"On
average, 40 percent of customers who suffer through bad experiences stop doing
business with the offending company." The Harvard Business
Review
A few weeks
ago we discussed the subject of customer service (Your Customer Service: It's
Not As Good As Your Think). We learned that there is an 80 percent disconnect
between the quality of customer service businesses believe is delivered versus
the quality of service received by the customer. In many cases, we found that
the customer rated an organization as "satisfactory" or "above satisfactory"
right before switching providers. And we also learned that the typical customer
satisfaction evaluation tools were inadequate at deriving a customer's true
thoughts on your business.
What we did
not discuss was the Deadly Customer Reviews.
Across the internet there is a
growing number of business reviews websites. Some of the more mainstream sites
include Angie's List, Epinions and RateItAll, and then there is the more brutal
website RipOffReport.com.
No matter
the site, no matter the business, the goal of these sites remains the same. Warn
consumers about poor, bad or downright miserable business dealings. Fairly, or
unfairly, your ability to successfully build your business may be severely
diminished by a bad online review. Even worse, you probably don't know about
it.
Here is a
quick 5 Step Strategy for rendering negative reviews completely
ineffective.
Google your
business. Run through the first 50 links that include your businesses
name.
Search for
bad reviews, read them, print them and save them.
Take the
number of bad reviews you find (x), multiply that number by 5 to get your
product (y). That would be (X *5=Y). Y is the number of your satisfied customers
you will ask to write a positive review of their experience with you. Send an
email link to your customers of where you would like to have their reviews
posted.
Contact the
poster of the negative review. Talk to him or about the negative review of your
business. Whatever you do, don't try to change his or her mind. The goal is to
educate yourself, not defend.
Send
everyone a thank you letter, both negative and positive
reviewers.
Here is why
this strategy works. One negative review, standing alone, is the single
authority on all customer experiences.
One
negative review, surrounded by numerous positive reviews, makes your business
real.
If you
pride yourself on your customer service, you need to protect your brand. Any
wise business owner will be proactive in developing a base of positive reviews,
ensuring that his/her focus is on building the business rather than conducting
"damage" control.
Eric
Tompkins is founder and owner of Tompkins Consulting Group, which provides a
range of consulting services to event industry organizations and professionals.
Reach him via eric@tompkinseventconsultants.com.