It’s one of the worst things that can possibly happen to your online reputation – getting bad reviews from disgruntled customers. But what most brands don’t know is that they can take these lemons and turn it into sweet lemonade. Negative feedback from customers is difficult to take, but you can’t allow your emotions to drive your actions. In most cases, this only makes matters worse. To help with your Online Reputation Managemet, you can seek professional services from local SEO companies. ORM services provided by SEO experts can be a breath of fresh air for brands that are drowning in negative reviews.
One way to look at negative feedback is as a learning lesson. Pay attention to what’s being said in the complaint rather than focusing on the complaint itself. What are they saying that can be used to improve your business?
The following can be used for both large and small businesses to take advantage of negative feedback and propel ahead of their competitors.
Collect Competitive Intelligence
Your eyes should be on the reviews your competitors receive as well. Learning what they’re doing wrong can help prevent you from doing the same. If you’re savvy, you’ll even find ways to improve your services and products to counter the problem and give your brand a big boost. Remember, your competitors’ weaknesses are opportunities to win their customers over.
This is also something that SEO companies can do for your local and national competition.
Benchmark Your Performance Against Your Market
You can’t really know how well your business is doing unless you compare it to similar businesses in the industry. For example, you may be proud of having a 60 percent customer satisfaction rate, but if similar brands are at 75 percent, then you need to refocus your efforts. Or vice versa – you may think you’re doing horribly only to learn that you’re doing better than majority of your competition.
Spot Patterns and Make Changes Accordingly
Just because you get one angry customer review doesn’t mean you need to revamp your business model. However, when you see that there is a pattern of 10 or so customers, then it’s time to make a few changes before it grows into an even larger problem.
Train Your Front Line Employees
Everyone in your organization that interacts with your customers need to be trained based on your findings from customer reviews. They also need to be educated about how to deal with customers and retain them. Create a process where they receive regular feedback to continuously improve their efforts.