Responding to Online Customer Reviews

Ebay is a great example of customer reviews done right, because it gives the “business” an opportunity to counter reviews. In the local space, however, this is hardly ever the case. None of the prominent local search sites give businesses an opportunity to respond to critical reviews, right where a response is needed, adjacent to the review. But here’s a tip on how you can still respond, albeit indirectly.

Let’s say you’re a local restaurant, and you have recently had a few reviews about the atmosphere of your establishment being outdated or just not likable. The first step would be to make some actual, physical changes to the atmosphere at your establishment. Get some paint, change some fixtures, get some more lighting, or add some other element to spruce the place up. Then in your business listings, especially the ones with the negative reviews, specifically mention the changes that have been made. Not all customers will put the changes chronologically after the reviews, but for most customers it will help them to discount the poor reviews they read after knowing something is new or updated.

The ability to control your local business in so many local sites gives you an opportunity to get your message across, whether it be highlighting what you’re best at, or offsetting bad reviews with new changes that address those needs.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 5th, 2008 at 11:52 pm and is filed under Customer Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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