Jul 10, 2020 | 2 minute read Business owners dread negative reviews and it’s easy to see why. They reflect poorly on your reputation and signal to potential customers that your business isn’t worthwhile. Despite the obvious disadvantages, having a few negative reviews isn’t going to sink
your business. In fact, there are several ways negative reviews can actually help you to succeed.
The Value of Negative Reviews
Online reviews build consumer trust. Believe it or not, this is true regardless of whether the review in question is positive or negative. This is due to the fact that people understand the relative value of each review. No business is going to achieve a perfect score and customers understand this. Instead, customers are looking for an acceptable ratio between good and bad reviews. And having a few bad reviews can make your overall rating appear more trustworthy.
- Not having negative reviews looks suspicious. A perfect score appears disingenuous. It’s no secret some businesses pay for positive reviews. You don’t want potential customers to assume you’re one of them.
- Having a large number of reviews increases your SEO. A large quantity of reviews, good or bad, improves your SEO. The more reviews you receive, the easier it will be for people to find you.
- Not every criticism is a deal breaker. Something that bothers one customer may not necessarily bother every customer. Detailed reviews allow people to evaluate the pros and cons of your product and not every criticism will matter to them.
- Negative reviews provide valuable insights. Constructive criticism gives your business something to focus on. You can use customer feedback to improve your products and services. In this way, online reviews can be just as valuable as expensive marketing research.
Managing Reviews
Bad reviews aren’t the end of the world. They can provide several, tangible benefits to your company. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore them.
When you choose to ignore a negative review, you run the risk of making the situation worse. It will appear that you don’t check-or worse, don’t care-about customer feedback. Instead, make an effort to reply to every review. In the process, you might just win back
dissatisfied customers. And it signals to potential customers that you care about your
reputation.
Managing your review portfolio is simple with Visual Visitor. Our automated system pulls reviews from 38 unique platforms and stores them all in one place. You can request, monitor and respond to reviews all without leaving our app! Online reviews are more important than ever. Coordinating a response is important- and Visual Visitor makes it simple. Sign up for our free trial by clicking here.
