My latest post, 5 Tips For Responding To Negative Customer Reviews Online is now online at Search Engine Land. I made this little chart for the post outlining some of the different types of review management tools offered by some of the top local review sites:
3 Response Comments
Good writeup on the “official” review sources. Sadly the 3rd party complaints sites do a much better job optimization for what I like to call the complaints/reviews/scams bucket of brand related keywords. People certainly love to complain, and as an SEO I wish I could say I’ve never intentionally sought Google justice after a business screwed me over lol.
I have a customer who left a bad review yesterday on my Google business listing. I replied to it, taking quite a bit of time to think about how I want to respond to get my point across. I came home after work tonight and see that both the review she left yesterday and my response are both gone. She deleted her review from yesterday which also removed my response then re-left the same negative review today. What good is being able to respond if some spiteful irrational person can just keep copy/delete/paste so people can always see her bad post without my response anymore? *MAD*
Negative reviews can be frustrating. The key is to take some time to look at it rationally and determine the right way to respond. Responding too quickly and while angry can result in a reputation management issue. As they say, it’s better to kill them with kindness.