Using Online Reputation Management to combat Negative Reviews Online

In my lifetime the biggest company killer has been negative reviews of a particular company.  Whether it be online or newspaper reviews it is generally a huge issue to combat.  Also, it has become much easier for a potential customer to search your business.  The only thing that is needed is either a smartphone or laptop. With social media and the rise of review sites and Google reviews, it has been much more important to monitor your business’s reviews online.    I myself have had an issue with someone with my name that I have had to combat it in the past.  Small and medium sized businesses understand how difficult it is to generate revenue and maintain your place in the market.  They are certainly worried about how customers are reviewing them online.  The one thing that is most important is to be proactive and take charge of everything that is being said of your company online.  You have to take every comment seriously.  Your inability to do so will lead potential customers to believe that either the comments are in fact true or you do not care about your customers.  It can also lead to abuse by negative stalker reviewers as well.   Using my personal experience and having been a consultant for small businesses for several years on the topic, here are some ways to combat and even remove the negative reviews online using Reputation Management Services from Falcon Consulting & Marketing:

Erasing Bad Reviews From the Internet Entirely- There are times that you can delete bad reviews entirely from a review site.  However, this can most likely only happen under certain conditions that are set up within the company’s guidelines.  You should definitely read their Terms of Service to see under what conditions it is possible to have the entire review deleted. The erasure of the review is subject to the discretion of the review site.   What we have seen is that normally if you can show that the person is a fake reviewer or the review is completely wrong then the review can be deleted.  Also under some circumstances you will be able to have the review expunged if you can prove that it is your competition or an ex-employee that is reviewing your business.

Burying negative reviews so to make it difficult to be seen- If the review site will not delete the review then the alternative would be to bury the review so it is so hard to find that it lacks the ability to undermine your business.  How do you go about doing this?  Have your happy customers make positive reviews of you on the same review site, on your website and social media sites.  Don’t be afraid to ask your previous customers for reviews as it may come in handy at times when you are not expecting it.  You should take a proactive role and make sure that if there is a negative review, you have already put in a system in place.

Respond to negative reviews online-  It is always best to attempt to respond in a positive way to a negative reviewer.  Try not to be forceful as you have to remember the public will be looking on how you are conducting yourself.  Your attempt to remediate the situation can sway your public perception if it is thoughtful and rational.  Maybe your attempts to fix the problem will have the result of the reviewer removing the review entirely.  In the alternative you will have a record for the world to see how you handle complaints and you take them seriously.

Please note that these methods are not exhaustive and there are other ways to combat negative reviews online.

Online Reputation Management can be a stressful and time-consuming project.  If you are an expert or novice at it, there are many pitfalls to responding to reviewers and/or attempting to erase the review altogether.  If your business is serious about customer complaints and worried about revenues decreasing as a result of the reviews, you can hire a professional to assist you with your Online Reputation.  Falcon Consulting & Management is a digital marketing agency located in New York City that has expertise in Online Reputation Management.  If you are in need of these service feel free to call us at 855-445-9530 or e-mail at sales@falconconsultingandmarketing.com.  We handle one client at a time and have helped many small businesses in your situation.

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