Do online reviews help your business?

This News article was posted on 02 Aug 2011 .

Online Reviewer

The short answer is yes...but only if you are doing the right thing by your customers.

Online review sites such as Tripadvisor are no strangers to business owners and they are not alone. Thomson, Google Places, Yell etc. all allow customers to leave online reviews for your business.

What can you do to make sure that those reviews are good and what should you do when you're getting bad reviews?

The Forum of Private Business has a good checklist to make sure you're doing the right thing to make the most of online reviews.

How to deal with negative reviews

Act quickly – Once you've spotted a bad review, don't stick your head in the sand – it's not going to go away.
Turn negatives into a positive – Demonstrate that you're the kind of business that listens to its customers and acts upon legitimate concerns.
Act professionally – You may want to verbally throttle someone who leaves you a bad review, especially if their review is inaccurate, but creating an argument online will only make you look bad. Correct inaccuracies but respect that everyone has a right to an opinion. Sometimes it's best not to say anything at all.
Make an official complaint – If you really feel that a review is unjustified or false (perhaps left by a competitor or someone who has never been a customer), you have the right to contest it. On Google you can flag it as being inappropriate, where as an third party sites like Yell, you have to contact their administrator.

How to attract positive reviews

Deliver excellent customer service – It sounds simple, but if you impress your customers enough, they will want to spread the word about you.
Make it easy – Try to collect reviews wherever you can, for example, hand out feedback cards, direct them to a feedback form on your website or ask them to give you a review on Google, Yell or another popular site if they enjoyed your product or service.
Don't 'pay' for good reviews with special offers or prizes – If customers see you doing this, they're less likely to believe what people write about you.

To read more visit their website and to find out how to "deliver excellent customer service" get in touch with us.

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