How to respond to negative comments on Yelp?
A guide to responding to a Bad Yelp Review
Every company out there will deal with a negative review on a site like Yelp. As long as these sites stay active, and as long as people have wee little fingers to type with, negative reviews will pop up from time to time. That much is inevitable. Our key thing as business owners is to keep a level head when reading negativity on our service or product.
1. Read the Review Carefully
When you’re reading through that review, go slowly. Take notes, if that helps you to slow down, or read the comments aloud. Whatever you have to do to make your brain really pick that series of comments apart will help you in the long run.
2. Research the Issue
80 percent of complaints come to the notice of SBOs via review sites. Most come as blind attacks, so that means you’ll need to use the review to figure out what happened. Take your time, and conform a good response to the complaint
3. Research the Yelp Writer
You should always research your followers and customers. In the case of the negative review dig deep into the details of your reviewer. How often does this person write negative reviews, are they local or far away. How big is their audience. Knowing more about the writer can, in most cases, help you keep your emotions under control before dealing with the response.
4. Start with an Apology
The typical response to an issue brought up on a review site starts with the words: “I’m sorry”. I think those are two very powerful words that can soothe many concerns brought up by consumers in reviews. No matter how you say it, move along quickly on how you can rectify the error or concern with the reviewer.
5. Explain the Issue and Your Solution
Here’s where all of your beautiful research goes to work. In this portion of the response, you’ll outline exactly what happened on your end of things, and what the consumer did or did not do to make things worse or better.
Either respond with ‘How the Issue’ will be resolved for them OR defend the attack professionally explaining that their complaint might be a mistake.