Despite their obvious drawbacks, negative reviews can have a few benefits for your business. They provide customer feedback, improve your positioning on Google’s search results and boost your brand’s trustworthiness.
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Feedback:
Negative reviews give businesses the opportunity to improve their practices. As a business owner, it’s difficult to keep an all-seeing eye on your business. However, your customers can help you see with Google reviews. Negative reviews provide feedback that can be used to improve a business. If your food starts getting negative reviews, you can check what’s happening in the kitchen. Or, if customers complain about the customer service they received, you can talk to your staff. It’s important to keep reading your reviews and learning from them.
Better SEO:
The more reviews you receive, good or bad, the better your search engine ranking. If lots of people are talking about you, Google will put your businesses higher in search results. Plus, people’s comments boost the keywords associated with your business on Google. If you get a review that says, “The nitro coffee was terrible,” at least you’ll show up in a search for “nitro coffee”. Negative reviews may not be great for appearances, but they still help people find your business.
Trustworthiness:
For better or worse, studies have found people read about 10 reviews before they trust a business. This is mostly good news because people clearly read more than one review. This allows businesses to reply to negative reviews to build trustworthiness. Replying to negative reviews, publicly, lets prospective customers see how you’ve handled problems. How much more do you like a business that you can see replies to its negative reviews? Just remember to reply to all your negative reviews! Furthermore, negative reviews make a business look more authentic. If a company has no negative reviews, people may assume they’re buying reviews or other foul play. However, if a business has a healthy star rating, despite negative reviews, they must be good.
For more information on SEO or Google reviews for your business, call SBIM on +61 7 3325 0505 or email webmaster@sbim.com.au
