https://renegadeworks.com/online-reputation-management-guide-tips/ As a small business, your online reputation is extremely important. You depend on new visitors to your Google listing to turn into customers. According to a RenegadeWorks blog post, 88% of Internet users read reviews. The easiest way to help them convert from a visitor to a customer is through reviews. But what happens if you get a negative review? You turn that negative review into a marketing opportunity.

1. How to Turn a Bad Review into a Marketing Opportunity for Your Business
As a small business, your online reputation is extremely important. You depend on new visitors to your Google
listing to turn into customers. In fact, 88% of Internet users read reviews. The easiest way to help them convert
from a visitor to a customer is through reviews. But what happens if you get a negative review? You turn that
negative review into a marketing opportunity.
Respond to the review
This might seem simple and unnecessary, but many businesses ignore the negative review altogether. By ignoring
it, it shows those potential customers that you don't care. But you do care, so show them.
Analyze the negative review
Before you start typing your response, you need to truly understand what the issue was. Read the complaint, but
try and put yourself into the customer's shoes. If the reviewer has a list of complaints, try and create a timeline of
when they occurred. Compare it to what happened in your business that day. Were you short stafed? Or was
there a difcult customer that left you or your co-workers in a frenzy? Did one of your employees cause the issue?
Find out what happened.
Fix the issue
People leave reviews because they want to warn others about that business. They list everything that's wrong with
the business from the way they were greeted to how the procedure was performed. Use this as constructive
criticism. Go through the complaint and fx everything that went wrong for them. It may be a change in your
business business or a new product or tool that needs to be purchased. Make this change so that nobody else will
have this experience.
Document the change
After you address the issue, write down exactly what you changed so that it won't happen again. You can format
this in a bullet list where you write the complaint with the fxed issue next to it (complaint-fxed issue). It might not
be enough to save the past customer, but it will help your overall online reputation. By doing this, it shows initiative
to both the reviewer and any potential customers.
Write your response
Dig deep and fnd your best customer service attitude. Your frst instinct may be defensive and/or angry. But this
was a paying customer who left unsatisfed. Format your response in this way:
Publish and respond
• Address the issue- Show them that you were listening to what their issue was
• Apologize for [insert issue]
• Describe how you have fxed the issue- This is the perfect place to insert your list of changes you have
made
• Apologize again and thank them for their time writing the review
• Leave contact info-If they would like to speak with you personally about the issue and any others they may
have, give them a way to do it
Publish your response so that it is public. Everyone will be able to see the review, so be sure that they can see that
you have addressed all of the reviewer's complaints. There is a chance that the reviewer will respond to you,
so be prepared. If the response is still negative, reply with a request for them to private message you or
leave them your contact info and ask them to contact you that way. This takes the conversation ofine and
out of the public's eyes.
Constantly monitor your online presence so that whenever a negative review does pop up, you can respond
quickly and efciently. By using this format to respond to your negative reviews, you can show that
your business truly cares about their customers. This will turn your bad review into that perfect marketing
opportunity to showcase the best part of your business: you.