Customer Reviews: How To Get the Most out of Negative Comments

An exclusively positive evaluation of products or services is a dream for many entrepreneurs. However, it is almost impossible to find examples of brands that have only good reviews. This is because each customer has individual beliefs and requests. Guided by these aspects, consumers can leave both positive and negative reviews. Moreover, the activity of writing comments is constantly increasing. According to data presented by Bright Local, in 2022, 95% of consumers wrote reviews.

This is an impressive statistic that confirms the fact that almost every business customer wants to express their point of view. Under such conditions, the presence of negative reviews is no longer something surprising. Rather, they are evidence that the company has been in the market for a long time and has many customers. However, you should not ignore them, as they can cause damage to your reputation. In the article, we offer to learn how to benefit from negative reviews and prevent negative consequences.

Source: Truelist 

https://truelist.co/blog/online-reviews-statistics/ 

Processing Feedback in the Format of Requests

On the pages of many brands, you can see dozens of comments that have clarifying content. These are questions about extended information about the product, the company itself, its services, as well as other details. At first glance, these appeals do not arouse suspicion. If you delve into the details, you can understand that they have potential risks for business.

They consist in the fact that each such review, left without the attention of company representatives, may indicate weak customer support and a lack of responsible attitude towards them. This is one of the decisive factors that can turn users away and negatively affect the level of sales. The consequences are quite real, given the fact that 95% of consumers first read product reviews before taking the intended action.

Such data is provided in a report presented by GlobeNewswire. These indicators show that negative reviews need to be processed. In particular, attention should be paid to requests whose purpose is to clarify certain details. Such reviews can be used for the benefit of the business. It is quite easy to do. You only need to perform a few simple actions:

• Share some best practices that help make your product or service easier to use.
• Provide detailed instructions and tips for using features.
• Write additional characteristics and parameters.

The choice of answer depends on the type of request. You need to carefully study the comment first, and then choose the best option. A detailed response to such comments improves the brand's reputation and lets users know that it cares about its customers.

This can become an additional competitive advantage that will help increase engagement rates. Improving the knowledge base and publishing new useful materials on the blog will help to strengthen the effect. In this way, users will have fewer questions to clarify.

Processing of Consumer Complaints

The main part of reviews consists of dissatisfied comments in which users complain about the company's products or services. Such appeals can seriously damage a business and break morale. Working with them is difficult, but still possible. One of the most effective ways in this case is a detailed analysis of such reviews. Experts recommend following several important steps in this case:

• Definition of the object that caused dissatisfaction. It can be a product, service, consultation with a manager, features of service provision, terms, and other factors.
• Finding fault. The next step is to determine whether the company's employees made a mistake, or whether both parties are to blame for the situation.
• Problem solving. At this stage, there can be two scenarios of the development of events. If the cause of the consumer's complaint was the company's mistake, then you should make every effort to correct the situation. This could be apologizing, sending a gift, giving a discount, offering a refund, or replacing the product. In the case of a purely subjective opinion of the customer, which is based only on a discrepancy with expectations, other ways of benefiting from the appeal to the brand can be offered.

In any case, you must first respond to negative feedback and then move on to solving the situation in other communication channels. The presence of comments from the brand in such a case makes it clear that the company is customer-oriented and makes efforts to ensure a pleasant interaction experience. Thus, even the harshest negative reviews can be turned into a useful tool for increasing business engagement. In some cases you may also want to reach out to the reviewer personally to help clear up their concerns. You could reach out via email, phone call, or SMS (you can find template samples of texts to get your juices flowing on how you can engage with customers via text).

If you want to achieve maximum results in this difficult task, you can use another effective method. In the realm of customer service, the adoption of electronic signatures stands out as a proactive measure to meet customer needs swiftly and efficiently. By empowering customers to digitally sign documents, businesses are taking a customer-centric approach to streamline the process. This customer-first strategy not only saves time but also demonstrates a commitment to providing a seamless experience, ultimately elevating customer satisfaction and reinforcing the brand's dedication to exceptional service. Once the situation is resolved, it can be used as a basis for creating a compelling success story. It will demonstrate the company's ability to solve complex situations and look for opportunities to improve customer satisfaction. Such stories can even be used in marketing strategies to support claimed benefits.

Processing Comments of Trolls and Malicious Users

No brand is immune to the fact that at some point it will be the target of users who write negative reviews for fun or to vent their anger. Such comments can become a real problem, as their content usually has a strong emotional charge. In this case, you can try to turn such reviews into memes or jokes.

This is a non-standard approach that should be used with caution. However, a good choice of words and actions will help to avoid serious consequences for the reputation, and will also contribute to the emergence of trust among buyers. One example of using this method is turning negative comments into a witty business card. If a consumer has a negative opinion about a certain product, then you can use this expression in a humorous context for some advertising campaigns.

This method is especially effective if the author of the angry content is a famous person. It doesn't have to be celebrities. Comments can be left by outrageous people who like to draw attention to themselves. In this case, you can make a funny emphasis on it, but without insulting the author. In addition, you can use other ways of turning negative reviews into jokes:

• Justification of the author's mistake in a witty context
• Using comments in ads to attract attention
• Creating a meme from a screenshot

The third option is now the most common. This is due to the specifics of the format itself. It is visual that attracts the attention of most users and contains a humorous element that evokes positive emotions. By using memes, the brand not only becomes closer to the audience but also demonstrates following current trends.

Processing of Malicious Comments and Spam

This is a special group of comments that are aimed at intentionally damaging the brand. Bot attacks and negative spam comments can happen at any time, so it is necessary to determine in advance how to react to them. One is to take a snapshot of such comments and use them in blog posts about the perpetrators. This is to protect users from clicking on malicious links and creating negative associations with your brand. In addition, you can safely delete such comments.

Source: ReviewTrackers 

https://www.reviewtrackers.com/reports/online-reviews-survey/ 

Conclusions

Negative comments are something that every business owner with a website and social media pages can face. They can cause reputational damage. However, this will not happen if such comments are processed in time. Moreover, by choosing the right way to respond, you can benefit from them.