In mid December Google was ready to pay $500 Million for the user review website Yelp.com. The site has been around since 2004 and it is based on user-generated content in the form of online reviews of different services such as restaurants and mechanics located across the US and the United Kingdom. Yelp is also a social network; it allows users to interact with one another.
Yelp along with TripAdvisor.com and Ripoff Report are just three (out of many) examples of sites that have become extremely successful because of how valuable dynamic content (i.e. the user reviews) have become. The fact that both services allow readers to follow and rank previous reviews of every commentator adds an additional element of credibility to each review. Search engines have noted this credibility as well, reviews of a hotel that were submitted to TripAdvisor often rank highly within the Google Resume of that hotel.
Option 1 – Respond to the Negative Review
Now that it is easier to establish that specific users within these social network / review sites are somewhat “experienced” critics and do not have a specific vendetta against a specific establishment we can discuss the consequences of replying to a bad review online.
There is certainly an upside to monitoring what is being said about you online. Feedback of this kind should be taken into consideration, as customers do not always express their dissatisfaction with a product or a service immediately. The above mentioned review websites allow the business that is being reviewed to respond. A general rule that we believe to be true is that most customers who feel that they have been wronged, are primarily looking to vent their anger.
The fact that a business takes the time to respond to a negative review online is something that is looked upon favorably in the eyes of potential customers. Simply showing concern that a customer was dissatisfied is already a step in the right direction.
Reaching out to such a customer and apologizing could often mean the difference between a negative review online and a neural one. It is also important to remember that the same customer could always post a follow up comment to his or her review and state that he or she tried the service again and were satisfied.
Option 2 – Try to push down the ranking of the negative review
Search engines are in constant competition with each other for presenting the most up to date and relevant content on the web for every query. Creating additional positive results for a business name could essentially burry a negative review of that business. Google has a history of preferring diverse and unique content.This means that creating a Youtube video, a profile on a social network and uploading a PowerPoint presentation to Slidshare all for a single business name, may reach better web visibility than creating three new results of the same kind.
While it is imperative for a business to try to keep clients happy and be responsive to comments and reviews, unhappy customers or negative reviews are bound to emerge at some point. A mix of new and positive results along with positive reviews by clients who are happy with the service should be able to overcome negative results that may emerge.
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