There's a lot of truth in the old adage that nobody likes a critic. It's rough to put your heart and soul into your business, only to be hit with a stream of negative feedback. It's even worse when people listen to that feedback - and in the case of online reviews, people will listen.
See, in the same way that a positive testimonial can be the most powerful tool in your marketing arsenal, a negative review can be the deadliest poison your business will ever face.
What's a small business owner to do? How can you deal with all the negativity without coming across as a clod - or worse, having a full-scale meltdown?
Find Out Who's Submitting Them
The sad truth of the business world is that it's filled with ne'erdowells who know they can't compete with their rivals legitimately - so instead, they use every underhanded method they can to drive the competition out of business. That includes smearing them over sites like Yelp. While it's not terribly likely that every bad review you get is written by one of these trolls, there's always a chance that an unhappy competitor might spitefully try to drive away your customers.
Thankfully, most review sites have a process for dealing with things like this. If you can provide them with reliable proof that the reviewer in question is a fraud, then they'll usually get rid of the review - and possibly even take action against the business owner who submitted it. Again, though, this isn't something you're going to commonly deal with.
Talk To People And Set Things Right
In my experience, the best thing you can do in the event of a bad review is to publicly respond to it, and offer to set things right. I cannot caution enough, however, that you need to keep your head on your shoulders when you do this; you need to remain calm, warm, and professional. You cannot risk appearing arrogant, confrontational, or dismissive - otherwise, you're just going to make the situation worse.
"Negative reviews or comments can be frustrating," writes Sprout Social's Elizabeth Harper; "especially when customers seem to be blowing things out of proportion. It's important to keep a cool head and see things from the customer's point of view."
Have a conversation with the negative reviewer, and try to find out exactly where your business went wrong. Offer to make it up to them - if, for example, a meal at a restaurant was poorly-prepared, the owner might consider offering to let them eat free next time. Now, with that in mind, it is legitimately impossible to please some people - it's important that you train yourself to recognize the difference between someone with a legitimate grievance and someone who's honestly just there to complain.
In the case of the latter, the only thing you can really do is apologize to them for your service, and move on.
Don't just talk to the reviewers, either. Find out who was working at the time they visited your business, and have a chat with them, as well. Were they just having an off day, or is this a regular occurrence? Was this their fault, or was the customer simply a twit?
Get their side of the story, and take whatever action you see fit in light of it.
See What You Can Learn From The Feedback
While it's important to make things up to people who had a negative experience with your brand, the best way to deal with bad reviews is to offer stellar enough service that you don't get them in the first place. For that reason, it's important that you take the time to hammer out the issues that each of your critics had with your business - and then take steps to improve your organization based on that.
Don't Let Bad Feedback Get You Down
No matter what sort of business you run, you're eventually going to have to deal with a bad review or two online. Don't let them get you down - nobody's perfect. So long as you respond with professionalism, do what you can to rectify any problems you see, and take steps to improve your business, you'll have done everything you need to do as a business owner.