Many businesses have a profile up on Yelp.com where customers can rate and review their services, products, etc. However, sometimes enabling a way for customers to rate and review you publically can end up with less-than-desired outcomes, such as negative reviews.
Maybe you had a bad day and were snappy, or the fish that was delivered was bad to begin with, or the customer was in a pissy mood and was out to get someone that day… who knows? That customer was unhappy and decided to make your life terrible by posting it for the world to see on Yelp.
Though it hurts your feelings or upsets you, negative reviews are not always bad. Here are a few ways to deal with them:
- Take it lightly: If you have mostly great reviews, then take the bad review with a grain of salt. Realize some people are just upset and angry and you just happened to be the target that day. Once more people give positive reviews, it will make that bad reviewer look out of place (and perhaps a little insane).
Get insights: If you are starting to see more and more poor reviews, then it is time to use these reviews as motive towards improving your business. Think of it as a really inexpensive way of performing a poll. Look at the most criticized elements of your business and make a conscious effort to turn it around. To follow up and see if there is an improvement, start providing a “rate your service” card for customers with their bill. You can encourage customers by creating a contest: those who return it get entered into a drawing for a prize (and while you are at it, now you have their email address where you can send them your own newsletter mentioning monthly deals, etc).- Humor: This is my favorite. It requires you to take a step back and think outside of the box. This pic of the sandwich board shows a great way that one restaurant dealt with their bad review and turned it around.
These are just a few ways to help you get beyond the drudgery associated with a bad review. There are some more options that I will post in part 2 later.
Have you had a bad Yelp review, but business has continued? What are some other ways that you have dealt with those negative reviews?