The Art Of Avoiding Bad Online Reviews For Your Brand

In our last blog, we highlighted the definition of branding and explained just how important it is to establish your brand in the public eye. To reiterate, branding is a lot more than just your company logo and physical marketing material. It also has everything to do with how you make your customers feel. Truly standing out from your competition comes as a result of intimately understanding the needs and wants of your customer base and meeting them in ways that no one else can.

Providing unbeatable customer service, therefore, should always be at the top of your priority list. This is especially true these days as online customer reviews weigh heavily in the court of public opinion. In our internet-obsessed world, consumers tend to visit websites that contain online reviews of companies before they make their buying decisions. It has never been more important to pay attention to customer feedback.

How can you avoid bad online reviews?

Promote the fact that you provide customer service online.

Because people are so quick to post negative company reviews in online forums, it’s best to provide them with an alternative web-based source of airing out their grievances. As Lisa Barone admits on SmallBizTrends.com, “I’m far more likely to angry-tweet about a company I don’t think is listening than someone who is active in the conversation.”

She is not alone. It is commonplace for social media users to utilize their accounts to publicly admonish companies that have provided them with less-than-stellar shopping and customer service experiences. Be sure to be active on such platforms as Twitter and Facebook so that you can address customer service complaints in those often-preferred methods.

“Be accessible and develop an active social media and online presence,” insists Barone who also recommends that you provide customers with numerous ways to contact you. “Let them know the best way to resolve their issue so that they can use your company-approved method to get a response instead of ranting on Twitter or dissing you on Yelp,” she advises.

Get advice straight from the horses’ mouths.

Who better to ask than your customers about the customer experiences your brand provides? There’s certainly no shame in asking outright. Offer an online survey or better yet, make it a point to ask “How was your experience today?” each and every time a customer makes a purchase from you. The best way to ensure that your company regularly receives positive feedback is by making improvements based on the negative feedback you may receive.

“The best way to implement asking every customer about their experience is to make it part of your checkout process,” says David Mulcahy of Conversation Strategies, Inc., “The main goal is to make sure you know if something bad happened so you can fix the problem and remedy the situation. Once the customer leaves, there’s a significantly higher chance of a complaint (1 star review) showing up on public sites like Yelp or even social media sites, especially if they feel like you don’t care.”

We’d love to offer you a dose of our customer service!

Contact us today to learn more about our unique merchant cash advance program and please don’t hesitate to offer your feedback about our customer service. Call Synergy Merchants at 1-877-718-2026 or email us at info@synergymerchants.com.