bad people write bad reviews

[bizaro86]

I think the best way to deal with poor reviews is to bury them in good reviews over time. Most people understand that not everything is perfect all the time, and some people are flat out crazy. So if there are a preponderance of positive reviews, the negative ones wont make an impact. If your business is what I think I recall it is, you probably have some repeat customers. Start asking them to leave positive reviews. Maybe a small flyer with the receipt?

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Sliver

No, he did get the equivalent of a shrug when he came here. I was out of the office with another customer through this whole process and wasn't involved. It was after I read his review and found out what happened that I tried to make amends.

So the bad review was warranted, you tried to make amends, and he didn't feel that the amends were enough because of how he treated.

He felt he was treated poorly, and then disrespected?

Then he's not a bad person writing a bad review, he's a legitimate complainant writing a bad review and he felt that your efforts weren't strong enough.

[Mass_nerder]

I think if someone has received bad service, and the business did little to resolve the situation or correct the issue, that person is entitled to leave a bad review, although they should explain the issue in the review so it actually has some propose beyond extracting some kind of satisfaction for the individual.

What bothers me is when someone leaves a bad review after a company has addressed and resolved the person's issue. The bad review ends up being a bad review because there was an issue at all, and the author can't understand that sometimes things happen that are out of a company's immediate control.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Yeah I agree with all of those things.


With never a customer and you can prove it, can you not lobby the review service?



A competitor - Sue them, also if you can prove it you should be able to lobby for the removal.



the third one, this is where you should be able to post the truth about that person ie we banned this individual because he didn't pay his bills/threatened a staff member with physical violence etc etc.

You cannot have Google or Yelp remove reviews. They won't do it. Present all the proof you want that the review is a complete lie and they do not care.

[nik-]

I want Sliver to link to his business so I can #### all over it.

[mikephoen]

We got a 1 star review recently where the guy's first complaint was that the store was too busy and he had to wait to see the product he wanted because other customers were in the way. His second complaint was that once he had the product he wanted, he tried to cut in line at the cash register and the customer he cut in front of was rude to him.

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by Sliver

You cannot have Google or Yelp remove reviews. They won't do it. Present all the proof you want that the review is a complete lie and they do not care.

Google, maybe.
Yelp, ha! They just extort it out of you for paid services

Their business model is entirely dependent on bad review manipulation and other sneaky tricks.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by mikephoen

We got a 1 star review recently where the guy's first complaint was that the store was too busy and he had to wait to see the product he wanted because other customers were in the way. His second complaint was that once he had the product he wanted, he tried to cut in line at the cash register and the customer he cut in front of was rude to him.

But in your line of work bad reviews are good!

It makes you more exclusive.

[troutman]

“The reason the critics all like Elvis Costello better than me is because they all look like Elvis Costello.” - D.L. Roth

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

I think the best way to deal with poor reviews is to bury them in good reviews over time. Most people understand that not everything is perfect all the time, and some people are flat out crazy. So if there are a preponderance of positive reviews, the negative ones wont make an impact. If your business is what I think I recall it is, you probably have some repeat customers. Start asking them to leave positive reviews. Maybe a small flyer with the receipt?

Agreed. Complaining about how the market operates is no way to run a business. Just adapt to the market and, if you're able to compete, do so on the basis of how the market works.

[Flamenspiel]

I don't think you can take issue with legit bad review. Simply put its needs to be addressed, these are things that were just shoved under the carpet in the old days.

There was an ongoing issue with a service i was providing(a legit business as the OP indicated). I tried a lot of things but the matter was really beyond my control to fix until one person put in a bad review, it was well done and clearly legit and i knew it was a legitimate complaint.

I was able to take the review to the third party and they fixed the matter within days, even though it involved a five figure repair. I then was able to go back on the site and indicate the issue had been resolved. To sum up, A formal bad review legitimizes the complaint and makes it "official", it also indicates that the "ratings" are legit. No one believes a 100% rating anymore, you have to have a few bad ones in there.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

Agreed. Complaining about how the market operates is no way to run a business. Just adapt to the market and, if you're able to compete, do so on the basis of how the market works.

If by market you mean racket and by adapt you mean pay then yeah sure, stop complaining and just deal with the extortion by review sites that everyone else deals with.

[mikephoen]

I was looking for a plumber recently and looking over their negative reviews, and one of them said something like 'AAA Plumbing is the worst! Their work is substandard and they charge too much'. The owners response was 'It's unfortunate that you didn't like AAA Plumbing's work, however our company is Bob's Plumbing, and we are not in any way related to AAA Plumbing.'

I thought that was both funny and sad. You would think that there would be some sort of appeal process that you could go to for blatantly false reviews like that.

[blankall]

The problem with the review system is that it doesn't allow rating for the customers, so you end up with an imbalance. There are a lot of lunatics out there, who are just straight up bad customers.

The comments about what the business can do for people, really don't take into account every industry. Quite frankly, a lot of people are dishonest or have totally unreasonable demands. Unfortunately, these people are also the people that are likely to be most vocal or use the threat of reviews to blackmail business owners.

Stating that you should just bury the bad reviews with good reviews isn't always a good strategy, depending on the industry. Firstly, most people won't bother to write reviews. Secondly, one zero out of 5 stars can be enough to significantly bring down your average. So you could have 20 customers. Do a good job for all of them. End up with 3 positive reviews. Then one lunatic gives you a zero and it's enough to bring down your score permanently.

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

So the bad review was warranted, you tried to make amends, and he didn't feel that the amends were enough because of how he treated.

He felt he was treated poorly, and then disrespected?

Then he's not a bad person writing a bad review, he's a legitimate complainant writing a bad review and he felt that your efforts weren't strong enough.

On the first page.

Originally Posted by Sliver

They're so often dishonest, though. I've had half a dozen bad reviews in the past decade and only on one that I would consider to be completely honest. His gripe is so legit and I still feel bad for how we kind of screwed him (he called ahead to see if we had a product, one of my staff said we did without checking, and he drove a long way to get here and we didn't have it). That was a couple years ago and his review has been viewed thousands of times. We've apologized, offered him free product, made a policy to physically check items before responding (which is kind of obvious, anyway), yet the review persists and makes it look like this is a problem the next guy could encounter. We should be able to shed that review at some point. The lesson has been learned loud and clear.

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

If by market you mean racket and by adapt you mean pay then yeah sure, stop complaining and just deal with the extortion by review sites that everyone else deals with.

That's what it is to enter a market. Businesses need to compete on what the conditions are, not what they wish they were.

[Amethyst]

As a customer, when I read reviews, I tend to discount the really good ones and the really bad ones and look for trends. If there are ten good reviews and one bad, I think the business had a bad day or the person writing the review is one of those people who complain about everything.

I think it's great when businesses respond to negative reviews, but do so professionally. I've seen ones where the owner goes off on an over the top rant against the person leaving the review and I immediately discount the business, thinking I don't want to deal with that person if something goes wrong.

Asking your customers to leave good reviews is fine, but don't hassle them about it. I've had businesses send multiple follow up emails reminding me to review them. If my experience was above average, I would review unless I just didn't have the time at that point. So hassling me with reminders is likely not going to get you a positive review.

And if Yelp isn't removing / hiding your bad reviews, you're not paying them enough.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

That's what it is to enter a market. Businesses need to compete on what the conditions are, not what they wish they were.

I think it's fair to complain about a system and suggest ways that it could be improved.

The reviews can really make or break a small business. Imagine a small business owner who's invested their life savings into a business. Next, they have the bad luck of running into 2 or 3 dishonest people in a row, they all leave bad reviews and the business is sunk.

An inferior business owner might have the good fortune to run into several people willing to leave positive reviews.

Over time, things are likely to even out, but the cost of capital is so extreme right now, many people don't have the opportunity to wait.

[afc wimbledon]

the bad restaurant reviews in the Guardian are legendary, one of the best things in the paper

[REDVAN]

We left a bad review for an HVAC contractor 4 years ago, because the job they did was terrible.

They asked me to take it down, and I replied that I would revise it when the installation was working as expected and passed city inspection (failed twice?).

When the second inspection failed, I got a second opinion that confirmed how poor of an install job the first guy did, so I asked the first company for my money back and uninstall immediately, which happened with only a small amount of foot-dragging.

I left my bad review up because of the mess they left in the side of my brand new house and utility area.

A year later, a new manager there called me and begged me to take down the bad review- and I told him I still won't recommend them, so no I won't do it. He offered me $200 restaurant gift cards to take it down, and I agreed. Still waiting for those gift cards for the past 2 years, so I hope that review is still up.

** Just looked them up, review is somehow gone? But the company is out of business, which doesn't surprise me, despite them being around for decades before **