How to Keep Your Profits Intact After a Surge of Negative Feedback
Online reviews are always important. This is true, especially in the age of the internet and e-commerce. Online reviews give other consumers a peek at what to expect when purchasing something online. In fact, almost 80% of consumers say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. That’s according to a survey for a study. Now you see how significant online reviews are in maintaining a business’s reputation.
If you’re a business owner, there’s one thing that always worries you. It’s getting tons of negative reviews for your products or services. It’s a nightmare for most entrepreneurs. That’s when you would need to dig deep and see what happened. It’s going to be a laborious task determining the error. Not to mention you still have your business to run while dealing with the circumstance.
A surge of negative reviews can turn away potential and existing clients. This also means that you may lose revenue. That’s why you have to minimize its negative impact on your business. Here are some tips to help you with that.
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Contents
Find the Root Cause
There’s nothing more efficient than finding out what’s really causing the problem. Say people have been receiving less than the number of items they ordered. This usually happens when your products are packed manually. You have to check with the people who pack the products. Let them know about the problem and tell them to do their jobs properly. Inspect their operations if they’re doing the right thing.
Or you can have someone you trust inspect while you’re not around. See if they’re still doing the right thing even in your absence. Micromanagement is important, especially in times like these. You can only see the root cause of the problem if you look at even the littlest details.
Monitor the Reviews
It’s important to see all the negative reviews you’re getting. It’s a way to determine the most common types of complaints you’re receiving. Let’s say that you’re reselling essential oils for scars. It takes time for these types of products to show their effectiveness. If you’re receiving reviews more about the delivery delay, then there’s nothing wrong with the product itself.
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Collect all similar reviews and see how quickly you can resolve them. This is one way to ensure that you’re in control of the negative reviews. That’s needed so you can minimize their negative impact on your income.
Take Immediate Actions If Necessary
Getting a lot of negative reviews isn’t the time to be complacent. You have to take action immediately. Check all available resources that can help with the resolution of the problem. Make sure that you’re able to get back to the complainants as soon as possible. Acknowledge their complaints. You can then plan on how you can resolve their issues with your products or service.
This should give you enough time to think how long it’ll take before resolving the customers’ issues. It’s important because you would want to provide the complainants with a realistic time frame. Doing this can also lessen the risk of the same problems happening again. Thus, saving your business from revenue loss.
Damage Control on Social Media
As a business that runs today, you may have social media channels that people can see. A survey even shows that 79% of people say that user-generated social media content affects their purchasing decisions. What if your social media presence is tarnished with negative reviews you’ve been receiving? That’s going to hit your income.
You may want to do damage control on social media platforms first. It’s an excellent way to address your customers’ complaints collectively. You can then follow it up with a promise that you’re doing anything to resolve the issues immediately. That’s going to somehow prevent you from losing customers. It can stabilize the momentum while you’re still fixing the problems in the background.
Customer Retention
You may have to compensate the complainants for the inconvenience that your business caused. This is one way to make sure that customer retention is applied. You should retain as many complainants as you can. It’s easier if they know that you can provide excellent services. You can use their favorable experiences with your business as leverage to make them stay with you.
Or just like what was mentioned earlier, you can compensate them with something. You can give them freebies on their next orders or apply big discounts, too. These compensations are only possible if the budget permits. Remember, you’re trying to prevent revenue loss, not cause one.
It’s disheartening to see that the damage has already affected your loyal customers. But if you know how to turn things around, you’re in good hands. You can prevent revenue loss and retain your customers.
Good luck!
Ken Boyd
Author: Cost Accounting for Dummies, Accounting All-In-One for Dummies, The CPA Exam for Dummies and 1,001 Accounting Questions for Dummies
(email) ken@stltest.net
(website and blog) https://www.accountingaccidentally.com/