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      • (Part 2) 5 Considerations as to Your Business’ Negative Internet Review
      • (Part 3) 5 Considerations as to Your Business’ Negative Internet Review
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Category: Social Media

Are Negative Reviews Really Bad for Business?

Posted on September 23, 2014April 25, 2022 by g83js92js91
Categories: business, Life and the Law, Social Media
Can an unfavorable review impact your business?

If properly handled, negative reviews can provide a business with an opportunity to actually boost its reputation.

With the surge of digital media and the growing use of social media, it has become extremely easy for both businesses and consumers to reach a captive worldwide audience at little to no time or expense.  Social media has helped drive many protests, actions in support, and boycotts in just a small amount of time.  This ease of access and use of social media could severely damage a business’ livelihood if the reviews or messages are negative and not addressed appropriately.

There are several considerations that should be made when deciding whether to respond to a negative review.  For instance,

    1. Does the review contain opinion, “facts,” or both?

 

    1. Whether to contact the person who wrote the negative review.

 

    1. Communicating with the company or website which hosts or published the troublesome response.

 

    1. Publicly responding to negative online reviews.

 

  1. Turn a negative into a positive, or at least an opportunity.

Another consideration offered by Yelp when deciding whether to respond is to determine if the review contains constructive criticism or is just undeniably negative.  The appropriate response for the business depends on this classification.  If the review is extremely negative and uses colorful language, it may be best to be left alone as nothing constructive could arise when emotions are involved.  When emotions are involved it will be difficult to change the person’s mind or sufficiently correct – in their subjective eyes – the problem.

Customer Service Feedback1 228x300 1

It is also important to look at reviews of other customers.  If there are more positive reviews than negative, the negative may not affect whether a future customer decides to purchase the business’ product or service.  For example, when I am deciding whether to make a purchase, I examine the online reviews.  I look to both negative and positive reviews but I only give sufficient credibility to those reviews that provide constructive feedback instead of generalizations because I want to know if the reviewers’ standards are similar to my own.  Further, some persons are suspicious of any business which has, for example, 20 reviews, all of which are positive, or all of which are “5 out of 5 stars” – that does not seem realistic to many of us.

Once the business determines that the review warrants a response, then a very effective way to neutralize the negativity is to publicly respond to the review.  A public response shows that the business is concerned that the customer was not completely satisfied with the purchase and would like to remedy the situation.  This will show other present and future consumers that the business cares about customer satisfaction and is willing to go to significant efforts to remedy any dissatisfaction.  It also shows that the business knows about the deficiency and the deficiency should be remedied going forward.

In the public response, the business should never get defensive or place blame because no one is perfect and it is impossible to satisfy everyone.  There is always going to be criticism, it is how the business handles the criticism that affects its reputation and possibly its bottom line as well.  Reaching out and offering solutions to customers is a way to not only boost customer satisfaction but it is a way to boost brand loyalty and neutralize any negative reviews.

Additionally, to facilitate helpful reviews, the business could provide discounts, rewards, or other benefits to the reviewers that provide the most comprehensive or helpful information which may benefit future purchasers in making buying decisions.  One way that a business that I have dealt with personally has succeeded in encouraging reviews is by providing the product along with a free sample of other products they supply.  Then, they sent a separate request and asked that I provide an online review and if I was dissatisfied to contact the business immediately so that any problems could be resolved expediently.

All in all, the best way to respond to a negative is with something positive.  There is an old saying which states that “you can attract more flies with honey than vinegar.”  That rings true not only when trying to convince someone to do the things you want them to do, but also to neutralize negative experiences.  The best form of advertising is personal experience and word of mouth (whether verbal or via the internet).  If you can turn someone’s negative personal experience into a positive by remedying the situation, you may have just turned a loss into a gain.

Posted in business, Life and the Law, Social Media

(Part 5) 5 Considerations as to Your Business’ Negative Internet Review

Posted on June 24, 2014May 2, 2022 by g83js92js91
Categories: Business Law Disputes, Civil Rights, Consumer Defense, florida, Freedom of Speech, georgia, Internet & Technology, Jason A McGrath, North Carolina, Ohio, online reviews, Social Media, south carolina, Tennessee
(Click for Part 1)  (Click for Part 2)  (Click for Part 3)  (Click for Part 4)

As attorneys with a law firm which has a significant online presence, and as lawyers who represent small and medium businesses, we are very much aware of the power of the online review and/or rating given by consumers. In fact, in this day and age, the positive or negative nature of a company’s reputation as declared by the internet can make or break your business.

Star-Ratings

For many businesses, it is almost impossible to avoid at least the occasional negative comment or even merely a lukewarm review. Many times, the information posted online is not accurate, or at least is presented out of context and/or incomplete. All businesses which encounter this face the same question: what can we do about this negative online review?   Hopefully, after you have had a bit of time to think about it, one of your next questions is: what should we do about this negative online review? We have developed a list of 5 key considerations and here is the fifth.

(5) Turn a negative into a positive, or at least into an opportunity. This can’t work in all industries or all situations, of course, but what about turning the criticism into a promotional effort? For example, let’s consider the complaint of “I had to wait more than 30 minutes for my car to be cleaned at Acme Car Wash.” Perhaps the response from Acme is similar to this: “We regret you had to wait so long, but we were simply very busy that day with so many customers who know what a good job we do. Everyone should know that this month we have a 25% discount for our Premium Customer Club memberships, which allow you to make an appointment, among other benefits!”

This creative approach focuses on the positive, while still “apologizing” to the unhappy customer. It might even increase business. Find the silver lining.

Posted in Business Law Disputes, Civil Rights, Consumer Defense, florida, Freedom of Speech, georgia, Internet & Technology, Jason A McGrath, North Carolina, Ohio, online reviews, Social Media, south carolina, Tennessee

(Part 4) 5 Considerations as to Your Business’ Negative Internet Review

Posted on June 5, 2014April 25, 2022 by g83js92js91
Categories: business, business disputes, Civil Rights, consumer reviews, Freedom of Expression, internet, Internet & Technology, Jason A McGrath, Social Media
(Click for Part 1)   (Click for Part 2)   (Click for Part 3)

As attorneys with a law firm which has a significant online presence, and as lawyers who represent small and medium businesses, we are very much aware of the power of the online review and/or rating given by consumers. In fact, in this day and age, the positive or negative nature of a company’s reputation as declared by the internet can make or break your business.

rating, review, feedback, custom service, service score, business

For many businesses, it is almost impossible to avoid at least the occasional negative comment or even merely a lukewarm review. Many times, the information posted online is not accurate, or at least is presented out of context and/or incomplete. All businesses which encounter this face the same question: what can we do about this negative online review?   Hopefully, after you have had a bit of time to think about it, one of your next questions is: what should we do about this negative online review? We have developed a list of 5 key considerations and here is the fourth.

(4) Publicly responding to the negative online review. Some business owners will post a response if the hosting website allows the same/has a mechanism in place. Again, you would want to be very careful in taking this approach, would want to take numerous deep breaths before writing the response, and would want to have at least one other rational person review your response before submitting. There is a definite split of opinions as to how to execute this approach, and of course each situation can be different. If you are going to respond:

  1. should the response be general or detailed?
  2. should the response be apologetic or more of a rebuttal or defense?
  3. should the response contain the name, or at least the position, of the person writing it on behalf of the business?
  4. should the response invite the complainer to call the business to further discuss?

In my personal experience, most of the responses I see written by business owners are fairly neutral and contain sort of a non-apology apology – you know, the kind that athletes’ public relations representatives write for them, something like “I am sorry if anyone was offended by . . . .”

The bottom line is that if you are going to respond, be very careful. Some of the folks out there, referred to as “trolls” in today’s internet world, will gleefully jump on any response, no matter how well-intentioned, just to up the ante and further stir the pot. Good luck.

(Click for Part 1)   (Click for Part 2)   (Click for Part 3)
Posted in business, business disputes, Civil Rights, consumer reviews, Freedom of Expression, internet, Internet & Technology, Jason A McGrath, Social Media

(Part 3) 5 Considerations as to Your Business’ Negative Internet Review

Posted on May 19, 2014April 25, 2022 by g83js92js91
Categories: business, business disputes, Civil Rights, consumer reviews, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Speech, internet, Internet & Technology, Jason A McGrath, online reviews, Social Media
(Click here for Part 1)     (Click here for Part 2)

As attorneys with a law firm which has a significant online presence, and as lawyers who represent small and medium businesses, we are very much aware of the power of the online review and/or rating given by consumers. In fact, in this day and age, the positive or negative nature of a company’s reputation as declared by the internet can make or break your business.

For many businesses, it is almost impossible to avoid at least the occasional negative comment or even merely a lukewarm review. Many times, the information posted online is not accurate, or at least is presented out of context and/or incomplete. All businesses which encounter this face the same question: what can we do about this negative online review?   Hopefully, after you have had a bit of time to think about it, one of your next questions is: what should we do about this negative online review? We have developed a list of 5 key considerations and here is the third.

(3) Communicating with the company or website which hosts or published the troublesome review. This can be productive and worthwhile and is unlikely to have negative consequences. In our experience most review sites do make an effort to act professionally, but understandably it is impossible to manage the hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands reviews that the website may ultimately contain. If you – or your representative/attorney try hard enough, you can likely get someone’s attention and perhaps even instigate an investigation of the review.

Some reviews violate the posting company’s terms of service. Others may end up being removed if the publishing website cannot verify the legitimacy of the review. Another common occurrence leading to a deletion is if the person writing the review cannot be identified or at least confirmed as having truly been a customer or client. Finally, sometimes the entity hosting the review’s content or publishing it will remove it if an investigation leads to a conclusion that the review is incorrect or unfair.

Oh, and we should mention one other scenario, since, after all, we are lawyers . . . the threat of legal action may make such a review go away, independent of the factors above.

 (Click here for Part 1)     (Click here for Part 2)
Posted in business, business disputes, Civil Rights, consumer reviews, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Speech, internet, Internet & Technology, Jason A McGrath, online reviews, Social Media

(Part 2) 5 Considerations as to Your Business’ Negative Internet Review

Posted on May 2, 2014May 2, 2022 by g83js92js91
Categories: business disputes, Business Law & Contracts, consumer reviews, Freedom of Expression, internet, Internet & Technology, Jason A McGrath, Social Media, Tech Tips
(Click here for Part 1)

As attorneys with a law firm which has a significant online presence, and as business lawyers who represent small and medium businesses, we are very much aware of the power of online reviews and/or ratings given by consumers. In fact, in this day and age, the positive or negative nature of a company’s reputation as declared by the internet can make or break your business.

Customer-Complaint

For many businesses, it is almost impossible to avoid at least the occasional negative comment or even merely a lukewarm review. Many times, the information posted online is not accurate, or at least is presented out of context and/or incomplete. All businesses which encounter this face the same question: what can we do about this negative online review?   Hopefully, after you have had a bit of time to think about it, one of your next questions is: what should we do about this negative online review? We have developed a list of 5 key considerations and here is the second.

(2) Contacting the person who wrote the negative review. Be careful if you are contacting the person who made the negative review. While this can sometimes be effective, there are a number of reasons one should be hesitant to do this.

First, you have to consider whether you are going to be able to communicate politely and without expressed emotion, given the topic at issue and the likely hood that you feel wronged. Also, if the reviewer seems to have exaggerated or provided inaccurate information, how confident are you going to be that (s)he are going to respond to you in a reasonable fashion? Further, you always run the risk of the conversation not going well, or at least not going as planned. It’s even possible that you may think the conversation went well, but the complaining party did not appreciate it. This could result in the former customer updating/expanding the initial negative review.

We’re not suggesting that you should never reach out to a complaining customer or client. We’re emphasizing that if you are going to make contact with someone who has issued an online complaint against your business, make sure it’s done carefully and with some advance consideration. 

In some ways, as a trial lawyer, this makes me think of the debate within my profession about asking a judge to “Strike that from the record and instruct the jury to disregard it.” This objection and request happens all the time in trial (especially on TV, it seems). Many of us think that a jury being told to disregard the offending testimony/evidence will actually have the opposite effect – that information has been singled out for greater attention, and may end up being further cemented in the jurors’ minds. In other words, sometimes you are better of either ignoring such situations or handling them in a low-key manner as opposed to potentially aggravating the situation.

However you handle this – and hiring an attorney to deal with it is sometimes an option worth considering – be careful.

(Click here for Part 1)

 

Posted in business disputes, Business Law & Contracts, consumer reviews, Freedom of Expression, internet, Internet & Technology, Jason A McGrath, Social Media, Tech Tips

5 Considerations as to Your Business’ Negative Internet Review

Posted on March 6, 2014April 25, 2022 by g83js92js91
Categories: business, Business Law & Contracts, Business Law Disputes, Civil Rights, consumer reviews, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Speech, Internet & Technology, Jason A McGrath, Reviews, Social Media
As attorneys with a law firm Charlotte which has a significant online presence, and as lawyers who represent small and medium businesses, we are very much aware of the power of the online review and/or rating given by consumers. In fact, in this day and age, the positive or negative nature of a company’s reputation as declared by the internet can make or break your business.

Thumbs Down, disapproval, bad rating

For many businesses, it is almost impossible to avoid at least the occasional negative comment or even merely a lukewarm review. Many times, the information posted online is not accurate, or at least is presented out of context and/or incomplete. All businesses which encounter this face the same question: what can we do about this negative online review?   Hopefully, after you have had a bit of time to think about it, one of your next questions is: what should we do about this negative online review? We have developed a list of 5 key considerations, and here is the first.

(1) Does the review contain opinion, “facts”, or both? As a general rule, it is more difficult to force the removal or editing of a review, once published, which contains merely an opinion. Stated from a legal perspective, a defamation claim is difficult, if not impossible, to bring regarding someone’s stated opinions, even if said opinions are perhaps unfair.

Thus, in some ways, a review such as “I spoke to the owner and could not believe how rude he was” is quite challenging to deal with. It is difficult to come up with an objective standard of what rude is and how to legally qualify “rude” behavior. In other words, this subjective interpretation of the owner’s alleged conduct is pretty much opinion and the accusation of rudeness is not a good basis for a defamation claim.

On the other hand, let’s take a second look at the above example to reconsider the fact vs. opinion issue: “I spoke to the owner and could not believe how rude he was.” Well, if we can’t effectively attack the “rudeness” aspect of this, what about something in that statement that can more easily be described as factual – something demonstrably true or false?

What if the individual to whom the consumer spoke was not the owner but merely a front line employee with no real managerial authority and the consumer knew that? That might be a whole different ball game. All of us, or at least most of us, can agree that a receptionist allegedly being rude to a customer would be less damaging in the eyes of other potential customers as compared to the owner of the business acting in such a manner. Of course, if you are talking about as going as far as a defamation suit, you would want very much to be able to prove that the consumer who posted the negative online review was aware that he/she had not spoken to the owner and had thus intentionally made a misstatement of fact.  

As you can see, this one example – a simple, single sentence review consisting of 13 words – can involve multiple legal issues and possibilities. Please stay tuned for updates on this topic, and please be careful how you handle these types of situations.

(Click for Part 2) (Click for Part 3) (Click for Part 4) (Click for Part 5) 
If you are interested in a consultation with one of the McGrath and Spielberger business lawyers, simply visit the Contact Us page and complete the contact form.

Posted in business, Business Law & Contracts, Business Law Disputes, Civil Rights, consumer reviews, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Speech, Internet & Technology, Jason A McGrath, Reviews, Social Media

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