Google Reviews matter. In How to Get More Google Reviews, we talked about ways to get your customers to start leaving reviews. In this post, we’ll be talking about how to make sure the reviews you get are actually benefitting your business. 

As business owners, we understand that dealing with unhappy customers is an unavoidable part of life. No matter how great our customer service standards are, there will always be at least one person whose experience won’t meet their expectations. A negative Google review can feel crushing, especially after working so hard to bring in great reviews. So what can you do? 

To Flag, or Not To Flag

Before we get into this, I want to talk about the ethics of deleting or censoring reviews. Sometimes as business owners, our knee-jerk reaction to seeing our star rating fall is to hide the offending post as quickly as possible. Flagging negative reviews that are vulgar, dishonest, or fake generally isn’t a problem, but I strongly caution you against flagging every negative review. Here are a few reasons why: 

Google Probably Won’t Remove It Anyway

Google will not remove reviews unless they violate one of their content guidelines. Google expressly states “Don’t report a review just because you disagree with it or don’t like it. Google doesn’t get involved when businesses and customers disagree about facts.” Generally speaking, flagging a review just because it’s negative is just going to be a waste of your time.

It Looks Dishonest

Even if you were somehow able to get a negative review removed, keep in mind that your future customers will be looking at your reviews before they shop. Consumers can be suspicious of companies that have a perfect 5-star rating. They know about the bad egg customers too, and they notice when negative reviews are missing. 

A Customer Service Opportunity

Professionally responding to a negative review gives you a chance to showcase your excellent customer service to your future customers. This customer’s concern is going to play out in real-time for others to see – so your customer relations practices are center stage. Don’t use defensive, petty, or argumentative language. Whether or not you make them happy is only half of the point. Your future customers will view your responses! Make that impression count. 

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A MARKETING NINJA-LEVEL HACK: 

Respond to every single review your business gets. Two Reasons: 

1. Responding to only negative reviews makes you appear defensive and reactive. 

2. Google uses review responsiveness as one of its metrics for SEO rankings. Responding to everything will give your business a boost in the search rankings. 

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A Better Way to Handle Feedback

With that said, there are ways that you can minimize the impact of negative feedback. At my showroom, we pay for a service that sends an email to customers after they’ve placed an order, asking them to leave a review. The link in the email takes them to a page that lets them know how their experience went. They can choose between a happy, neutral, or frowny face. This pre-review step is the secret sauce to Google reviews. 

Customers that choose the happy face are directed to Google where they can leave a review. Customers that choose a neutral or frowny face are directed to a page where they can provide their feedback. These responses come directly to me rather than going on a public review. I then have the opportunity to contact these customers directly and ask them what I can do to make their experience better. 

In my experience, 2 out of 3 customers that have negative feedback are upset about an honest-to-goodness mistake that we made. The others are usually upset about something unrelated to my showroom, like being upset with the electrician that installed their fixture. If it’s our mistake, I work with them to make it right. If it’s something else, I can point the customer in the right direction to get their issue resolved. Either way, the customer feels heard, and I’m building relationships with customers

Remember, any time you can resolve a customer’s issue before it hits Google is a win – both for them and for you.

Keep Your Focus

It’s easy to get caught up in the world of reviews and misplace your focus on the reviews rather than the customer. Remember, any time you can resolve a customer’s issue before it hits Google is a win – both for them and for you. Keep your focus where it should be and make sure your customers can see you dedication to great customer service.

You’ll never be able to make every customer happy, but you’ll put off more people than you win over if it’s clear that reviews and star ratings matter more to you than the people who leave them.

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Still struggling with getting Google Reviews in the first place? Check out How to Get More Google Reviews.

Ready to look at the flip side of the coin? Check out Make the Most of Your Google Reviews – Boost Your Success Stories

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Want help capturing your negative feedback before it hits Google? I can’t recommend Lit Living enough – it’s definitely worth your time to schedule a demo and see what they can do for your business’s Google presence.