Today, business owners cannot just ignore bad reviews. It has become easy for customers now to critique a company online, without really coming in contact with the employees face-to-face. Even though reviews are important to get feedback from the audience, a bad review can strongly affect the reputation of a business.
Another snag of online reviews is that not all the reviews are genuine and authentic. And to top it all, not all people can differentiate among the fake and real reviews. Below is a guide to help you to remove bad reviews from major online platforms such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook. But, before getting into this, let’s first know the importance of removing bad reviews.
Why It Is Important To Remove Bad Reviews
It is imperative to stay ahead of your competitors by maintaining positive reviews across all major platforms. A bad online reputation of a business can lead to lasting damage and may even potentially destroy its overall operation. On an estimate, 91% of consumers go through the product reviews of an online business and generally look at negative reviews first.
They want to know about the pros and cons of the products and services you are offering and see how you respond to criticism. As such, negative reviews will harm your business. This being said, they tend to affect the trust factor between the company and the customers. Having an infinite list containing positive reviews is regarded as a falsification sign most often. Having imperfect reviews and star ratings helps develop trust among your customers.
These honest feedback also help you to know what is or is not working well for your business. Constructive, honest feedback will help you to rectify mistakes you did not know about. Just when you successfully improve customer satisfaction, you should then try to remove any negative reviews written about your business earlier. Below mentioned are a few simple steps to help you get rid of bad reviews from online platforms and minimize damage to your credibility.
- Do Not Panic:
A negative review about your company on Google or Facebook may make you all stressed and panicked. But, remember that a bad review is not the end of the world. Every company experiences such a situation and has got at least one bad review. A time-tested belief says that no publicity is bad publicity. Research has also shown that negative reviews at times prove to boost sales. Hence, relax by taking a deep breath and then go to step number two.
- Analyze The Situation:
Firstly, it is important for you to determine whether the posted review is a real one or a fake one. Sometimes, fraudulent reviews are left by some of your competitors or even some random people to portray a bad image of your company. So, after you receive a bad review, you must go through your records and see if a genuine customer posts the review or not.
If the person has been your previous customer, then check what he/she bought. Also, respond to customer service calls. The most important thing is to evaluate and know such a situation. And, the better you are equipped to handle the situation, the better you will be at preventing it from occurring in future.
- Respond To Negative Or Fake Reviews As Soon As Possible:
Even if you know that the negative review is a fake one, it is imperative to respond. This is because: you are not just responding to the reviewer, but also showing your prospects how you deal with criticism and customer dissatisfaction. So be it whatever type of negative review you have received, make sure to respond quickly.
A fast action implies that you are dedicated to offering better customer service. The majority of people who look at your reviews are those who are interested in the products or services you sell. As such, it is important to make a complaining customer happy and assure your future customers that similar problem will not occur again.
In case of a fake or fraudulent review, you are still required to respond to the complaint as well as apologize to the reviewer for the caused dissatisfaction. Next, you should state that you cannot seem to find them as a previous customer in your records. Then, extend an offer to fix the reviewer’s situation and share your contact details.
Lastly, report or flag the fake review as fraudulent. In case of a genuine customer not being satisfied with your product or service, you must own up to the complaint, even if it is not entirely true. Avoid making any excuses. If the complaint is a legitimate one, then assure the customer that such a situation will not occur in the future and offer to fix the issue.
- Resolve The Situation- Even If It Is A Lot Of Hard Work:
It might be stressful to change anything about the way you operate your business. However, in the long run, it is worth it. If you frequently receive negative reviews or have got a lot of them, then it’s high time to start addressing them. Yes, there are a few other cases where an angry review is not actually about you or your business but maybe because the customer had a bad day.
However, in cases when you know that there was a downside in your service or your product, then you have to put in a strong effort to resolve it. This implies better training to customer service executives, suspending an employee or changing existing offers and other measures. In the end, if you’re unable to satisfy your customers, you will face big problems.
- Stay On Top Of Negative Reviews:
Was the fraudulent review ever removed? Or flagged? Did you fix the issue of that customer? Did you extend a refund? It is important to stay on top of the situation to turn a bad review into a good one. For instance, if a customer was not satisfied and happy with a service and you happen to fix it successfully, there are chances he/she meets to change the negative review into a positive one.
This happens with most of the companies several times. Moreover, sometimes people who leave negative reviews just want their issue to be fixed quickly and want you to be good to them. It is not uncommon these days for a customer to change a 1-star rating to 4-star after the business owner treats them nicely.
How To Get Rid Of Bad Reviews From Google Business
Google is considered one of the most trusted and reliable sources for customers to discover the best service provider. As such, if your business has bad reviews, you will not appear in the first search result page, and people will not find you. Hence, below mentioned are simple steps you should follow to remove bad reviews from Google Business
Step 1: Make sure that a review posted on Google is an authentic one. If it is an offensive, abusive or a false one, then you can have it flagged off for abuse and have it removed by informing the Google administrative team.
Step 2: Get in touch with your local reviewer.
Step 3: Ensure your engagement with bad or negative or bad reviews is visible to the public. Showing your existing as well as prospective customers that you respond to such reviews will prevent them from leaving further negative comments without thinking first.
Moreover, it will also show that customer satisfaction is your priority. Addressing such comments positively can bring about a great change among future reviewers.
How To Get Rid Of Bad Reviews From A Facebook Page
Step 1: Log into your Facebook page as an admin.
Step 2: Using the page editing tool, modify and edit your company’s address info.
Step 3: Allow your business’s map to appear on your Facebook page by unchecking the box.
Step 4: Tap the save option, and it’s done! Your star reviews will not be visible publicly on your Facebook page. But, note that even the positive reviews will be visible.
How To Get Rid Of Bad Reviews From Amazon
It will be difficult to keep control of the contents or the conditions of the products being sold if you’re a third-party seller on Amazon. This implies that the feedback of your customer will be dealt better by reviewing the product. However, in the current era of shopping online, you are required to address the bad or negative feedback or else it might cause a lot of trouble in receiving further orders.
Step 1: Determine if the negative review left is genuine. If this case, get in contact with your customer and explain the situation. The customer will have sixty days to remove the negative feedback.
Step 2: If you think that the negative feedback is incorrect or cannot be resolved by getting in touch with the customer then contact Amazon immediately. The administrators will then decide whether your complaint is justified or not and accordingly remove the incorrect feedback within a time frame of ninety days.
Negative reviews generally tend to overshadow the positive ones. Hence, you must make sure to put in 100% effort to resolve the issues and maintain a good image and reputation of your brand in front of customers.