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Keep Review Transparency Alive: How Business Owners Should Approach Criticism

Forbes Agency Council
POST WRITTEN BY
Russell Burnett

We live in a world where reviews are king. Studies have shown that a staggering 84% of consumers just as likely to trust an online review than a personal recommendation -- because what does John Doe on Yelp have to lose by writing his honest opinion? In our daily life, opinions are colored by personal experiences, and it might be difficult to relay your true feelings when a restaurant owner is kind and personable but their food is god-awful. Online, we trust strangers to tell us the cold, hard truth. So where’s the problem?

Certain review management agencies prompt users to leave a review if they had a positive experience and divert them away from the review site if their point of view is negative, robbing consumers of seeing honest opinions. When companies decide to hire an agency to filter their online reviews, they effectively remove the transparency we all look for when we Google a business. Online review transparency is at risk, and the end result is a mask that makes every business appear the same.

Imagine you need a daycare facility for your child, find one that has nothing but five-star reviews and send your kid there expecting high-quality care. Your kid comes home hungry and hasn’t had their diaper changed all day. How could a daycare facility boasting top-notch reviews let something like this happen? Neglect like that, or worse, is what’s at stake when companies cheat the system by filtering their reviews. Without manipulated reviews, their rating would be lower, you would have avoided them entirely and your child would be clean, happy and safe.

If each business is ranked as high as possible, the personality and quality of a business become muddled. Consumers are savvy and are learning to avoid businesses that only receive positive reviews. They understand that all those positive reviews may point to a company’s lack of integrity. Review spamming is alive and real, and buyers are rightfully wary of it. Not only are these tactics deceitful to consumers, but they can only be harmful to the company itself. However, when a customer encounters a bad review that’s treated appropriately by the business owner, it speaks volumes. A response from an owner that addresses a problem politely and effectively says a lot more about the company than countless perfect reviews do. You’re not doing yourself or your customers any favors by portraying your company as 100% perfect.

Bad reviews create good opportunities for business owners. It takes a huge amount of energy to run a business and it’s easy to miss problems at the consumer-level of your company. Negative reviews allow you to become aware of your business from the eyes of your customers and learn about improvements that need to be made. They also give you an opportunity to speak publicly for your company. The tone and values of your business can shine through if you approach negative reviews graciously. Allowing potential consumers to see how you react to bad reviews can tell them a lot about how you run your business.

And how should you respond to them? The first thing to do is to truly consider what the reviewer brings up. True, there are people out there with an ax to grind and not every complaint has merit, but even the most blatantly false review has something to take away. Take the complaint in stride, think about what you can do to improve and communicate it to the customer that left the review. This does two things: It gives the reviewer a chance to reconsider your company and lets future customers know that you value their business and input. And if the review doesn’t have any truth, respectfully say so.

When we look at every company through rose-colored glasses, there’s a risk of losing the validity of online reviews as a whole. Consumers are losing trust in reviews and businesses are beginning to appear exactly the same. And to be frank, Google’s no dummy. The longevity of these review management companies is sketchy at best. Google’s crackdown is inevitable and your business should be on the right side of things when the hammer comes down. Keep your business, keep its personality and keep review transparency alive.