There’s really no way to prevent yourself from getting bad reviews online. There will always be someone who does not want to see you succeed. It could be a bitter competitor with too much time on their hands, someone who is upset that you did not take their case, or just someone who doesn’t want you to do well whatever their reasoning may be. These things can be damaging if you don’t know how to remedy the situation. The internet can be a wonderful thing, anyone can be a publisher and get their opinions heard - even a nutball.

The problem is that when someone googles you, they want to see the good and the bad. If they come across a negative review, human nature dictates that the negative will greatly overpower any positives that came before it. It will turn off a client if you let it sit there without having some sort of response formula.

This is another way that your “herd” can help you. Let them know that you’ve received a poor review and ask them if their experience was the same. If they’re a part of your herd, they most likely love you and will be willing to help you. When you get responses, ask them to post their reviews on the same place that the negative review was posted. If you have an overwhelming amount of positive reviews that are right by the negative review, that person is going to look silly and the problem will go away; taking the poor review off of the first page of google and out of your mind.

As you can see, I didn’t say to contact google and have them take it down because it’s hurting your business. Turn the lemons into a sweet lemonade. That’s the “Live Life Big” attitude.

While you may get negative reviews, if they are from a displeased past client, take it as constructive criticism. If they mention in the post that your assistant was rude, it may be worth it to talk with your assistant and make some changes.

The last thing you want is to turn around and realize that the negative experience was had by more than just the one person and the problem is still there.

If your herd’s replies to your inquiry aren’t all resounding disagreement with the original review, you should look through all of them and pick out problematic areas; if it’s with your staff, one of your systems, or anything else. Your herd is an important tool that you have to continue to improve your firm.