personally when a client is dissatisfied with services rendered, even though the logical portion of our brains reminds us that we can’t please all of the people all of the time.
With the Internet, however, a dissatisfied customer can tell more than just her friends; she can spread the word to your entire potential customer base with a simple 2 minute written review and a mouse click on prominent websites that consumers trust to deliver valid and valuable information about who to do business with and who to avoid.
This can be detrimental to a small business if enough negative reviews are seen on such review sites. However, most business owners take the wrong approach when investigating what to do about negative reviews when they crop up.
Learn From Your Mistakes – Turn Negative Reviews into Positive Customer Experiences
Some negative reviews are completely unwarranted. Some people who come into your business are just never going to be satisfied no matter what you do. Unfortunately, that’s business and that’s life. Whether you want to accept it or not, that’s simply a risk you take when you go into business for yourself.
However, there are other clients who, no matter how much you may want to deny it, have very real concerns that should be addressed instead of responded to with further negativity or even silence.
When you see a negative review, ask yourself:
“Have any of our other clients ever had these same complaints?”
If the answer is “Yes,” then there are very real problems happening within your business that need to be addressed immediately.
For example, if enough unhappy clients posted reviews stating that “the front desk staff was very rude,” and that “my appointment was about 30 minutes before I was actually seen,” and “the practitioner was inattentive and/or rude,” then you should address these as soon as possible and correct them as well.
How do you fix it?
First, call the reviewer! Yes, call the reviewer and thank her for bringing these flaws in the business to your attention and helping you implement real improvements to how you do business.
Invite her in for a do-over appointment, and make sure her experience is stellar.
Implement changes in how your business is run to fix the problems you’ve consistently heard from your clients. If it was a problem with the front desk staff or a practitioner, train them to improve or replace them. If the wait times are an issue, get to the root of the problem and solve it.
If you follow the above tips, not only will you likely turn a negative review into a positive review, you’ll have gained a client for life and improved your services for everyone who walks through your doors from that moment on.
Need more help with your online reviews? We offer Yelp Help assistance to our interactive marketing clients.
Already a client? Contact your Customer Satisfaction Manager and request a meeting to discuss review tactics like those above.
Not yet a client? Contact us for a free social media evaluation and we’ll also send you a FREE e-book dedicated to social media marketing for aesthetic medical practices!
