Bad online review? Respond quickly and don't get defensive
Back in the Stone Ages, when newspapers were printed on dead trees and the Internet was something a few college kids were experimenting with, people who wanted to comment on articles had one avenue to express themselves: the letter to the editor.
And while those letters sometimes included insults aimed at a particular reporter or editor at the paper, it was easier to take such criticism in stride, mostly because you had a physical representation of the person to review. In other words, you could identify the crackpots by their chicken-scratch handwriting and greasy envelopes.
But today, thanks to the anonymity of the Internet, all people with opinions are equal. And I have to be honest, when I was editing the Worcester Business Journal, it was sometimes painful. An anonymous comment would pop up on an article that would really cut through my thick skin. It was not unusual for me to be called “an idiot” or “totally out of touch” or “a stooge for the right” or a “stooge for the left.” Because there are no faces to most online reviews, it was very hard for me to know who was offering real, experienced criticism, and who just sat in their basement all day surfing the Internet looking for writers to attack. And this was at a regional business journal. I can't imagine how it feels to be the editor of The New York Times or another national publication.
Coping skills
I bring this up not for you to feel sorry for editors and reporters who get picked on by anonymous online trolls, but to perhaps humanize a phenomenon that's happening to all businesses — not just newspapers. Online reviews are now ubiquitous and that means every business owner, particularly those in the direct-to-consumer market, has to accept online criticism and develop coping methods.
So what's a business owner to do? Simply ignore reviews on sites such as Yelp, Facebook and Google?
While that's a short-term, easy solution, that's not recommended, according to Ashley DePaolo, director of strategic communications at CommCreative in Framingham. She often helps businesses manage and strategize around online reviews, which are becoming as important as traditional word-of-mouth marketing.
DePaolo's advice? Respond to all reviews — positive and negative. If someone takes the time to post on Yelp that they enjoyed a meal at your restaurant, thank them. If someone says the appetizer was cold, respond to that as well. Just be careful what you say.
“You never want to get defensive,” she said. The best approach is to simply write that you are sorry for that customer's bad experience and that you plan to follow up in a private message. That way, you send a signal to other users on the forum that you are listening to your customers and making an effort to fix the problem.
One humorous example of what not to do is a case reported by a friend of mine from California. She posted a review of an ice cream parlor on Yelp that was critical of the young serving staff. Four years later (yes, it really was four years later), the owner responded. And the owner wasn't only late in making a response, but he got defensive, saying the parlor hires a lot of seasonal workers and it's hard to train them, so it's really not his fault the service was bad. Had he responded in a reasonable amount of time (say, a week or two) and said simply that he would follow up with my friend, he might have won back an unhappy customer and earned the respect of future customers who saw his response.
No freebies!
DePaolo said another no-no is to promise a wronged customer a freebie, because that might encourage people to post fake negative experiences just to get something for free.
And while you may be thinking that responding to all online reviews is too time-consuming, “It doesn't really take a ton of time or effort to respond,” DePaolo said. Some businesses such as restaurants, spas and hotels may get more online reviews than others, but even for those, one or two reviews a day is probably the maximum you're going to see.
There are also tools to help make managing online reviews and your business' reputation easier. Table 3 Restaurant Group, which owns the Cedar Street Grille, Avellino and The Duck restaurants in Sturbridge, uses a tool called Fishbowl, according to the group's business development manager, Dan Gonya. Fishbowl sends Gonya an email every time someone posts a review or comment about one of his restaurants on any number of online sites. And Gonya is checking and reading those reviews in real time, to the point where he sometimes can identify a customer who has posted a review before he or she has even left the restaurant and Gonya can address an issue with staff immediately.
The important thing is, according to Gonya, to take the negative criticisms and make them positives.
“When someone has something bad to say, I think you need to look at it as an opportunity,” he said. “The customer is telling us a way that we can improve.” n
Christina Davis can be reached at cdavis@wbjournal.com.
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