In a world where you are continuously evaluated by online word-of-mouth and sellers’ ratings, negative reviews are every online seller’s boogieman. In all honesty, we have rarely experienced any customer buying a product without spending time in reading the previously written reviews for both the product and the supplier. In fact, one can even argue that the presence of a transparent reviewing system in one of the greatest differences between sales in the pre-internet era and those of today. If this is the case, exceeding importance must be placed on endeavors that will contribute in reducing the amount of negative customer reviews and increasing the positive ones. Here we provide a short guide that might help you do just that.

Reducing Negative Reviews

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1. Don’t give them a chance to complain

Well, the best way to avoid negative reviews is to provide impeccable service. Of course, there will be mistakes on your part, as a retailer. But the key is to maintain statistics where instances of great service are much more than those of poor service. You might have heard the trick about how to shorten a line without erasing it – the answer is to draw a longer line next to it. Same goes with reviews. So, first and foremost, provide exemplary customer service.

2. Don’t be afraid to apologize

The old adage about the customer always being right is not too far off the mark. One way to look at the root cause of negative reviews is to understand the behavioral economics behind it. The reason behind why anyone would spend time in writing a scathing review is to extract some sort of revenge. As researcher Dan Ariely explains in this video, the root cause of retaliation by a customer is the extraction of this feeling of revenge. Another study suggests that an unabashed apology nullifies the feelings of vengefullness the best. When the customer hears a sincere, simple apology, he too feels humbled enough and calms down. As Flipkart demonstrated recently with their apology letter, the magic word can save you from a lot of bad publicity.

3. Always be available to your customers

Social media plays a great role in online reputation. Always try to be prompt in answering any queries that your customers might have on any of your social media pages. Create a special complaint corner on your website and promptly handle all grievances that you receive there. In case you find a negative online conversation about your brand, join in, apologize and try to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Do not quarrel with a customer, especially on a social media platform. These written details stay on the Internet for long as the image of your company.

4. Collect feedback

Find ways to collect honest feedback from your customers. Find out what they liked about your service and what they did not. Try to improve upon your customer service using this data. At the same time, don’t be afraid to advertise the positive feedback that you would receive. Always try to be gracious and humble in your online persona. Use features like the multi-channel inventory management system by Browntape that allows you to automatically send emails to your customers.

5. Develop and track your online reputation

Register and be active on social media platforms, including professional circles related to your industry. Create positive online relationships so that if need be, there is always someone to defend your brand. Use tools like Google Analytics, HootSuite, Trackur and Twitter Search to keep an eye on what’s being said about your brand.

6. Deal with the negative reviews

Of course, you would still get a few negative reviews even after implementing the tips 1 to 5. But that’s part of sales. What you must do is prioritize so that you are never late in dealing with aggrieved customers first. This not only leads to a positive reputation, but you might also manage to convert a few negative reviews into positive ones! After all, even customers are human, and they know so are you.

You can eliminate a majority of your errors by using a multi-channel inventory store management software such as ours. To know more about us, or in case of any queries, get in touch with Browntape.