Rockhill City Guide Web Design How to Respond to a Negative Yelp Review?

How to Respond to a Negative Yelp Review?


How to Respond to a Negative Yelp Review

Created in 2004, Yelp has been helping people find a business of all kinds. They allow people to write reviews. As a business owner, it is great to get good reviews on Yelp. No one wants a bad reputation for their business. But, what happens when you get a bad Yelp review? How do you handle that? Let me give you some tips!

How to Handle A Bad Yelp Review.

Now that you have a bad Yelp review, you may be thinking that it will harm your business. Do not let the stress get to you. Not everyone will like your business. Like the old adage goes, “you can’t make everyone happy”. Even with that though, it still needs to be addressed. You do not want bad reviews.

Sometimes a bad review can help better your business. You will not know there is an issue if no one says anything.

London SEO and marketing guru, Alan Fordyce says the first thing you should do is to look at the bad review very thorough. It is important to know if something bad is going on in your business. This can be a rude employee, unsanitary bathroom, or even poor quality in other areas. Read the review very well. You want to know what they are claiming the issue is that way it can be addressed.

Look Into The Review

You do not want to miss valuable information. A review can hold a lot of info that you could be missing if you just skimmed over the content. There are some things to look for in a bad review when reading over. I will list them below:

Things to look for in a bad review:

  • The Location of the Business.
  • What Time and Day the Person Visited
  • Other People That May or May Not Be Listed in the Review. ( These could be witnesses to what occurred.)
  • What is the Customer Saying Happened?
  • The Tone of the Review. ( Is the customer upset with the experience?)

All of these aspects of the review are important to note. So, remember, no skim reading reviews. As much as no business owner wants to hear bad news, sometimes it is just what comes with the job. Be aware. Read the review well. This can also, help you defend what you know to be true about your business.

Look Into the Problem

It is important to check into what the reviewer was saying. If people were mentioned in the review, you can then question them. You can ask how the situation was handled and address a better way of handling it or defend the situation if it was handled in a reasonable manner.

Know How To Defend The Matter
You will not know if you can defend or correct a matter in a bad Yelp review if you do not further your knowledge of the incident. As you know, the customer has said their take on the matter, then it is your turn. You cannot fully do so if you do not look into the matter. Sometimes, if the claims are serious, you may want to hire an attorney. This is only if you think your business may be under a legal attack.

Look Into the Person Who Wrote the Review

I know that not all of the people on Yelp post with their name. Sometimes it is an anonymous review. You can’t really tell who made the post. However, if the person has left a name, you may be able to look further into some of their reviews. This is important.

Bad Reviewer?
A look into the reviewer can tell you if the person posts a lot of negative reviews. Some people are negative people and look for the bad in everything they do and then complain about it. If the reviewer often makes negative posts, you may need to consider it as just that, a bad reviewer.

If someone only posts negative posts, here and there, I would definitely consider how to solve the issue better within the business. This does not mean you are automatically at fault, it is just a clue on how to handle the bad review and better your business.

Time To Respond.

Now that you’ve done your research and look into all possible turnouts from the bad review, you may want to prepare to respond. It is always good to respond with an apology. Just because you are apologizing to someone does not necessarily mean that you are the one at fault.

Apologizing is a way of saying, “ I am sorry that you were unsatisfied” in a sense. Be careful how you place this response. You do not want to take the blame for something your business did not do, but then again you do want to cast off blame if it was your fault. You can then respond how you handled the situation.

Before You Go

Always respond kindly. Other people will see your kind response and see how you handled the issue. This will make a great impact. Make sure respond quickly but not before you have done your research

Hookseo.com has information on how to remove bad reviews that are not true.

Marketinglan.com has information that every business owner should look into when it comes to Yelp.

And, this youtube video may help give some insight.

Hope this helps your business.