Passionate about technology, media and chocolate eclairs, I've worked in web and print for over twenty years and now run a digital media consultancy in Scotland.
It’s been said that a bad review can be good for business.
Good reviews are naturally sought and welcomed by most, but what do your potential customers think when 100% reviews are good.
If, as they say, nobody’s perfect, does this point to something fishy.
Not necessarily, but how you handle a bad review shows you are human, shows you care and shows that it’s true, nobody is perfect, but at least you can admit it and deal with it. Take this real-life example of a bed and breakfast, whose customer posted a bad review on TripAdvisor.
It was out of character. the B&B in question is comfortable and has a good reputation.
The owner called me to ask me how it could be taken down. I explained that it couldn’t but she could deal with it positively by creating a profile on TripAdvisor, respond to the remark and invite all her subsequent visitors to leave honest reviews. In a week, the bad review would have been so watered down that it would have been insignificant. But it would also have shown that if you stayed there and had a problem, it wouldn’t have been ignored. It would have shown they cared about their customers.
Despite my advice, she refused to do anything about it and wanted it left there. Google picked up on it and placed it next to the pin it had placed on its mapping service.
Now, two years later, the B&B has had no more reviews, so with just one comment has managed to earn 100% bad reviews, no responses, no ‘official’ listing and highlighted on Google.
What makes this story worse, is that other bed and breakfast owners I have spoken to, have cited her bad review as a ‘good’ reason for not going on TripAdvisor.
These are the same people that are complaining that enquiries are down, despite page views being up.
People are doing pretty much all their holiday planning on the internet these days. They’re looking and booking, weighing up and paying up. If they don’t use all the tools out there, and let’s face it, most of them are free, they are going to be doing a lot of catching up when the penny eventually drops.
Nice article, echoing a lot of my beliefs about that all opportunities are good opportunities. I learnt my lessons from a bout of prolific ebaying where negative feedback could potential limit your clientele. I took time to think about the feedback and how it impacted on what i was doing (in my case was it slow service, poor item description etc etc). Sometimes it was time to put your hands up apologise and respond appropriately, frequently reinforcing the message that contact prior to public complaint is most beneficial. However in a public forum it is a great way to reinforce positive behaviours eg accessability to address the issue.
However it is easy to understand the womans attitude, hiding from issues is always tempting and that is why the opportunity to view things objectively is essential.
chris