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4 Ways That Negative Reviews Can Help Your Business

Sounds counterintuitive, right? Why would negative reviews help your business?

While we try our best to keep all of our customers happy, it’s impossible to please everyone. Unfortunately, negative reviews happen, but they can have a silver lining. If you view negative reviews as opportunities to improve your business instead of as setbacks, you can make them work to your advantage.

So how can negative reviews help your business exactly? Here are four ways:

  1. Negative Reviews Humanize Your Business

Today’s consumers are smarter than ever, and they can tell when something seems off. If a business only has five-star reviews on sites such as Yelp or Google+, it’s going to trigger a warning bell for consumers. No business is perfect, so the odds of only receiving positive reviews are slim to none. Consumers may look at this and think that something seems, well, fishy.

Having negative ratings on your business’ review sites instills trust in your company. They show consumers that your reviews—both positive and negative—are real.

  1. Negative Reviews Allow You to Show Off Your Customer Service 

When a customer leaves a negative review for your business, they offer a great opportunity to flex your customer service muscles. If you reach out to the customer and rectify the situation, chances are you’ll be able to win back their trust. This helps your business in two ways: You’ll salvage your relationship with the disgruntled customer, and you’ll show other consumers that you care about your customers and their concerns. Two birds, meet one stone.

  1. Negative Reviews Provide Free Feedback

Some businesses spend large sums of money on customer surveys and feedback forms to improve their customer service. Negative reviews are a great way to gather the same information for free!

If a customer leaves a negative review about a particular aspect of your business, chances are they’re not the only person who feels that way. You can use this information to your advantage to improve your business and keep your customers happy.

  1. Negative Reviews Offer Content Ideas 

Google has made it clear that businesses need to publish original content to their websites on a regular basis in order to rank well in organic search results. It can be difficult to consistently come up with new content, but negative reviews contain a goldmine of ideas! Check negative reviews to see your customers’ questions and concerns and create content about those topics. It’s a great way to educate your customers and add the fresh content to your website that Google craves.

No business wants to receive negative reviews, but they’re unavoidable. The trick is to use these negative reviews to your advantage to improve your business and customer service. Remember the tips listed above, and you’ll be turning lemons into lemonade in no time!

Want to learn more about how to manage your business’ online reputation? Check out our free webinar replay of Reputation Management Secrets! How to Grow and Protect Your Brand Online. You’ll learn step-by-step strategies to help you grow, monitor, and improve your business’ online reputation.

 

All the best,

Kate

Kate Nolen is a Digital PR Coordinator at Stream Companies, a full-service Philadelphia-area advertising agency.{{cta(‘b86debdb-a1cb-412f-8ca2-530f36f66bd3’)}}