Every business has negative reviews. That is a fact. The most luxurious brands, renowned five star hotels, and celebrity chef restaurants all have negative reviews. While it’s important to monitor your online reputation, collect positive reviews, and improve your business based on customer feedback, it’s equally important to realistically approach bad online reviews. Don’t worry about negative reviews; conquer them!
After all, even our most beloved monuments around the country and the world have received 1 -star reviews, as read by actor Sir Patrick Stewart.
Shakespearean Actor Sir Patrick Stewart Reads 1-Star Reviews of Famous Monuments
Some people just can’t be impressed or satisfied. We all intellectually know this. Emotionally, however, is something altogether different.
Why You Shouldn’t Worry About Negative Reviews
The examples in the Patrick Stewart video are absurd, but they are real 1-star reviews published about awe-inspiring monuments. These are structures of architectural and historical significance! And yet some people found that these weren’t good enough for them. These people exist, and they have come or will come to your business. They aren’t easy to please and they often have unreasonable demands.
Unreasonable People With Unreasonable Expectations
You’ve likely already met one or two before. They expected you to lower yourself to their demands, but you didn’t give in. You refused to be a prescription pad signature at their beckon call, and that infuriated them. Sound familiar? Well, then you also know that, as soon as they left, that wasn’t the end of it. The negative reviews popped up. If you were lucky, it was just one review site; if you got a particularly difficult patient, two or more websites showed identical one-star rants about you, your staff, and your practice.
This is usually when the panic sets in. “What if other patients see this review? Will people who read it think that I’m a bad doctor? What if I lose business because of this unreasonable person? If only I could respond without violating HIPAA!”
You aren’t alone. If you were, we wouldn’t be invited to speak about this exact topic every year at prominent medical conferences around the country.
The truth is, if you read the really nasty reviews again, you’ll realize it’s not a big deal at all. When other reasonable people researching your practice stumble onto these online rants, they will see what you saw: an unreasonable person. Don’t believe it? Watch the video again. Read the comments. Look at how many people reacted to it on social media. They’re laughing at these reviewers. The majority of people who watch this video are reasonable and find these reviewers to be completely out of line and ridiculous. So, too, will potential customers and patients who see this kind of negative review about your practice.
Some Negative Reviews are Constructive
Not all negative reviews come from such a ridiculous and comical place, however. Many are constructive feedback from real customers and patients who have a legitimate concern about their experience. Read more about how negative reviews can help save your business.
Need Help Managing Negative Reviews or Generating Positive Reviews?
End your worry about negative reviews with the help of our team. Total Social Solutions is a trusted resource for reputation monitoring and reputation management. We help our clients learn how to generate positive reviews, implement review collection strategies, and respond to reviews for positive customer and patient engagement. We also frequently present on reputation monitoring and management topics at the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery (ASDS) annual conferences and contributed a series of articles on the subject to their members-only print publication, Currents Magazine.
Have a free consultation with us to find out how we can help you with your review strategy.
