Repairing a damaged reputation

by peteJ
18 replies
I've recenlty been hired by a local comapny to do some SEO work as well as some general web development tasks. One of the things I was assigned was to see if I could do anything about their bad online reviews.

Here's the story. A few years ago business really took off. So much so that they didn't have the manpower to handle the influx of customer requests. As you can probably guess, this lead to some rather upset customes, and the online review sites like yelp reflect this.

Fast forward to now and they have really got their act together. They've managed to keep up with the business and now upset customers much less often. I've gone through and looked at their operation and they really are doing a much better job than I would think jsut reading their reviews.

The thing is, reviews that come in now are fairly positive, but there are still more negitive ones from years past. Eventually, they are going to have more good than bad, but the process is slow, and it's definately costing them sales.

So, my question for all you is if there is anyway that I can speed up this process? I truly do believe this is a good company, and where they are now is not what they were 3-5 years ago. I want to help them out, but I'm a loss here, and don't want to tell them just to wait it out.
#damaged #repairing #reputation
  • Profile picture of the author wesawu
    PeteJ,

    Bad reviews are inevitable in any business. You really can't satisfy everyone and that really shouldn't be the goal either, otherwise you will be wasting valuable resources on the few that can't be satisfied versus spending the same resources retaining the better clients/customers. I am in the hospitality business and we get reviews from a host of sources on a daily basis, expedia, our own franchise website, tripadvisor, etc. You can't do much about the negative reviews from the past years but going forward, it would be wise to:

    1: Offer your happy customers in incentive to post a review. I'm not sure which industry you are in so I can't give you any ideas as to what kinds of incentives you might offer, maybe a discount on future purchase, a starbucks gift card, free upgrade, etc.

    2. Always have a member of the staff respond to all reviews in a timely manner, including the negative ones. It will show future potential customers that you truly care. Customers understand that businesses make mistakes. If you respond to the negative comments by owning the problem and showing that it has been taken care of than future customers are more likely to be understanding and do business with you. It's called "Service Recovery".

    Yelp does have a "add owner comment" function. It would be wise to start using it immediately. It truly does help.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rbtmarshall
    It took a few years for them to build up the reputation they have now.


    speed up what process? you haven't even mentioned what any of your plans are, only mentions of excuses the company had for being to busy for their customers
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  • Profile picture of the author Cobaki
    There is no easy way to speed things up. Just try your best to encourage your current clients to make reviews on your business. Eventually, once you have gained enough positive ones and the negative reviews get way outnumbered, your potential clients would no longer mind the negative ones that much.
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  • Profile picture of the author salegurus
    Just be honest, tell them that you can complete the other parts of the project but you don't know anything about reputation management. (I'm guessing that's what got your client into trouble, over promised and under delivered)
    Seems that you bit off more than you can chew...
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    • Profile picture of the author overspool
      Have the business provide an incentive for a happy customer to provide a positive review. This would be a win-win. What do you think?
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  • Profile picture of the author aarthielumalai
    They could actually ask their customers to post reviews online. I read about this method a while ago: the company sets up a webpage where people post their reviews. The positive reviews then get posted on online review sites like Yelp, whereas the negative reviews are sent to the owner so they can better their service. This would improve their rating real fast.

    I'm not sure how effective this method is or if it even works, but it does seem worth checking out. Good luck on your venture.
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    • Profile picture of the author Cobaki
      Originally Posted by aarthielumalai View Post

      They could actually ask their customers to post reviews online. I read about this method a while ago: the company sets up a webpage where people post their reviews. The positive reviews then get posted on online review sites like Yelp, whereas the negative reviews are sent to the owner so they can better their service. This would improve their rating real fast.
      This puts the company/freelancer in a win-win situation. However, this is not something that would really benefit consumers. I think, they still have the right to know about the company's/freelancer's background before they avail of their services. Not all of those who receive negative comments will really improve their performance.
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  • Profile picture of the author brettb
    My local supermarket has a suggestion box. On the wall they post what people wrote, and what they did to address the issues.
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  • Profile picture of the author john12
    The Company can re-invent or rejuvenate itself through a well planned PR Campaign

    involving such changes as a new Logo, new Mission Statement, Customer service focus,

    re-training their employees on best practices and giving them incentives for doing the

    correct things and going over and above to give customer satisfaction, advertisements, and letting new customers and previous customers know of the new changes.

    If all the employees from top to bottom are on board, customers will feel the change, and this will generate a ton of good buzz and testimonials that will overwhelm the negative feed backs.

    Doubtless, it will cost time and money, but for a good reason.

    Companies do this sort of things to prevent a slide in reputation, perception and customer satisfaction and turn their earnings and profitability around from negative to positive.
    The key is: it has to be well planned and flawlessly executed, and bought into by all employees so that it comes from the heart.
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  • Profile picture of the author trader909
    trolls can destroy a business..and some do. i'd hate to run a hotel or restaraunt these days. One bad troll can ruin you.

    let's face it say you have 1,000 customers. 95% are happy. They live their lives.

    5% not happy. And in that 5%, 20% are big mouth keyboard warriors that have nothing better to do.

    so you now have 10 trolls spewing poison. This attracts other trolls. The owner tries to defend his business...the troll senses "blood" and attracts more troll to the feeding.

    if the reviews were fair,honest and balanced, great, but we all know those words do not apply in the world of the troll.

    These directories say it's freedom of speech...LOL pull the other one!
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    • Profile picture of the author salegurus
      Originally Posted by trader909 View Post

      trolls can destroy a business..and some do. i'd hate to run a hotel or restaraunt these days. One bad troll can ruin you.
      Man you have some "Troll" issues...
      Yes it's true that unhappy customers are more likely to leave a review...

      Originally Posted by trader909 View Post

      let's face it say you have 1,000 customers. 95% are happy. They live their lives.
      How did you arrive at the percentage? To say 95% are happy all the time?

      Originally Posted by trader909 View Post

      if the reviews were fair,honest and balanced, great, but we all know those words do not apply in the world of the troll.
      These directories say it's freedom of speech...LOL pull the other one!
      Sure reviewers will add their own spin, good or bad. But this obsession with "trolls" waiting to pounce on review sites with the sole purpose of closing down businesses...
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    • Profile picture of the author Cobaki
      Originally Posted by trader909 View Post

      trolls can destroy a business..and some do. i'd hate to run a hotel or restaraunt these days. One bad troll can ruin you.
      True. And speaking of hotels, I usually encounter two or three bad hotel reviews on hotels that I usually go to for business trips. I am not sure whether they are just trolls or not, but most hotels are able to handle these negative comments excellently by broadcasting their professional response to them. I think, the company really needs to have a personal touch on the "fixing" part.
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  • Profile picture of the author trader909
    I made a quick assumption figure up..my points being most customer should be happy or you will not be in business long.


    How did you arrive at the percentage? To say 95% are happy all the time?
    in fact my post as a made up scenario.


    yes trolls have ruined the net.
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  • Profile picture of the author ronrule
    Originally Posted by peteJ View Post

    I've recenlty been hired by a local comapny to do some SEO work as well as some general web development tasks. One of the things I was assigned was to see if I could do anything about their bad online reviews.

    Here's the story. A few years ago business really took off. So much so that they didn't have the manpower to handle the influx of customer requests. As you can probably guess, this lead to some rather upset customes, and the online review sites like yelp reflect this.

    Fast forward to now and they have really got their act together. They've managed to keep up with the business and now upset customers much less often. I've gone through and looked at their operation and they really are doing a much better job than I would think jsut reading their reviews.

    The thing is, reviews that come in now are fairly positive, but there are still more negitive ones from years past. Eventually, they are going to have more good than bad, but the process is slow, and it's definately costing them sales.

    So, my question for all you is if there is anyway that I can speed up this process? I truly do believe this is a good company, and where they are now is not what they were 3-5 years ago. I want to help them out, but I'm a loss here, and don't want to tell them just to wait it out.
    You need an imaginary scapegoat.

    Respond directly in an official capacity on the sites where the complaints are happening first.

    1. Acknowledge there were problems.
    2. Blame them on rapid growth and a nameless inefficient manager who is no longer with the company.
    3. Remind the readers that these complaints were several years ago and no longer accurately represent the company or customer views - and that you appreciate the honest feedback, which was directly responsible for "shaping up" your customer service/whatever the problem area was.

    That's it. No fake positive reviews, no asking happy customers to post positive experiences ... just address, acknowledge, close, and work toward getting those old results pushed down in the search engines.
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    Ron Rule
    http://ronrule.com

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    • Profile picture of the author wesawu
      [QUOTE=ronrule;8612297]You need an imaginary scapegoat.


      2. Blame them on rapid growth and a nameless inefficient manager who is no longer with the company.
      QUOTE]

      With all due respect, I wouldn't blame the problem on any specific person even if it was an inefficient manager. The client that is effected doesn't really care who's fault it was. They just want to know that current owner/manager has taken ownership of the problem and fixed it. That will going along way in building trust, future relationship and most importantly, more sales.
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      • Profile picture of the author ronrule
        Originally Posted by wesawu View Post

        With all due respect, I wouldn't blame the problem on any specific person even if it was an inefficient manager. The client that is effected doesn't really care who's fault it was. They just want to know that current owner/manager has taken ownership of the problem and fixed it. That will going along way in building trust, future relationship and most importantly, more sales.
        That's why I say "nameless" - people respond better when they know a problem is solved with a definitive stopping point. Saying "We changed! We're better now!" doesn't excite anyone ... saying we ELIMINATED a problem, and took ownership of the mistake does.
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        • Profile picture of the author Cobaki
          Originally Posted by ronrule View Post

          That's why I say "nameless" - people respond better when they know a problem is solved with a definitive stopping point. Saying "We changed! We're better now!" doesn't excite anyone ... saying we ELIMINATED a problem, and took ownership of the mistake does.
          This is very true. As a consumer, if I like to avail of the services of a certain company, I will still choose them over anybody else despite a few negative reviews on their service. I will always choose to still stick with them as long as I ACTUALLY see them doing something about the negative reviews.
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  • Profile picture of the author JRJWrites
    There will always be dissatisfied customers, no matter what. If the company is selling something, I would suggest lowering the price until people feel like they're getting real value. Then, slowly raise the price back up.

    Also, you can consider hiring professional video-makers to create intro videos to your site/product and possibly post on YT. High quality vids actually lend a lot of credibility to nearly all types of businesses.
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