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04

Nov

Don't fall foul of bad reviews or negative feedback

Written by Jeremy Webb

Category: Blog

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I was interested in the recent new coverage of Toni Paul's attempts to get negative and damaging comments removed from Google's review system. I think this really highlights the need for all business owners and organisations to build a solid digital monitoring and marketing strategy.

It needn't be expensive or time consuming but means that you'll have a far greater degree of control over how people get information about your organisation online. 

The best defence from negative feedback is to always delight your customers. Of course in the real world this is just about impossible, so we have to look at other options.There are three major assets you can deploy to defend and enhance your on line reputation.

• Effective monitoring - find the negative comments before they get out of hand. This is really easy nowadays with many social media management platforms like HootSuite and Social Sprout including monitoring. You can also use ViralHeat, Google Alerts, Social Mention or other services to search the blogosphere. 
• Your community - you will have far more happy customers than unhappy ones we would hope. So make it easy to share their positive comments. Email them after you have transacted and ask them to leave a review on Trip Advisor, Facebook or what ever medium fits for your business. Treat them well, and they will be your most loyal positive PR army.
• Positive content - you can effectively "bury" harmful or negative content with lots of good content. Invest in some search engine optimisation and ensure that brand searches turn up your site and great content first and foremost.

If you do find negative comments about your business, do also read our article on dealing with negative comments and respond appropriately. Negative feedback may be justified and an opportunity to improve your product or service.