The internet has empowered customers to voice their opinion without any restrictions. It’s quite easy for people to write reviews about businesses and post them online.

In a market driven by pure capitalism, honest reviews only serve to improve the industry for both the company and its customers. Online reviews become a problem when they are used as a tool against competitors.

Perhaps you rubbed someone the wrong way, triggering an unending desire to seek revenge by spamming the internet with bad and  fake  reviews.

The general rule of thumb with honest customer reviews is that for every 10 good reviews, there should be one or two  really  bad ones thrown into the mix.

This can be explained due to human nature: you can’t please everyone at the same time. Sometimes, a company really does need to improve its products and services to correct a bad review.

Perhaps there are major flaws in their business model such as not giving away freebies or supplying damaged products that aren’t exactly what the picture promised.

In this case, their problem isn’t a bad online review, but it’s their product and service. If people are truly happy with your service, they will either not care enough to leave a review or they will leave glowing reviews.  

It is common for competitors to use online reviews for the specific purpose of harming the immediate competition. This results in a lot of setbacks for companies as their sales begin to plummet down the drain.

Even the world’s largest conglomerates like Amazon and eBay depend on good customer feedback to continue doing business.

Customers trust online reviews and use them as a yardstick before making any purchase decisions and sometimes, they can’t really make a difference between honest reviews and those which were faked.

Despite their best efforts to crack down on fake reviews, a small portion of them inevitably end up making contact with the customers, pulling them away from the proverbial funnel and sending them to the immediate competition with glowing reviews instead.

A poll conducted by the Telegraph found that  51 percent of businesses  complained about experiencing unfair reviews and inflammatory comments online.  

A frightening statistic about online reviews is that an overwhelming majority of them – 65 percent to be precise – are actively being faked. People get paid to sit around their cubicles all day writing scathing reviews.

A report released by Harvard Business School found that a one-star  increase  in an online review site such as Yelp can boost a  company’s revenue by 5 to 9 percent .  The study goes on to say that the revenue further increases by 18% if a business’s rating moves from 3-stars to 5-stars.

The same could be said about the impact of negative reviews on sales. This means that if an online retailer makes an annual revenue of $1 million, they could be losing as much as $180,000 because of negative reviews.

Bad reviews spawn an ecosystem of mistrust and a perceived deficiency in quality control. When customers read fake online reviews, they  will  inherently develop a negative perception of your brand because we live in an environment where word of mouth advertisement still plays a major role.

E-commerce giants like Amazon and eBay can survive the brutal assault of fake online reviews, but smaller businesses tend to get helplessly swept under the rug. However, all is not lost for budding startups.

What goes on the internet  doesn’t  have to stay there, especially  if  you know what you’re doing that is. Fake customer reviews can be  deleted  by taking the right actions, or  hiring a professional  do it for you.

Online reviews don’t necessarily have to take the form of Yelp comments. Disgruntled customers can take to other platforms to reach a larger audience and alert them of fraudulent or bad customer service. Here’s an example.

In 2009, musician David Carroll posted a creative and hilarious video, accusing United Airlines of damaging his prized $3,500 Taylor guitar due to rough handling and then adding insult to injury by showing complete indifference to his repeated complaints. David was able to get his Taylor guitar repaired for $1,200, but his  viral video  cost United Airlines a colossal sum of money as their stocks slipped by 10 percent. That is $180 million in value lost due to  bad customer review .

It has been estimated that an overwhelming majority of people (over 80% of them) won’t bother with a company that has negative reviews, preferring to take their business elsewhere. Making matters even worse is the fact that it takes several positive customer reviews to counteract one bad review.  

A bad online review doesn’t have to lead to a loss for a business. Provided you take prompt action, you will be able to turn bad press into a newfound opportunity. Below are a few tips you can use to deal with negative online reviews.

The internet has made it easy for businesses to interact with their clients 24 hours of the day, 7 days of the week. Nowadays, customers no longer have the patience to wait several hours in a day before hearing back from a customer representative. They expect quick responses that, at the very least, promise to fix the solution in the near future.

An authentic bad online review can be offset by asking the customer for a few more days before you can fix their issue. This usually resolves the problem and the customer interaction actually proves fruitful for the business by creating more opportunities.

Here’s why.

When other customers begin to see that your sales representatives make prompt replies, it makes them feel more positive about conducting business with you and proves to them that you care for your customers.

The last thing you want to do is falling down to the level of a troll to deal with your customers. This hardly ever works. At its best, screaming online won’t get you noticed. And at its worst, you’re only going to feed the trolls who will find pleasure in the knowledge that their scathing reviews somehow got under your skin. This will only amplify their efforts, alerting nearby trolls to escalate the situation.

Here’s how you  DON’T  feed the trolls:

Doing the opposite to the above bullet points should be enough to deter online bullies from pursuing their campaigns.  A good example of someone who  regularly  feeds the troll is an online streamer that goes by the name of  Wings of Redemption . This YouTuber and micro-influencer regularly repeat the same behavior his trolls accuse him of, always loses his temper, and sometimes ends up crying.

In his case, showing raw emotion against an onslaught of what clearly appears to be troll-ish behavior is the perfect way to commit ‘career suicide.’ No customer or business wants to engage with a company that doesn’t have control over their impulses. Such obnoxious behavior only leads to bad PR and doesn’t generate empathy.  

After your sales reps have acknowledged the negative online review, you should make efforts to reach the customer offline through their phone number or email address. The idea is to get the customer out of public view so the two of you can discuss this matter discretely and resolve it.

Going offline might require you to provide customers with a few added incentives such as free goods and services even after you have replaced the damaged product or bad service.  

Once the matter has been resolved, it is a good idea to post a public comment about the customer, outlining that the issue has been settled on a positive note.

Fake reviews are worse than online trolls and honest bad reviews. These are marketing campaigns initiated by someone who truly wants to hurt your business and revenue. The best way to deal with these reviews is to request the website (such as Yelp or Google Reviews) to remove them.

Do keep in mind that there is no guarantee if Google will take urgent action, irrespective of how many times you urge them to.

Reporting a fake review on Yelp is relatively simple. Create an account using your email address and flag the review. You can do the same with your existing Yelp account. This will require you to provide them with an explanation.

If this doesn’t work, you can always reach customer support for yelp at  feedback@yelp.com .

One of the best ways to deal with negative reviews is to ask your existing roster of happy customers to leave glowing reviews on the website.  The important thing is to not ask them to leave ‘positive reviews’. Simply provide them with an incentive to leave good reviews such as, “Your reviews help us improve our services.” You can even promise them loyalty points such that accumulating a certain amount of these points should make the customer eligible for free service and products.

A good idea is to create accounts on a list of sites like Facebook, Trip Advisor, and Angie’s list. Don’t just rely on one review website like Google Reviews or Yelp and hope that customers will create accounts specifically for your reviews. The idea is to make it easy for happier customers to leave positive reviews by not having to jump through hoops.

In most cases, it is a simple matter of entering your company information, adding a customer, and sending them gentle reminders about recommending your business. This is a positive tactic that is proven to work, provided that you have the patience to follow through with the plan.

It is important to claim your social media profile for your unique business name before someone else beats you to it. They could end up using the ‘authentic’ looking business name to spread more misinformation about your business.

The idea is to bury a legion of bad reviews under a mountain of good reviews. Google and other search engines regularly update their indexes to showcase the most recent content. Eventually, the new content that you just published will get noticed by search engines and the ominous clout due to fake and negative reviews will be overshadowed.  

Your online reputation depends on how fast quickly you respond to customer complaints. Most customers want to know what you would do in the case of a negative review. In this case, a negative review is more of a blessing instead of being a curse. It shows customers that you are more than willing to resolve problems related to your products and services.

Forcing someone else to remove content on you is not easy. If not handled by the right professionals, it may backfire because most of these webmasters usually have access to a network of people who are more than willing to disclose details of your private spat. This could cause more bad press.

Our strategists specialise in the removal of unwanted information, illegal content without the risk of bad press. The abusive online material is removed discreetly, efficiently and affordably. Speak with our strategist today and  delete your digital footprint !