Good news travels fast. Bad news travels faster. There was a time when word-of-mouth was all a business had to worry about. A customer would complain to the manager or business owner, and the conflict would be resolved right there on the spot. That's not the case anymore. If someone is unhappy, they may not tell you. They may let out their frustration on the internet. There is no shortage of options available. These reviews can hurt your business, even though you aren't even aware they exist. What can you do about them? Let's take a look.
What You Should Know Most
The tried-and-true method of protecting the reputation of a business is high-quality customer service, but sometimes nothing can stop a bad review from being written. There are a lot of working parts in pest control and even the best companies have to deal with bad reviews. What separates successful businesses from the competition is how they deal with bed reviews.
How It Works
If you monitor the most likely places a customer will leave a bad review, you can engage them in those forums and address their concerns. If you resolve the issues, great! But even if you don't, potential customers can see that you tried—and it can have a big impact. It can even be a catalyst to generate new business.
The Right Attitude
If you'd like to take a negative or bad review and turn it into a positive for your company, attitude and diligence are the tools for success.
Identify reviews that are legitimate and require a response. Leave a comment or post a response that will help to resolve the issue. When responding, apologize for the issue and offer to make it right. You'll need to develop a process for checking into issues. You need to investigate any unprofessionalism on the part of your staff or correct procedures that have unexpectedly let your customer down. Sometimes, even when a problem isn't resolved, you can lead a person to withdraw their bad review or complaint simply by having a willingness to help.
Identify reviews that are vulgar or inappropriate and flag or report them to the platform. This can get them removed. Not only does this get rid of the bad energy, it can increase your review score.
Identify reviews that aren't vulgar but just mean-spirited. You may need to simply ignore these. You don't want to get into an argument with someone who can't be reasoned with. It rarely goes well.
If someone has posted constructive criticism, respond in a way that shows you respect their input.
Where To Focus Your Efforts
Now that we've discussed how you can sort through the bad reviews and address them, it is important to consider the platforms on which someone might leave a bad review.
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is a good place to start. Every business can benefit from having an A+ rating with the BBB as this is one of the most common places customers bring their complaints. It is important that you address the formal complaints but also engage customers through the reviews they leave.
Google is quickly becoming the most common resource people use to check out reviews for a business. Google My Business is a great tool to help you solicit reviews through Google maps and other Google platforms, but also to respond to reviews.
Facebook provides the option for you to directly engage customers in conversations. You should have someone monitoring these conversations and steering them in the right direction.
Need More Help?
At Truly Nolen, we help our many franchise business owners by offering essential information. If you have questions about the operation of a pest control business in Alabama, consider a franchise opportunity near you and join our family of businesses.
