How to Manage Bad Reviews & Your Reputation
Reviews and review-based websites were originally created to encourage positive customer service, but they can also impact a business’s reputation. The intention was to provide reliable and truthful evaluations of a business’s performance for current and potential customers. Examples of review-based websites include Yelp, Better Business Bureau, Chamber of Commerce, Rip Off Report, Trip Advisor, Angie’s List, and Home Advisor.
What once began as a noble effort has, in some cases, become a chaotic battleground where customers manipulate the system, resulting in the need for reputation management. This practice leads to spiteful reviews, the spread of harmful information, and in extreme cases, fraudulent defamation. Unfortunately, this has spawned a growing trend of providing dishonest feedback solely for the purpose of sabotaging one’s competition.
We’re all probably a little guilty, though. Let me tell you a story. Typically, I visit Starbucks three to five times per week on my way into the office to pick up an iced coffee. If I were to answer a survey on my experience, I would check “good”. My iced coffee is consistently delicious, the drive-thru is timely, and the baristas are usually friendly. With my typical “good experience,” do I call Starbucks’ corporate office in Seattle on a regular basis and provide positive feedback? No. Should I? Yes.
It is often tempting to trash companies after negative experiences, even if they are not representative of the norm. However, it’s essential to consider the context, history, and nature of the complaint before jumping to conclusions. Keep in mind that most review sites feature emotionally charged reviews, making it difficult to discern the genuinely valid ones. Remember: for every single negative review, you’ll find hundreds of glowing ones.
My Reputation is Damaged, What Do I Do Now?
In business, there are no secrets. We’ve all had experiences with customer service that we could learn from or situations where we wish we’d handled things differently. Regrettably, negative experiences can escalate and lead to unprofessional, unethical, or immoral behaviors by individuals seeking to share their stories.
Our professional reputation is built upon a lifetime of significant business and personal interactions. Thus, it’s crucial to take responsibility for our actions and ensure that all engagements with customers are conducted professionally and with the utmost integrity.
A negative review written or posted online can ruin your reputation quickly. However, reputation management is available to assist you in repairing any damage to your personal or professional reputation caused by such reviews.
If the reviews and statements made by your accuser are genuine, it’s crucial to address the issue. Collaborate with the individual or business to resolve the situation, find common ground, and request that they remove or redact their review after a solution has been agreed upon. Note that trying to remove negative reviews doesn’t permanently eliminate negative press. The impact of bad reviews on your professional and personal life can be immense. Unfortunately, some review sites like Rip Off Report will not allow reviews to be removed once posted on their website. If you receive unwarranted criticism or negative actions, seeking professional reputation management can assist in resolving any problems and restoring your image.
At The AD Leaf ®, our mission is to assist you in mitigating the adverse effects of declining sales and put an end to those missed opportunities your company might be experiencing. Our committed team will help you manage these challenges with ease and enable you to regain success in your business.
Our Approach
Our firm prioritizes understanding the issues, situations, and end goals before beginning work together. We understand the sensitivity and care necessary to address these delicate matters and are committed to helping restore your professional and personal reputation. Our first strategy is to remove or redact negative press, reviews, or articles related to you. If removal isn’t possible, we’ll work to bury them on less prominent pages of a search engine. We know that the prime real estate of a search engine is the first page, and moving any negative publicity to page two or three reduces the likelihood of someone stumbling across it.
If you need help in managing your reputation or repairing it, give us a call at 321-255-0900 or email us at info@theadleaf.com to schedule your reputation management consultation.
I’m sure many us can remember a time in our lives where someone said something negative about us. It certainly doesn’t feel good when knowing the things that were said negatively about us were not true and we had to handle the situation by proving to others that the rumors were false. When it comes to promoting your business online, there are others out there that wish to put your company in danger and at risk of losing revenue, and above all, your reputation. With the emergence of social media platforms, it most certainly makes it easy for companies to have a target on their backs. Having said that, here’s the question: