Chapter 7

Navigating Negative Reviews

When a bad review enters your life, you may find little comfort in the studies and statistics showing that negative reviews are sometimes helpful to your business. You may not be particularly swayed by arguments about the intelligence and depth of judgment of your prospective customers who read those negative reviews. You just want it to disappear.

Bad reviews happen, even to exemplary businesses. Although you should have no illusions about preventing every possible negative review or removing those that have made it into the public eye, you can minimize damage by adopting a calm, thoughtful attitude and employing the strategies discussed in this chapter.

In this chapter:

• Discouraging negative reviews
• Responding to negative reviews
• Redress and removal

If there’s anything that captures the attention of businesses, it’s negative online reviews. As one business manager told us, “I’m getting stomachaches and losing sleep over these reviews.” An in-person criticism or dispute usually has few witnesses and disappears into thin air within minutes. In contrast, a thrashing on a prominent online review site can be seen by thousands and haunt a business for years to come.

At the other end of the spectrum from the business that dwells on its negative reviews, some businesses react to online disapproval by tuning out reviews altogether. We recommend a healthy middle ground. Your most important action relating to negative reviews is to pay attention to them and value the feedback they can bring. We set you on the road to learning from your reviews in Chapter 4, “Monitoring and Learning from Your Reviews,” and we hope you took that advice to heart. Here, find strategies for minimizing negative reviews and responding to those you do receive.

Discouraging Negative Reviews

Of course we love ’em, but customers can be perplexing sometimes. When we encountered our first one-star review several years ago (by a reviewer who stated that he never even read our book!), our editor told us simply but not unkindly, “There’ll always be chuckleheads out there.”

Sometimes it’s just that simple. In this world, there are a number of people who are impossible to please, unreasonable, impenetrable in their chuckleheadedness. Other times, the problem lies with you or your team. An error is committed, or a corporate culture is too broken to address problems or meet expectations, and customer satisfaction goes out the window. And in between those extremes there are endless scenarios playing out between customers and businesses, some of which will result in negative reviews.

Most of the time, negative reviews are written by reasonable people. In Chapter 3, “Understanding Reviewers and Reviews,” we acquainted you with some of the triggers that can result in a customer leaving a negative review, and we’re guessing you can identify with all of them, whether as a business owner or through your own experiences as a customer. These triggers include a particularly bad customer experience, an experience that did not align with the expectations that the customer held prior to the purchase, a lack of other communication channels to express dissatisfaction, and problems that go unresolved even after the customer seeks a fix.

There is a difference between companies that accrue a few stinging reviews in a predominantly positive collection and companies that are actually doing an awful job. If your company repeatedly fails to meet the expectations of your customers, you don’t have a review problem, you have a business problem, and fixing that needs to be your first priority.

But you’re reading this book for advice, not scolding, so let’s move on with some tips for discouraging bad reviews.

Check In With Customers

In Chapter 5, “How to Get More Reviews,” we discussed the multitude of ways you can encourage customers to write reviews for your business. But don’t miss out on the usefulness of customer feedback outside of the review venues and during all points of the customer interaction. If you connect with your customers regularly to understand how they feel about what you do for them, you may find opportunities to correct existing problems for dissatisfied customers, improve the experience for future customers, and eliminate conditions that can generate negative reviews.

Figure 7-1: Care.com sends this email to recently signed customers.

Energetically checking in with your customers is a good way to prevent an annoyed customer from evolving into an angry ex-customer who may even kick off an online reputation crisis.

Provide Nonreview Paths for Common Complaints

Are there certain points in your customer’s experience where there is a higher risk of dissatisfaction? If you anticipate these potential pain points and provide a direct path to communicate with your customer service, you may stave off a public negative review. One no-brainer is to make sure that your transactional emails—the ones that explain that an order was received or a shipment is on the way—provide a link for comments or support, as seen in this example from Sports Chalet:

Any time you ask for a review, it makes sense to remind customers that you’re listening and provide an alternate path for them to lodge complaints. Figure 7-2 shows a page created by a landscaping service using the review-gathering tool Grade.us. This tool, available at https://about.grade.us/, lets businesses build a simple web page asking customers to write reviews, and it can include a Contact Us link to give dissatisfied customers the opportunity to straighten out any problems before reviewing.

Figure 7-2: This review-gathering page generated by the Grade.us tool includes a Contact Us link for dissatisfied customers.

Set Realistic Expectations

Sometimes, elements outside of your control can draw negative reviews. These may be temporary but unavoidable inconveniences such as renovation construction for a brick-and-mortar business or shipping or manufacturing delays for an online merchant. Or it may be a question of some customers being a better fit than others: Perhaps there’s something about your business or product that most customers like but that rubs some people the wrong way. Use whatever channels of communication you can to make sure that customers won’t be surprised when they encounter the temporary inconvenience or the love-it-or-hate-it factor that you’re not willing or able to change. In the following example, a restaurant uses its OpenTable confirmation message to prepare customers for the fact that they may not have a choice of indoor or outdoor seating.

Here’s another example: Knowing that holiday shipping is a common source of consumer stress and bad reviews, many online retailers state their ordering deadlines up front for holiday delivery. Macys.com gets this right; its holiday shipping deadlines can be seen here: www.macys.com/hdayShipping.jsp. If you know you’re having temporary shipping delays or other flaws in service, let customers know via every possible communication channel.

You can also gently manage customer expectations with carefully crafted responses to negative reviews. A manager response stating “We’re sorry that we were not able to provide you with a refund of the deposit” or “We’re sorry that we cannot offer a delivery window of less than four hours” will help future customers know what to expect from your business. Read on for guidance on response-writing later in this chapter.

Broadcast Your Willingness to Listen and to Correct Issues

Some experts believe that if you send the message that you listen to your customers, they will be more likely to sidestep writing a negative review and instead contact your business directly. Here are some ways to communicate that your business is all ears:

• Respond publicly to your reviews, especially the negative ones. One review industry insider suggested to us that public responses to all reviews can reduce the number of negative reviews—or at least make them less vicious. Perhaps this is because it’s easier for a reviewer to lash out at a faceless business than at a listening, human representative.
• Make it easy to find your contact information and social media channels on all customer correspondences.
• Add a prominent feedback link on your website.
• If you’ve made improvements to your business based on customer feedback, mention it in your email newsletter or website. See Figure 7-3 for an example. You can even post a notice on the wall of your brick-and-mortar establishment.

Figure 7-3: On its website, the Children’s Museum of Denver announces changes based on customer feedback.

• Don’t leave your social media commenters hanging! Read and respond to tweets, YouTube comments, and Facebook posts to your page.

Create a Process for Learning from Negative Feedback

We’ve met plenty of business owners who receive negative feedback, feel bad, and stop there. But it’s easier on your psyche, maybe even empowering, if you have a plan for parsing out the actionable information and talking through this information with staffers who can make a change. For some businesses, customer reviews are not just report cards—they are welcome opportunities for learning. Read your reviews with an eye toward identifying useful insights and finding meaningful patterns. You don’t have to slavishly make a change over every bit of customer sentiment, but be as objective as you can and look for ideas that deserve attention. Constructive criticism can be found in both angry rants and glowing reviews.

Chapter 4 provides more information on how to improve your business with feedback from your online reviews.

Responding to Negative Reviews

Responding to negative reviews is an important part of your review management process. Done right, your response will show that you’re listening and you care about your customers’ opinions and satisfaction. It will give you the opportunity to set the record straight, clear up confusion, humanize your business, and demonstrate your competent handling of a tough situation. It may even allow you to sway the opinion of an unhappy customer. In 2013, Wakefield Research on responses to product reviews found that “[s]hopper intent to purchase doubles when seeing a brand’s response to a negative review versus a negative review by itself.” But done incorrectly, a review response can do more damage to your business than the original review ever could.

As an aid in your efforts to get your responses right, we’ll start you off with this mantra, adapted from advice given us by Mike Blumenthal:

I am not writing this just for the reviewer. Above all, I’m writing for everyone else who will see this review.

We believe this simple touchstone is the key to making your review responses the best they can be. Write it on a sticky note if you must, but don’t lose sight of it as you go.

Before You Respond

You’ve been hit with a negative review, which feels—as Yelp describes it—“like a punch in the gut.” You may be hurt and feeling an urge to retaliate. Before you strap on your brass knuckles, read these guidelines to make sure your response is a help and not a harm.

https://support.google.com/places/answer/184271

https://biz.yelp.com/support/responding_to_reviews

www.tripadvisor.com/pages/management_response.html

http://support.business.angieslist.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/111/~/responding-to-reviews-on-angies-list

http://blog.bazaarvoice.com/2013/06/05/spin-gold-from-poor-reviews-responding-to-feedback-wins-new-customers/

Public and Private Responses

As a general rule, negative business reviews on sites that matter to you should get a public response. Leaving a negative review publicly unanswered inherently gives the last word to your detractor.

Some review venues allow business owners to choose whether to reply to a review publicly or privately. Many businesses, given the opportunity, will first reach out privately and try to resolve the problem directly with the reviewer. It’s an effective tactic. The 2011 Retailer Consumer Report by Harris Interactive found that of negative reviewers who were contacted by the business, over a third deleted their original negative review, another third posted a positive review, and 18% became loyal customers. We’ve heard the same thing from several businesses: Reviewers will sometimes change or even remove their review after the business reaches out with a polite apology and an effort to make things right.

The decision to respond privately should be made on a case-by-case basis. We think an initial private response is appropriate when all of the following criteria apply:

• You believe that the review is real.
• Based on your assessment of the reviewer’s attitude and tone, he or she does not appear extremely angry or vengeful toward your business. Some reviewers are just looking to unload their bushel of hate and are clearly not good candidates for any kind of dialogue. For them, it’s best to stick to a level-headed public-facing response.
• You think there’s a chance that you can clear up the problem, either with a straight-up apology, an explanation, or some form of restitution.
• The review venue allows it.

Private responses may also be the better option for healthcare practitioners whose public response is limited due to confidentiality considerations. But you should never divulge any potentially sensitive information in your response.

It may seem that your mantra, “I am not writing this just for the reviewer. Above all, I’m writing for everyone else who will see this review,” doesn’t apply to private responses, but in fact, it does. Anything you write to a reviewer can be cut and pasted into a public forum, so you need to keep future potential customers in mind for every aspect of these conversations. Be prepared to see your words quoted back to you, as in this example:

Building Your Response

The best business responses to negative reviews tend to contain the same ingredients. Here are some important dos and don’ts to keep in mind when you write your public or private response:

• Thank the reviewer for their feedback. Do not allow a response to be posted without the words “Thank you” in it!
• Identify your role in the business. For maximum credibility, it’s best to identify yourself by name. Ideally, the person responding should have direct authority over the issues the negative review brings up.
• When the reviewer has a valid complaint about a misstep made by your company, apologize directly for the problem they suffered. Be mindful of how you express apologies: The passively worded “We apologize that the wrong item was shipped in your order” can come off as guarded and insincere. For a more believable and constructive apology, name the problem and accept responsibility, as in, “We’re sorry we messed up your order.” If this feels difficult, you can ease into this apology by describing your ideal scenario first, for example: “We strive to make every service call on time, and I am so sorry to hear that we did not meet our goal.” For complaints that express an opinion instead of pointing out an error, such as “The room was ugly” or “The products are overpriced,” avoid non-apologies like this one: “I’m sorry you feel that way.” Try the humbler alternative, “I’m sorry we did not live up to your expectations.”
• Do not get defensive, make excuses, or argue. If you lose your cool, it will not reflect well on you for future readers. As Angie’s List says, “Attack the issue, not the text.”
• Your instinct might be to ask clarifying questions, or to try to open a dialogue about how the reviewer thinks things could be improved in the future. This may work well in a face-to-face conversation or private replies, but it is impractical on most review venues, which do not allow threaded discussions. You can absolutely encourage a reviewer to contact you to fix unresolved problems, but don’t let questions dominate your response. If you do not receive answers, this could give the impression that you have a number of open issues hanging around.
• Correct any factual errors using simple language and without placing blame.
• If you are dealing with a false accusation, you will need to work up every ounce of diplomacy and Zen-like detachment you can muster before responding. Mike Blumenthal offers a great example of a dentist who takes the high road when responding to an accusation of improper conduct. The dentist describes the standards that he follows, and invites concerned readers to refer to his accolades and positive reviews. He does not call the reviewer a liar—and in fact does not address the reviewer directly at all. Rather, he says, “My staff and I felt forced to attempt to inquire into the identity of this reviewer and, unfortunately, had to conclude that this very hurtful review is the result of a personal conflict.” Read more at:

• When a review contains a mix of positive and negative commentary, be sure to acknowledge the positive comments. You don’t want your prospective customers to dwell on the negative, so you shouldn’t either.
• Be real. Use your response as an opportunity to put a human face on your business.
• Describe specifically what you are doing to improve the situation. Although this may seem impossible if you don’t think your business did anything wrong, you can always at least say you are keeping this feedback in mind for the future.
• Provide an email or phone contact where the reviewer can reach you. Sure, this information might be just a few inches above the review on your business listing page, but adding it to your response conveys a real willingness to connect.
• If you have already reached out to the reviewer privately, mention that in your public response. This communicates to anyone reading that you are taking steps to resolve the problem.
• If you can do so subtly and appropriately, describe the great aspects of your business in your response, for example, “We’re sorry your experience prior to the massage was so unpleasant, but we hope our expert massage therapist was able to help you wash away some of the stress.” Or gently point out reasons to give your business another try, for example, “We’re proud to have 20 licensed massage therapists. Next time I’ll be happy to personally help you pick the right one for you.”

Keep your mantra top-of-mind while writing responses. Your primary audience here is your future potential customer who needs to see that you handled this exchange professionally.

Exercise: Rate Responses to Negative Reviews

The best way to get a feel for effective responses to negative reviews is to sift through your favorite review venue and read as many business responses as you can. Spending even an hour doing this will give you a solid feel for what sincerity looks like, what feels trite, and the difference between professionalism and pedantry. As you read, you’ll likely run into several responses that come off as hotheaded because they were dashed off without that critical cooling-off period.

You can find review responses by clicking randomly through review sites, or you can try some advanced Google searches to get you there faster. To do this, you just need to know two little tricks:

• The Google <site:> search command causes Google to return pages from only the site that you specify. For example, start your Google search with <site:www.yelp.com> to tell Google to return only pages from Yelp. (Make sure there is no space between the colon and the name of the site.)
• Add the standard text that goes along with an owner response on the review site of your choice to your search query to see pages containing review responses. Here’s the standard text from a few popular review sites:

Venue	Text (be sure to put it in quotes in your Google search)
Google+	“Response from the owner”
Yelp	“Comment from”
TripAdvisor	“This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative”

Here are a few example searches:

Use the following Google search to help you find owner responses from veterinary practices on Google+: <site:https://plus.google.com "Response from the owner" veterinary>

Use the following Google search to help you find management responses for a guest’s terrible experience on TripAdvisor: <site:www.tripadvisor.com "This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative" terrible experience>

If you dare, use the following Google search to help you peruse pages on Yelp with owner responses or reviews that use the word “liar:” <site:www.yelp.com "comment from" liar>

Now, let’s go through and grade a few responses to some particularly tricky negative reviews. For this exercise, you’ll award points for the following good qualities:

• The response addresses the complaint directly.
• The response is professional and polite.
• The response states what is being done to address the problem.
• The response gives the reader a reason to like, trust, or try the business despite the negative review.

Negative Review for a Car Rental Business

What makes it tricky: This review doesn’t stick to describing just poor service; it contains specific details that raise questions about the ethics and trustworthiness of the business.

We give this response 2.5 out of 4. The response is polite and makes an attempt at addressing the complaint directly by offering to look into it further. However, the response leaves the ball in the reviewer’s court. There is no reassurance that this type of behavior is against company policy or that steps will be taken to correct the issue if the reviewer does not respond. Thus it’s missing important trust and likability signals for the prospective customers who read it.

Negative Review for a Tour Guide

What makes it tricky: This review has no constructive criticism to work with and seems to be more of an indication of a bad fit between customer and business rather than a flaw with the business.

We’ll add to the zeroes by giving this response 0 out of 4. This response conveys the frustration that a business owner feels when a reviewer callously trashes the business. With the comment, “Out of well over 100,000 visitors you are the only one to say that,” the response almost makes the case for why others should give the business a try, but falls short and instead becomes accusatory. Wouldn’t a simple, “We have had over 100,000 visitors, and the feedback we get is overwhelmingly positive. I’m so sorry this wasn’t your favorite experience!” have been better?

Because the review has so little information, it lacks credibility and might have been brushed off by readers if it weren’t for the owner’s petulant display. It’s better to leave no response than to leave an angry or sarcastic one.

Negative Review for a Hotel

What makes it tricky: The reviewer delivers a serious accusation that must be addressed, but it is the management’s word versus the guest’s word.

By our count, this response gets 3 out of 4, but the score is less important here, because this is no ordinary situation. It’s important to apologize for a lapse in service, but no one should feel pressured to apologize for a crime that they do not believe was committed. The response maintains a measure of professionalism while providing the hotel’s side of the story and defending its integrity. We like that the general manager addresses the reader and not the reviewer in this response, and we think the directness of “You, the readers of this post be the judge” is appropriate and effective.

Negative Review for a Restaurant

What makes it tricky: The review uses inflammatory language and contains no glimmer of positivity.

So close! This response has the basic ingredients necessary for a 4 out of 4, but the general manager’s tone ruins it. Would a cooling-off period of just a few hours have changed this snippy response into something that paints a better picture of the business? Here’s our proposed rewrite that keeps all of the information while removing the hostile tone.

“I am sorry we didn’t live up to your expectations. You may be pleased to learn that we no longer accept coaches, so our menu is not a concern in that regard. Like you, we dislike mass-produced food, and we’re proud to say that most of our produce is from the Isle of Wight and homemade. Many of our diners say they love the country feel of our establishment or the traditional element. I’m sorry the ambience disappointed you.”

Your readers are human too, and they know how easy it is to let loose with your unfiltered opinions. Like you, they may even think the reviewer deserves to be put in his place! But smart readers—the people you want as customers—know how much effort it takes to respond to rude remarks with restraint and professionalism, and your hard work to craft even-handed responses will make a favorable impression.

Negative Review for a Plumber

What makes it tricky: The reviewer gives specific, believable details about an experience that reflects poorly on the business.

This one gets a solid 4 out of 4! With professionalism, politeness, and not a hint of defensiveness, the owner apologizes and describes steps taken to make sure the problem won’t happen again. He even closes out the comment by mentioning some good reasons to give this business a try: a guarantee and a discount. All of these factors add up to create the possibility that a reader may call this plumber despite the bad review.

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Responding in Social Media

Your protocol for responding to social media comments can be slightly different from responses on review sites like Yelp and Google+ Local. On one hand, there may be less pressure, because social media commentary does not have the permanence of online reviews. On the other hand, the situation can escalate quickly if a social media comment gains a lot of visibility by shares, retweets, or upvotes. Responding to criticism in social media requires some thinking on your feet, so consider these questions before you respond:

Figure 7-4: Fitbit responds to a customer’s problem on Twitter.

Figure 7-5: This response from Domino's Pizza on Facebook satisfies an unhappy customer.

Staying positive and keeping a cool head are imperative, and honesty and transparency are always key in social media communications.

Redress and Removal

What’s the best way to get a review site to take action if you’ve been the victim of a false or defamatory negative review? Even if you are clearly and demonstrably in the right, you may be surprised to learn how limited your options are. Read on for some important background on why review sites are protected and for some options for review removal that might apply to you.

Why It’s Not Easy to Sue Review Sites

When a damaging or false review is published on a review venue, some business owners want to take legal action. This is a scenario that comes up frequently enough that Yelp has “I’m considering legal action—what are my rights?” on its Common Questions page. We’re not lawyers, but even us common folk can figure this one out:

If you decide to sue a review site over the content of its reviews, it’s not likely to be a good use of your time or money.

Review sites get their legal armor from Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), which provides extensive immunities for sites that post user-generated content. We had a conversation with Katherine Fibiger, who has an advanced degree in IP law as well as an MS in MIS, to get her explanation. She told us, “Section 230 is a powerful tool for protecting free speech. What someone would be liable for in the non-online world, they are immunized from in the online world.”

Section 230 protects websites from liability for information that is created by others and presented on the website. Katherine offers up some helpful interpretation here: “Section 230 added protection for internet service providers and users from actions against them based on content posted by third parties. The Act defines ‘interactive computer service providers’ very broadly and includes any online website or service that publishes any third-party content.” The Act has been interpreted to include search engines, moderators of discussion groups, owners of chat rooms, and review sites, among others.

Under Section 230 protections, bloggers aren’t liable for comments left by readers, search engines aren’t liable for the content of websites they display, and review sites aren’t liable for the content of reviews they show. “The Act immunizes anyone who runs a website or who acts as an intermediary.”

We wondered if there were any scenarios in which the protections of Section 230 of the CDA do not apply. Here’s what we learned:

• On hate speech: “Hate speech is not protected speech and is never acceptable under the First Amendment, but the ISP will not be liable for posting it.”
• On copyrighted works: “If you have taken some photographs and an online reviewer claims ownership of the photos, that use is not protected—it is a copyright violation.”
• On the use of a person’s image and likeness: “If someone posts a picture of you (and you are not newsworthy or famous) then that use is prohibited by privacy laws. Similarly, private information cannot be posted by anyone.”

That’s a big legalese sandwich for you to chew on! Our intention is neither to encourage or discourage anyone’s litigious aspirations but rather to provide a little background information that will help you get a feeling for reasonable expectations.

When Can a Review Be Removed?

Uh-oh. A bad review’s got you down, and you’re hoping to get it removed from public view. If you believe what you hear from some reputation management companies, or what you see when you run your eyes over the Google search ads for “remove negative reviews” (shown in Figure 7-6), you might have the impression that getting reviews taken down is just a matter of greasing the right palms.

Figure 7-6: These ads imply that you can pay a service to get reviews removed.

The reality is there’s no reputation management firm with strong enough superpowers to clear away all your negative reviews. And this is a good thing: Remember, even though you’re probably sick of reading it by now, bad reviews can have some benefits for your business, and any sort of pay-to-remove process would deeply damage both your credibility and that of the review site. While you’re resisting the kneejerk reaction to kill your bad reviews, read on to learn some scenarios when one can legitimately be snuffed out:

Figure 7-7: This review on TripAdvisor is based on a reservation phone call and not firsthand experience of the property.

Figure 7-8: This Yelp review contains several slurs, which could be grounds for removal.

https://support.google.com/legal/contact/lr_courtorder?product=websearch

https://support.google.com/websearch/troubleshooter/3111061#ts=2889054

Here’s hoping you have more positive reviews to show off than negative ones to fret about! In Chapter 8, “Showing Off and Being Found,” you’ll learn how to make your reviews more visible.