Let’s face it. Your business can’t always be loved by every customer. In responding to negative TripAdvisor reviews, there needs to be a plan in place to effectively manage the dissatisfaction. Many businesses rely on TripAdvisor or Yelp to generate new business.
It is important that there is a response to one or two star reviews. Currently consumers have fairly low expectations that organizations will respond to their negative posts on social platforms. In a survey by The Retail Consumer Report, it was found that 61% of consumers would be shocked if a service provider responded to their negative comment on a social platform.
According to the survey, through listening and proactively responding on the social platforms, service providers have a chance to turn disgruntled customers into social advocates. Of those who received a reply in response to their negative review:
- 33% turned around and posted a positive review.
- 34% deleted their original negative review.
Responding to negative reviews can be advantageous to an organization. There are some fundamental means when dealing with one or two star/negative reviews:
- Respond quickly instead of responding instantly to the review.
- After exhaling, reread the review objectively and understand what the poster wants or what is their mindset then respond to it if warranted.
- Take time to research the situation. Is it a valid review from an actual customer? Who is the customer? Seek feedback from staff to the specific situation.
- Decide if you should respond publicly and have an open conversation. Or you can acknowledge the concern and then take it offline. How you handle a particular situation depends on the factors involved.
- Address the issues in the review in a calm and reasonable manner.
There is another challenge organizations must be aware of and that is a possibility of fake reviews on platforms such as TripAdvisor and Yelp. Organizations need to be aware of this underhanded practice of others.
