eCommerce Tech

Bad Reviews: Turn Negative Experiences To Positive Outcomes

Jun 2, 2016 3 min read 591 views
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Bad Reviews: Turn Negative Experiences To Positive Outcomes

It is obvious that any online store should be socially active and communicate with its customers. One of the channels of communication is the reviews which users may place in an online store or on third-party sites.

The influence of positive reviews and comments works great and helps online business a lot. But the negative reviews in e-Commerce are often perceived as evil and something that will prevent sales. Lets, try to understand whether or not negative reviews are so dangerous and how they really affect the potential buyers.

Bad Reviews in E-commerce: Why They Are Good

To start the discussion, let’s consider some statistics.

Negative Reviews

As we can see, people need to read reviews to feel that they can trust a business. Some negative reviews may be present in an online store, and you should analyze them taking into account the following recommendations.

Your business cannot be ideal

Have you ever visited the online store where you can find only positive reviews concerning the products or company? Can you trust this information? To be honest, it looks unnatural and suspicious. It’s not a secret that there can be paid reviews or specially created ones.

Human psychology works in such a way: if everything is ok, it is taken for granted. But if something is wrong, people prefer to share this information and write detailed reviews. Usually online store owners delete all negative reviews from their stores that is why experienced users search for real comments and feedbacks on third-party sites which are not interested in the promotion of a particular brand or company.

Some negative reviews seem to be more honest and it is not always a bad thing.

For example, your client had some problems, and he wrote a bad review in your online store. But you reacted to this information very quickly, solved the problem and replied to the clients with your apologies and comments on how the problem was solved.

Problems happen in any business, and the most important question is how much time is needed to deal with them. The negative reviews give an opportunity to show that you have a professional approach to identified issues and users will trust your store even more.

Negative reviews attract more attention

It is strange but people tend to believe in something bad more than in something good. Can you imagine that 5 times more potential clients search for the negative reviews? They are not pessimists – they just prefer to have all the information before making a decision about a purchase.

How to win with negative reviews

When you receive a negative review there are steps you can take to remain on the positive side with the rest of your customers and clients.  

One of the first things you do not want to do is ignore such a review.  When onlookers see that someone was displeased with the service that they received and no response was provided to their concern it is a reason for them themselves to become concerned with matters at hand.

Worse yet, and we’ve actually seen this, would be to respond with a statement like “thanks” without anything further.  It is almost like you are saying thanks for the negative feedback without acknowledging the associated concerns of the bad reviews that have been left.

Why not, confront such a review.

No, not argumentatively, but truthfully.

Acknowledge that the person leaving the review may have had legitimate reasons for doing so.  Deal with the issues that they have raised not by trying to disprove them but allowing your viewers to see what process changes you will be making to improve your products or services based on the feedback from within the negative review.

True, it would be better never to receive a negative review, but when and if one comes handle the existence of the bad review in a good way and you will actually encourage your readers to look beyond the negative feedback.  Not because they want to experience the same thing – they don’t.  But because they see how real you are willing to be within your feedback which helps them understand how serious you will be about their own success should they choose to secure your products or services for themselves.

Negative reviews impact on SEO

Visitors search for bad reviews, so they read them more attentively and visit the relevant pages in your online store to continue their research. It is a positive impact on behavioral characteristics; visitors spend more time on the site and that is very good for SEO. Any review is the content on the site. It may include needed keywords, and both positive and negative reviews can generate traffic to the online store which is another advantage for the store owner.

Negative product reviews can provide useful information to make a right purchase decision

When you allow your potential customers to read all advantages and disadvantages of the products, they will most probably make the right decision concerning what to buy. Afterward, you can avoid refunds or frustrated customers who bought something they did not want to.

Visitors who are satisfied with the purchased product are more likely to visit your online store again. Take into account that they can submit their positive reviews and even address some previous bad comments from other users.

They may have their own opinion on any negative aspects and new visitors will find this information very helpful as they start to analyze products. So, negative reviews are an opportunity to provide better service.

If you receive bad reviews, be careful and plan your actions thoroughly. They can be threats or opportunities. Anyway, even in negative things, you can find something positive and use this to make your business more successful.

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