4 WAYS TO COUNTER NEGATIVE CUSTOMER REVIEWS
4 WAYS TO COUNTER NEGATIVE CUSTOMER REVIEWS
Smart business owners take great care to deliver quality services and products to their customers. After all, businesses struggle to stay afloat without a satisfied customer base. Websites, industry and consumer review boards like Yelp, Facebook, and TripAdvisor invite customers to candidly offer reviews and rate businesses from their experiences. These reviews on where to shop, eat, or stay guide consumer-choice as to where they want to do business.
Many have come to rely on the candid reviews of non-biased consumers that make these review-sites so successful. Indeed, these sites are great at empowering consumers and helping businesses connect with prospective customers. However, they also work in the reverse because they’re a popular channel for complaints, rebukes and retaliation by disgruntled customers as well.
When negative reviews surface, business owners should take notice. It’s no secret that consumers regularly rely on star ratings when choosing a product or service. It’s been reported that even a decline of one star (on a scale from one to five) can send not only revenue, but also a business’ shelf-life on a downward spiral.
What’s more unfortunate is that not all complainers can be counted on to give an accurate and fair account, and a business can be damaged irreparably by false allegations. So, let’s explore rights business owners may or may not have in protecting their business interests and 4 ways to counter negative reviews.
Can You Stop Customers from Writing Bad Online Reviews?
No. Consumers cannot be stopped from writing a bad online review. While free to express their opinions, consumers who write negative reviews are warned that businesses can sue for libel. Courts have largely found that comments that are strictly opinion or hyperbole are protected by the First Amendment, while unsupported statements of fact can lead to liability. This should discourage falsehoods, but there is no guarantee that negative comments won’t appear online.
Here are a few examples of how bad online reviews resulted in lawsuits:
Scarred: A Washington woman was sued by her dermatologist after she claimed (on Yelp) that he scarred her face. The doctor contended that the scar was pre-existing.
Dirtiest Hotel in America: A U.S. District Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Pigeon Forge (TN) hotel after TripAdvisor called it “the dirtiest hotel in America” based on user reviews. Remarkably, the court concluded that the “dirty” designation wasn’t defamatory.
Limited Grace: Grace Bible Church in Beaverton (OR) showed the limits of its grace, suing a former member who criticized the church online as being “creepy” and guilty of “spiritual abuse.” A judge dismissed the suit, saying these opinions were protected as free speech.
Award Rescinded: Two Arizona surgeons were awarded $12 million by a jury after a patient created a website to accuse the doctors of poor care. The award was later overturned for insufficient supporting evidence.
In this era of impulsive online tweets and anonymous comments, libel cases over online comments are on the rise. Nevertheless, consumers have a right to communicate their negative experiences or displeasure with service providers when it falls within the realm of protected freedom of speech.
Why Don’t Websites like Yelp & Angie’s List Do More to Weed out “False Reviews”?
To screen or not to screen—that’s a tough question for review-sites. Consumer review-sites like Yelp, Angie’s List, and rateMD.com are challenged with ensuring the integrity of the services they offer. The open invitation to provide consumers with broad access to post, comment and rate, leaves companies vulnerable to false reviews and ratings. To address the issue, some review-sites use censoring software designed with algorithms that detect bogus reviews. Unfortunately, there’s a risk of censoring legitimate reviews as well.
To a large degree, review-sites are discouraged from using filters because it opens them up to unwanted lawsuits. As noted by Ken Paulson, president of the First Amendment Center,
“Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects websites from libel claims as long as they simply permit the posting of content and don’t actively control posts. If a website edits posts, weeding out vitriolic or unfounded attacks, its potential liability can be more, not less.”
4 Ways to Counter Negative Customer Reviews:
Business owners can counter some of these negative reviews. Here are four practical steps to stop or respond to negative reviews and monitor your brand’s online reputation.
Non-Disparagement or Protection of Reputation Clauses. These clauses restrict individuals from taking any action that negatively impacts an organization, its reputation, products, services, management or employees. They are found in virtually all settlement agreements and many executive employment agreements. Some clauses simply describe the disparaging actions, others build a thesaurus-like list of prohibited actions. Such clauses are generally provided at the onset of a contractual relationship.
Acknowledge, Address and Apologize. Acknowledging complaints and reviews suggests that you are listening and sensitive to the needs of your customers. Addressing their concerns further suggests that you are accommodating. Finally and most importantly, apologize for their unpleasant experience. Small businesses have nothing to lose by simply acknowledging and addressing the issue if warranted. The criticism may hurt, but the way a business responds matters more.
Flag & Report Unwarranted Reviews. Consumer reporting sites like Yelp offer business owners an opportunity to report fraudulent and inappropriate reviews. The removal of unwarranted reviews can be tricky and could result in the appearance of filtering by the business owner to post only favorable reviews. However, you should still use every life vest available to you to counter unwarranted consumer reviews – so flag and report if the review is false!
Monitor/Manage Defamatory Comments & Respond Quickly. Reputation Management Organizations exist to help busy business owners monitor and manage their online presence. They also help fix PR disasters or completely prevent them in the first place, and work with companies to establish and protect their brand once the crisis has been addressed.
Negative consumer reviews are never at the top of the “most-wanted” list. However, when they surface, it’s great to be prepared and equipped with the tools and resources needed to minimize the effects and potential loss of revenue, goodwill and reputation. The suggestions provided above are just a few of many courses you can take to protect your business interests.
Your Thoughts: Are you prepared? What actions do you currently take to manage your online reputation?
This article is intended to provide you with general information, it does not constitute any type of legal advice. For recommendations related to your specific matter, we encourage you to review our Practice Areas page for additional information and then contact us to discuss your company’s legal needs.