Your small business is built for customer interaction
What to do about a bad review
When to confront a negative review

Matt McGee over at smallbusinesssem.com has posted a great blog post that discusses why negative reviews are actually good for businesses. Below is an excerpt from his blog post.

How Negative Reviews are Good for Business

1.) They create trust. Negative reviews provide balance. No one expects a product or service to be perfect for every person. Negative reviews help customers confirm they can live with the product’s faults and/or the company’s faults.

2.) They provide honest feedback. Reviews of your product or service are a focus group of sorts; honest reviews tell you what you’re doing right and wrong. Rather than avoid negative reviews, use them to improve your products, services, or business processes.

3.) They can improve your SEO. You’ve probably heard that good keyword research and good copywriting involves targeting the terms that your customers use. Well, negative reviews offer a peak into how your customers talk about your business or products — the terms they use, the concerns they have, the places where there’s friction between what you advertised and what you delivered. There may be good keyword research and copywriting ideas in those negative reviews.

4.) They help you make better business decisions. If one of your products or services continually gets negative feedback from customers, that’s a strong hint that you should either make dramatic improvements in the product/service or just get rid of it altogether. If patients love how you take care of them, but repeatedly say your waiting room is too small or too loud, it’s probably time to make some facility improvements.

5.) They offer a golden opportunity. A negative review is an opportunity for you to shine, to show you care about making things better — not only for the customer who left the negative review, but also for the countless others that are reading.

Read Matt’s entire blog post here at smallbusinesssem.com.

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Sharlyn Lauby has posted an interesting article about whether companies should implement a social media policy for their employees. The policy would specifically state the company’s guidelines or principles of communicating in the online world concerning their job.

“Employers need to be upfront with employees that they have no right to privacy with respect to social networking. “Employers reserve the right to monitor employee use of social media regardless of location (i.e. at work on a company computer or on personal time with a home computer).”

Wow. That’s a little harsh. Right? Well, not really.

What’s said on the internet, stays on the internet, forever.
Don’t forget that your personal Twitter account that you think only a few friends read is actually very public. With the growning number of Twitter tools, each tweet is quickly logged into hundreds of different databases. There’s no way to permanently delete it.

The time to think about drafting a social media policy is now. Twitter is growing at a rate of 1,382%, and it’s just one of the many social networking applications in the market. Companies are using social media tools to establish value in terms of marketing and branding.

Take hold of your company’s reputation from both your customers and your employees. Ignoring social media does make the influence any less powerful.

Should Your Company Have a Social Media Policy? on Mashable.com

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I didn’t really think much more about it until I ran across a blog post on MarketingProfs that stated a company’s corporate homepage is Google.com.

People are starting to view the Google search bar as their URL entry box. Instead of typing “www.zappos.com” people are simply typing the world “Zappos” into a search form.

This is a key point to remember for businesses engaged in internet marketing.

1. Do you rank first for your company name?
2. Are there any negative comments that show up for your company name?
3. Are your competitors advertising using your company name as a keyword?

If you are not seeing the results you want when you search your own business name you can

1. Advertise on Google using your company’s name
2. Launch a social networking campaign focused on branding and reputation management
3. Optimize your website for search engine ranking

These methods are proven to work and you can often see results within days of launch. But you don’t have to take our word for it. Take a look at some other points made in the article.

A brands biggest concern…should be the negative pages that show up in the results organically. Those are the listings that are much less in Google’s control and more in the hands of consumers/brands.

Just because there are people who are writing about your product on Yelp and GetSatisfaction, doesn’t mean you have to sit back and watch your search results get contaminated. No one is barred from producing content on the web. A brand has just as much right to talk about their great qualities and respond to those who disagree.

Creating great content around your product in pivotal to your organic search success. A big part of Google’s secret formula for organic search is traffic. If you build it (something great), they will come. The better something is, the more traffic it gets, the closer it will rest to your ideal search results.

Creating a small 2 to 3 page microsite is not enough. Engaging your industry through social media and social networking is how brands succeed at reputation management and internet marketing.

Marketing Profs – ‘A company’s corporate homepage is Google.com’

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Today, with help of a great blog post over on Outspoken Media, let’s review when you should NOT ignore the negative review and either confront it or get help.

• You genuinely need to make amends.
  Sometimes you just goof. Your company sold a bad product, you gave a tear-inducing haircut, you missed an appointment, etc. Life happens. People understand. If you goofed and someone is legitimately upset about it, it’s typically in your best interest to engage them and to do your best to make it right. It often doesn’t take much to smooth over one bad experience.
• They’re misstating the facts.
  Your company is being blasted for giving a reviewer a bad massage and not sticking to the promised 40 percent off coupon. However, you don’t offer massages (just haircuts) and you definitely don’t offer a 40 percent off coupon (you’re cheap). If that’s the case, speak up and politely let them know that they may have simply misunderstood something or perhaps they’re even getting you confused with another company. If it’s a matter of bad facts, you should step in to correct them.
• When the review develops legs.
  Sometimes things that shouldn’t be a big deal gain traction and “me too” responses anyway. These situations absolutely need to be addressed and need to be addressed fast. Staying quiet simply because you don’t think it’s serious enough to warrant a response is almost certain to invite the fire to spread beyond Yelp and onto other blogs and news sites. You don’t want that to happen. The best way to contain the mess is to handle it at its source. If something is gaining legs, get in the conversation and help calm it down. Often just a few words from you will be enough to soothe the hype and get the conversation back on track.
• The person is angry with you, not just life.
  How do I say this delicately? Not everyone wakes with a spring in their step. Some people wake with the desire to ruin someone else’s day. If that’s all that negative comment on your listing is – someone’s lame attempt at attention – let it go. Yes, the negative comment will stay there in all its glory, but trying to engage said miserable person will only incite a war and will likely become far more damaging. If the comment isn’t outrageous or slanderous on its own, there’s no need to get it more attention. Hopefully there will be enough positive reviews to counteract it.
• When someone else reads it and is offended for you.
  This may sound funny, but you’re not always the best judge of whether or not a review deserves a response. Companies often write negative reviews off as being written by “trolls” simply because they’re biased about their company. You can love your company and what you do, but not at the detriment to your customers. Every now and then, consider getting someone else’s opinion on all those “trolls” spreading “lies” about you on the Internet. If a neutral third party thinks the problem is you and not them, well…at least you’re hanging around honest people, right?

You can read the whole blog post here.

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Your small business is built for customer interaction. However, even your best attempts to provide quality service to your customers will not please everyone. So what do you do if you have a bad review posted on a website?

There are several actions you can take if your online reputation is in danger.

1. Ignore It.
   If the customer has gone to the trouble of posting a negative review, chances are they are a passionate person, so if you try and contact them they might not respond the way you’d hope they would. So your first option is to just leave it alone.
2. Confront It.
   On the other hand, a customer may have posted a negative review simply to let others know about their experience. So if you contact them directly and offer to correct the problem chances are they will be willing to replace their review with a updated review. In most cases review sites will allow for the reviewers to update their comments.
3. Get Help.
   It may be that the problem is too large or has gotten out of hand. In that case you will want to contact an online reputation management company (try this one) to help solve your issue. With the right tools, you’d be surprised how fast a professional online marketing company is able to track down and address the situation.

More posts about online reputation management:

• Your Small Business is Built for Customer Interaction
• Free Online Reputation Management Tools
• More Tips on How to Connect with Your Visitors
• Reputation Management – Monitoring your Brand on the Internet
• Tagged Reputation Management posts

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Use this opportunity to take more time with your clients. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, your small business is built for customer interaction.

Traditional marketing campaigns take lots of money to launch, so try:

1. Starting a blog
2. Joining Twitter
3. Starting a video blog
4. Inviting your clients to participate in your social media campaign (guest blog, customer review, answer their questions online)
5. Making an informative video about your industry and publish it on a social video site
6. Launching a low budget marketing campaign
7. Ditch your email newsletter and create a blog
8. Creating an alert based on keywords twittered in your territory
9. Monitoring your online reputation
10. Adding some social networking features to your boring website

I keep hearing that during the tough times are when some of the most innovative things are created. So, get out there and create something!

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If you are a small business owner then you know the value of a customer. It takes a lot of work to win the trust of your clients and when the day is through it’s good to know that you are providing people with a quality product. As a local business you have a direct advantage over the big companies. You are in a unique position to make a personal connection with your clients since you are so close to them.

Use that personal customer interaction advantage to gather testimonies about your product. Create profiles for your clients to leave their reviews and help promote your services. Here’s a list from searchenginejournal of well trafficked websites & local business reviews:

AskCity
City Guides
Google Maps
Insider Pages
Judy’s Book
Kaboodle
Live Search Maps
Merchant Circle
MojoPages.com
SuperPages
Yahoo Local
YellowBot
Yellow Pages
Yelp

After you’ve submitted your business to some review websites you’re now ready to engage your customers and start harvesting customer testimonies.

#1. Spread the word
Tell your loyal customers, business partners, friends, and family about your business profiles. Anyone that has had any experience with your company ask them get involved and put up a review.

#2. Make it part of your business cycle
If you follow up with the client in anyway, let them know that their feedback is valued. Put a link in an invoice, on your website, add it to your salesman follow up speech, or add it to your email signatures.

#3. Offer coupons for giving reviews
Offering your clients incentives for sharing their thoughts on your service is not a new idea at all. Everyone’s heard the waiter give the speech about free appetizers if you would just call this 800 number and tell them how their service rated.

#4. Connect with your reviewers
This refers to both good and bad reviews. Specifically concerning negative reviews, by contacting your reviewer and establishing a genuine human relationship, you have a chance to help the situation and maybe even change this customer’s perspective for the better.

#5. Broadcast special offers and announcements
You can create offers & announcements to tell potential customers about upcoming events, special offers and more. Promote events, new menus, seasonal specials, or a new location.

Take advantage of your locally owned business and give the big boys a run for their money. Your small business is built for customer interaction.

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A Control Freak’s Guide to Social Media Influence
Losing control is a primary reason stated by brands who are unwilling to open themselves up to the conversation – and a major reason why most continue to use social media as little more than a brochure on the web. And yet the illusion of control is just that – an illusion. By not involving yourself you actually do more to remove control than if you did…

Marketing in 140 Characters or Less
What can you say using only 140 characters? Actually, quite a bit, though you wouldn’t know it from the recent print media coverage of Twitter, the social networking tool that delivers user updates in 140 characters…

Social Network Shorthand
Have you ever needed a quick analogy in a business or social situation that helps you explain what a social network concept is? I know I have – many times…

What is Social Media
This is a visual animation with audio, explaining the importance of Social Media and how it has affected individuals and businesses…

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The iPhone is a great tool to have for using social networking sites like Twitter. Using the built-in GPS, the iPhone will show you what everyone around you is twittering about but, not everyone is willing to dump a bunch of cash for one of these little self heating bricks. So, let’s take a look at a great Twitter tool for those who don’t have an iPhone.

It’s called the Advanced Twitter Search and here’s how you can take full advantage of this powerful tool.

1. Go to search.twitter.com/advanced
2. Type the word or phrase that you are interested in
   

   In our case, we want to know when people mention the exact phrase “marketing agency”

3. Type the geographic location you are interested in tracking
   
4. Check the boxes are you are interested in tracking
   
5. Hit the SEARCH button
6. On the next page you will see the results of your query, but you don’t want to have to do this search every few minutes to check for updates. So click the link of the right hand side of the page that says “Feed for this query”.
   
7. Add that RSS feed to your RSS reader or you can have it emailed to you using a service like feedmyinbox.com

So there you go, an easy way to track the local conversation on Twitter without being glued to your computer 24/7. If you have any questions or a different method to track local tweets using keywords leave us a comment. We love learning new stuff.

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Let’s say Becky is looking for the best way to get rid of mosquitoes in her backyard and she sends out a tweet to her followers on Twitter. You are the owner of a mosquito repellant company that sprays and kills mosquitoes and you have an alert feed set up that tells you when someone in your area mentions the word mosquitoes on Twitter. You send her a reply and let her know about your product and she goes to your website and signs up for your service.

Bam! That’s it. You just used social networking to get a new client for your company. And the best part is that it’s all free. No ads, billboards, or cost per click. It’s just your company making personal connections with real people.

To give you another example of how social media can be a useful tool, Ben Parr has written up an article on HOW TO: Use Social Media for Better Health. Here’s a summary of his thoughts:

Step 1. Use social media to stick to goals
When talking about healthy living, the toughest part is always consistency. It’s difficult to get in the gym every week or to avoid plates of fries. Use social media to stick to a goal and, if possible, to announce it to friends.

Write a blog post, send out tweets, or make a Facebook group about a health goal, whether it be lowering blood pressure or building new muscle. This is not only a good way to be reminded of the goal, but also a way for people to provide feedback, support, and encouragement. Using Google Calendar, RememberTheMilk, or another reminder service will also help reinforce the goal.

Step 2. Research healthy habits and techniques
This is probably the most overlooked aspect of healthy living. Many people assume that lots of running, lifting, and salad eating will bring the body into shape, but bad techniques and misconceptions can derail any health campaign. Once a goal is set, research what it will take to really achieve it. Researching proper techniques is also essential to avoiding injury.

For example, YouTube brings a visual component to understanding proper exercise techniques and has thousands of clips from health experts. Videos exist for everything from the proper deadlift technique to nutrition tips for weight loss. YouTube is just one of many social information networks that houses this type of information.

Step 3. Utilize social groups for support
Support groups are used by many for a reason – they work. The sharing of experiences and struggles can help when motivation is lacking. Nobody has to get healthy on his or her own, especially when so many others have the same goals.

Connect with friends using a Google Group or find new friends on a health social network such as Gyminee, Gimme20, or Twit2Fit to compare and discuss results.

Step 4. Track progress
Keep up-to-date numbers to understand the progress that has been made and what remains to be done. Social networking applications such as Virtual Weight Loss, health networks like FitDay, and iPhone apps like My Weight Loss Coach are great ways to track progress.

For an even simpler tracking method, use Twitter updates with a hashtag (i.e. #weightloss and #twit2fit). It is another way to garner support while keeping a daily or weekly report of progress.

Step 5. Help others achieve better health
After doing all of that research and putting in so much hard work for a healthier life, it’s almost criminal not to share that insight with others. Social media is the perfect platform for sharing tips about what exercises or routines made an impact.

Some ideas:

• Share useful articles: Share any good advice or articles on social networks such as FriendFeed or services such as Google Reader.
• Record motivational videos: Physically show a before and after so others can see it’s possible.
• Blog every step of the way: This can be an inspiration to those who may be starting out and need a confidence boost.

[end of summary from Ben's post]

I see lots of points at which a healthcare clinic would be able to reach out to that person and make a personal connection. That’s the power of social networking. People are actually looking for help and you are right there to provide them with it.

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