Reputation Management

Negative online reviews can have a negative impact on your practice – unless you know how to properly handle them.

You’ve been working on your online reputation for your office. You read about why an online review presence is important, and started improving it.

You are:

   Asking for reviews

   Increasing your star rating

   Acquiring additional patients from your online presence

What do you do if you received a less-than-great review from a patient?

Don’t worry, it’s not the end of the world for your practice – promise.

Just follow the steps below and turn this unhappy patient back to a fan of your practice.

Why Respond to a Negative Online Review

It is important to be prepared, rather than reactionary, when taking control of your online reputation. This includes when you receive a less-than-favorable review from a patient, and deciding how to respond to the review.

Over half of consumers (57%) will avoid a business that has negative online reviews.¹ We all know that ignoring something doesn’t make it go away. This is especially true with what is written on the internet.

Your online presence can be the first impression that a patient has of your practice. You can turn a negative review into a positive experience for the reviewer and all your potential patients by engaging in a constructive way and showing that you are a genuine business.²

A study looking at online review responses concluded that managers should engage in review responses “for the purpose of complaint management. [They] should be timely so that they are visible to subsequent reviews.”³ Responding to reviews is also important to increase your dental office’s SEO. By writing more relevant content about your practice, the more people will look at your reviews and the higher you will show up on Google’s results.

Now that you know why you should respond to these reviews and how it can have a positive impact on your practice, follow these easy steps below to rectify any bad review that you receive from a patient.

How to Respond to Reviews

1. Keep up-to-date on your online review presence.

Dedicate a responsible employee to regularly check your online review presence. This includes scouring popular review sites that patients can be leaving reviews for your practice every few days. Or, if your budget allows, use an online review platform such as CS Reviews to automatically be alerted any time a review for your practice is left on a multitude of review sites.

2. Respond in a timely manner – at least three days.

Studies show that over half (56%) of consumers feel it is reasonable to expect a response to their review within a day.⁴ Make sure that you plan your response with the next steps in a reasonable amount of time so that you may respond to any online complaints within this time frame.

3. Research before responding.

If a review speaks to a specific event, problem, or situation, be sure to check internally to get the full picture of the entire situation, so you can speak to it with knowledge and rectify the situation. You also want to make sure this isn’t a fake review that was written to try to give your practice a bad reputation.

Receiving fake or defaming reviews for your business? Here’s how to try to rid your practice of these types of reviews, step-by-step.

4. Draft your response.

Do not hurry and type whatever comes to mind – make sure you have researched the situation, have a clear head, and are not being reactionary. Proofread. Don’t just apologize, be actionable. Make sure to draft the response from management or leadership.

5. Include any personal contact information, if necessary.

Sometimes it’s better to bring the conversation one-on-one, instead of continuing in an open forum such as on a review website.

If you believe that your response needs to have a more personal reach-out, or if you want the patient to answer you, you may include in your public response that you will also be sending them your person phone number/email to hear more about the situation and rectify it further.

Once you say this, send a private message to the patient to address the situation they spoke to. It shows other reviewers that you care enough to speak to them personally, and hopefully turn a bad experience into a good one.

Keep in mind, 70% of unhappy patients will continue to use your business if you fix and respond to a negative review.⁵

Want more help with your review presence? Speak to a specialist today to discover how CallSource can help.

If you want to see examples of what not to do and some of our favorite review responses, watch this video.

Sources
1. https://moderncomment.com/customer-feedback-stats
2. https://www.forbes.com/sites/sage/2014/03/03/handling-haters-how-to-respond-to-negative-online-reviews/#6f52abb46a85
3. Wang, Yang, and Alexander Chaudhry. “When and How Managers’ Responses to Online Reviews Affect Subsequent Reviews.” Journal of Marketing Research (In Press).
4. https://www.getfivestars.com/blog/quickly-business-respond-complaint/
5. https://www.revlocal.com/blog/review-and-reputation-management/how-to-respond-to-every-type-of-review

Online reviews are vital for your brand reputation and earning new business.

It’s getting cold out.

You’re having problems with your heating.

Or your hot water heater.

Or a number of any home services issues.

You need it fixed.

Now.

How are you going to choose a company to fix your issue?

Well, probably the way that we choose a lot of solutions for our problems nowadays – Google it.

How does your business fare?

Go ahead and search to see what a consumer in your area will find with these simple keywords: “HVAC near me.” (Or “plumbing near me,” “electrician near me,” etc.)

How many businesses show up?

First thing you see below the paid ads, are the results from the Google Local Pack. This will only show the top 3 or so businesses until you click “More Places.” Does your business show up as a top contender? Click on “more.” Where does your company show up there?

Even below the Google Local Pack, most likely you will see some other review sites, such as Yelp, showing up as a result. It may have a title such as “The 10 Best” or “Best Near Me” with lists of their own.

And what are these lists and the order in which companies show up dependent on?

Online reviews and online reputation management websites.

Who would you choose?

Now, staying in the place as a consumer searching for help for their home service needs, who would you end up calling or asking for more information from with these search results?

Most likely, those with the best online review presence. Whoever shows up at the top probably has the best reputation. The higher your star rating and the more reviews that your business has, the more reputable you are.

74%of people trust local businesses more after reading positive reviews, and it’s been concluded that the most important factor for consumers to trust online reviews is their authenticity.¹

Stand out from the competition

Start earning more online reviews and start being the first choice for consumers that need your products and services. Online reputation matters for home service companies.

By providing superior customer service and asking for online reviews, you will start improving your online brand reputation and earning more customers organically. HVAC, plumbers, and other home service contractors are all paying attention to positive online reviews and negative reviews they receive online. HVAC reputation management solutions can come bundled into some CRM and marketing tools but if you do not have it you should consider checking out the tools we have to offer. Reputation management for HVAC companies can often start small and CallSource is a great way to do that.

For even more information, contact a specialist and ask them about CS Reviews, our online review platform.

Sources:
1. https://www.brightlocal.com/learn/local-consumer-review-survey/

About Our Guest Author:
Jonas Sickler is an expert in crisis communications and online reputation management. His advice has been featured in over 60 publications, including Forbes, Washington Post, CNBC, The Street, U.S. News, and Business News Daily. Follow along on Twitter.

The internet has become the primary touchpoint for most car buyers, so online reviews have a massive impact on purchasing behavior. As many as 59% of auto shoppers will only consider dealerships with a good reputation.

Fortunately, the car buying experience has vastly improved in recent years as dealers continue to prioritize customer service. Yet, automotive dealerships are facing a reputation crisis. According to V12DATA, 99% of auto shoppers expect a hassle when buying a vehicle. These discrepancies are most likely the result of fraudulent reviews paid for and written by competitors.

Fake reviews aren’t always negative, though. Dealers have historically fabricated positive reviews to boost their own company’s reputation—which violates the TOS of all review sites. But after seeing the power of fake reviews, shady businesses opted to weaponize them against competitors. Not only are these reputation attacks infuriating, but they can cripple dealership revenue.

Cost of Fake Negative Reviews

Let’s pull some numbers from 2017 to see how fake reviews affect dealer revenue. As many as 95% of car buyers start their search online, and almost 60% of them prefer companies with a good reputation. Therefore, dealers with any negative online reviews in 2017 could have lost half their potential customers.

Dealerships sold approximately 1,045 new vehicles last year, and each sale earned them about $2,100, so dealerships profited nearly $2.2 million in 2017. But if your company had several fake negative reviews, your revenue could have dropped to $1.1 million.

Unfortunately, many businesses blame losses on their sales team rather than their competitors.

How to Handle a Fake Review Crisis

When profits are cut in half because of a competitor attack on your reputation, that’s the definition of a crisis. However, as tempting as it may be to lash out when you’ve been targeted by these underhanded tactics, it’s important to remain calm. Some negative reviews could be legitimate, and an accusatory response could damage to your reputation even more than the review. Use these pro tips to help manage a fake review crisis.

Tips to Identify Fake Reviews

First of all, you’ll need to get organized. Ideally, you should keep a record of every online review mentioning your business. I recommend using a spreadsheet for this. Start by creating columns for the following information: website URL, review text, review type, review date, and notes.

Next, categorize each and every review as positive, neutral or negative to make sorting easier. Then, fill in the notes column with any details about the incidents.

Finally, open and read each critique while looking for the following telltale signs of fake reviews:

• Lack of detail — If someone has never been to your dealership, their review may be full of generalizations like “rude and dishonest salespeople,” or “service took forever.” When writers don’t mention any names or specific details, the review might be fake.
• More first-person pronouns — In an attempt to sound more sincere, deceptive reviewers tend to use words like “I” and “me” more often. Objective reviews are more frequently written in the 3rd person.
• More verbs than nouns — When asked to recall real events, people remember physical things they saw. However, when we lie about events, we often describe actions which are less visual and easier to fabricate.
• Frequency of posting — All businesses make mistakes, so your company is likely to receive a poor review eventually. However, if you discover a surge of bad reviews within a short period of time, you either have a customer service crisis, or you’re the victim of a competitor attack.

Don’t make the mistake of assuming all bad reviews must be false. It’s crucial that you remain open-minded while reading all of your reviews. If criticism is legitimate, use this as an opportunity to correct any issues in your dealership. If you’re too biased to accurately classify reviews, perhaps you should seek the help of another employee.

Reporting Fake Reviews

Once you’ve identified fake reviews, you’ll need to prove your case. Most review sites won’t remove complaints without thorough proof that they’re fraudulent. Still, you should always report fake reviews on any site because website owners take them very seriously. If you gather enough evidence to support your claims, they may be willing to help. This could include sales records, reviewer location, and even email exchanges.

Responding to Fake Reviews

While removing false reviews is your best option, sometimes this isn’t possible. For example, Ripoff Report won’t budge on their policy to take down derogatory posts. If you do respond, it’s critical to choose your words carefully to avoid making things worse. Attempt to clarify the situation for other readers without coming across as hostile.

• Wait it out — Don’t immediately reply to a fake review that was just written because this may signal to Google that the page is relevant. Instead, wait to see if it subsides in your search results before responding.
• When in doubt — Clearly state that you take these situations seriously, but you have no record of the reviewer or an incident that matches their complaint, and offer to resolve the problem offline. This will cause readers to question the validity of the claim while demonstrating your willingness to fix any issues.
• Fact beats fiction — If the customer seems to be embellishing the situation, you should attempt to correct the statement professionally. A level-headed response with bullet points about what really happened will be seen as more trustworthy.
• Respond for the readers — It’s unlikely that the individual who wrote the fake review will never read your response. Therefore you should reply in a way that you want potential readers to see your company.

Bad reviews are infuriating and costly for auto dealers— especially when you don’t deserve them. Fortunately, taking action in the right way can put you on the path to recovery.

To recap, continue to monitor and record all online reviews about your business. Become an expert at spotting false or inaccurate criticism. And always respond with the reader in mind to showcase your reputation for handling customer complaints.

If you want customers to choose you, your online review presence means a lot.

Online reviews are great for your brand reputation – and they also have a lot to do with consumers’ buying decisions. If they are unaware of your business, why should they choose you? If you have great reviews, it should help their decision to do business with you rather than the competition.

Read our infographic below to see what other impacts your online reputation may have on possible customers, and take our quick quiz to assess how well you are currently managing your online review presence!

Need help responding to your online reviews? Just read this post!

Responding to reviews demonstrates that your company is reliable and authentic. 78% of consumers believe that a business cares more about them when they see management respond to reviews.¹ Check out these simple steps for responding to online reviews, no matter the circumstance.

Do you know when you get reviews?

To respond to reviews promptly, make sure you have a system or use a tool to automate the collection of your reviews across all review and listing websites.

• Know who will be alerted.
• Note which reviews need to be prioritized.
• Have your response components documented.

How long does it take you to respond to reviews?

Write back with unique responses that speak directly to the customer.

• Respond within 3 days at most.
• Do not slap a canned response on every review.

Did you research the circumstances of the review?

Evaluate from the data you have the detailed events around a review (especially for negative reviews) before you respond.

• Did it really happen?
• Why did it happen?
• Will it happen again?
• How are you going to rectify the situation for this customer?

Do you have components of responses handy for the person who will be responding to reviews?

For negative reviews, it is important to use the 3 A’s: acknowledge, account, and act.

• Empathize and acknowledge emotion of the reviewer.
• Account for circumstances and details of the event.
• Describe what was learned and what will change as a result of the review.

Did you leave a concluding sentence with an appreciation for the review and a way for the reviewer to reach your support team?

This demonstrates to other consumers that you care enough to speak to your customers personally and turn a possible bad experience into a good one.

• Send a private message if necessary to address further issues.
• Make sure everything is trackable for records.

Get approval for your review responses from proper management before posting, and keep your review elements template in a repository that your team can easily access. Responding to reviews is important, but should be done with a strategy that aligns with the values of your organization.

Do you need a tool to gather all of your reviews, respond on your behalf if necessary, and save your team valuable time? Contact a representative today to learn more about CS Reviews.

^{Source: 1. https://moderncomment.com/customer-feedback-stats}