Monitoring your online reputation is very important for businesses.  Ignoring online reviews sends a message to prospective clients, even if you are new online and didn’t realize all this existed, the message of silence gets interpreted by the reader…any way they choose.

When my clients receive a negative review we gather the facts, and address each one – turning it into a positive message.  While you can’t expect to change a reviewer’s mind the bigger opportunity is to reach the potential reader who is researching your business. Reviewers often are emotional, and it’s important not to respond with like emotion, but keep to the facts.

One client had a reviewer say a subsequent car repair (different from the one fixed by the repair shop) was going to cost 10 times what he paid for the initial repair, and he was quite unhappy.  Turned out the customer brought in his own part, and was charged $45.00 for the repair. Without the details a reader would’ve been left wondering how high the bill could go – when in fact, he’d gotten a very good value for this first repair.  This creates a positive: the business owner was willing to let you bring in your part, thus saving you money and at an extremely reasonable rate when most auto repair shops charge about $90.00/hour.

My clients are frustrated by not being able to remove incorrect/negative reviews.  Recently a business owner sued a Yelp reviewer in Virginia and won the case.  Accused of theft he said the review was wrong and caused him loss of business.  The bad news: the decision was overturned in Virginia’s Supreme Court as “free speech” until such time as a trial can prove the business owner’s claim.  You can read more about this.

It stings when your business is unfairly attacked, but if you can look to pull the positive out of it – get your message through – you’ll make good use of these negative reviews!