How Do I Restore My Reputation After Receiving a Negative Review?

By: Sameer Somal |  April 19, 2016

When dealing with negative feedback, you must fight your natural urge to retaliate. You should not attempt to quickly dispose of it or respond aggressively. You should remain calm and analyze it, so that you can cultivate the most effective approach to deal with such reputation risks. As a Business Owner, this could result in immense losses and could prevent one from gaining any further clients. Same could apply to practitioners of law. Responding aggressively to any negative feedback could harm your firm’s reputation which would require you to opt for tailored ORM services such as reputation management for lawyers. Instead of responding aggressively to negative reviews, you should remain calm and analyze them, so that you can cultivate the most effective approach.

how do i restore my reputation after receiving negative comments. link

1. Negative Feedback on Social Media

A customer posted a negative review about Starbucks on Facebook soon after their launch in India, and it stayed on their page and gathered around 5,200 likes and 300 comments. Starbucks did not respond, and ultimately deleted the comment in panic. This resulted in an even bigger reaction from the public, and the company was criticized across multiple social media platforms.

 

online reputation

 

When this happens to your company, the last thing you want to do is delete the feedback. This action shows that you are in the wrong and that you just want to take the easy way out in order to solve your problem. Customers don’t like companies that take the easy way out, especially when it has to do with unsatisfactory experiences with their services or products.

Instead, acknowledge the feedback and show gratitude for alerting you to the problem that you were planning to resolve. Remember, the customer is always right. They don’t care about how you feel, so your thoughts are irrelevant in this situation.

Let them know when and how you plan to solve the problem; this will put them at ease and make them feel like you care, which will mostly likely help you retain that client and many more.

Related

What is Cyberbullying?

2. Negative Media Coverage

When a comment or situation becomes overwhelming, your brand’s reputation is in jeopardy. Do not hesitate to hire some professional help that can repair online reputation. ORM companies are the ones that specialize in this type of a job. An example of such a situation is the oil spill case for British Petroleum (BP) that resulted in public outrage, and online media channels were full of negative articles about the company and the damage done to the environment.

As a result, all the search engine results for “oil spill” and “British Petroleum” were dominated by negative reviews. We all know that it is not possible to completely remove information from search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. What BP did to handle this situation to defend their reputation was commendable—-they ran a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign.

BP started showing paid results on Google and Yahoo that dominated the organic results for keywords like “oil spill” and “Gulf disaster.” In this way they were able to promote links of their choice above the links that published negative content about them. These results talked about the remedial steps being taken by BP to help restore the environment. They took full responsibility and started rebuilding the image of their company. They allocated over $11,000 per day to PPC campaigns.

A PPC campaign can help diminish bad publicity for your brand; this is done by knowing the key terms and words to look out for. Blue Ocean Global Technology has the experience and the knowledge to assist anyone needing this type of professional service.

3. Competitor’s Sabotage Attempt or Disappointed Client

One of the worst events that can take place for your company is if an old employee, angry customer, or a “hater” decides to share their negative thoughts about your company on RipOffReport.com. This becomes the principal search hit that appears when someone types in your company name + spam while looking for negative reviews. This is a nearly irreversible harmful act, and it is very tough to overcome.

Your best bet would be to try to find out who it was that uploaded the bad review. If a review is posted by an account that has not been verified, it can most likely be removed. RipOffReport.com has launched a program that verifies users that are posting negative reviews, and they contact the company in question 14 days before the post is published. This gives the company a fair chance to straighten out any misunderstandings between them and the customer.

Tips for Solutions

If the issue or review is not on a big stage such as RipOffReports.com, they may be easier to get rid of. Here are a few tips for dealing with negative reviews popping up on Google searches.

1. Organize the Response

Be “short and sweet” when you respond to negative publicity. Avoid using the company name, because you do not want it to pop up on search engines. “Our company” can be used instead.

2. Your Best Offense Is Defense for Negative Reviews

A PPC campaign is a necessary step to take, but it is not a long-term solution. You must expand and promote a huge campaign using your company’s PR department to distribute positive publicity about your brand. This content must specifically cancel out the negative keywords used in your negative reviews. This allows your positive content to appear first, above the negative ones, and makes it harder for people looking for your flaws and bad reviews.

A reputation management expert will know how to strategically compose the content to include the beneficial keywords.

3. Consistently Share Your Brand

Any search query will show one result per domain; make sure you promote your name consistently so that it is your content that appears first. This tactic will enhance your personal reputation. Consistently repeat your brand name with your content, which will activate the search engine spiders that will place you higher in searches based on your company.

4. Diligence Is the Mother of Good Luck

The best thing you can do is to prepare for any problems that you may encounter.

Online Defamation Cases Can Ruin a Company’s Reputation and Future.

Let Us Help You Sail Through the Crisis Knowing You Are in Good Hands.

Published by Sameer Somal

Sameer Somal is the CEO of Blue Ocean Global Technology and Co-Founder of Girl Power Talk. He is a CFA Charterholder, a CFP®️ professional, and a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst. Sameer leads client engagements focused on digital transformation, risk management, and technology development. A testifying subject matter expert witness in economic damages, intellectual property, and internet defamation, he authors CLE programs with the Philadelphia Bar Foundation. Sameer is a frequent speaker at private industry and public sector conferences, including engagements with the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB), Global Digital Marketing Summit, IBM, New York State Bar Association (NYBSA), US Defense Leadership Forum, and US State Department’s Foreign Service Institute. He proudly serves on the Board of Directors of Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) and Girl Power USA. Committed to building relationships, Sameer is an active member of the Abraham Lincoln Association (ALA), Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB), American Bar Association (ABA), American Marketing Association (AMA), Business Transition Council, International Trademark Association (INTA), and Society of International Business Fellows (SIBF). A graduate of Georgetown University, he held leadership roles at Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and Scotiabank. Sameer is also a CFA Institute 2022 Inspirational Leader Award recipient and was named an Iconic Leader by the Women Economic Forum.

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Sameer Somal
Sameer Somal, CFA, CFP®, CAIA

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