Your brand’s public relations strategy will likely be well-crafted to present an image reflecting your company values and priorities. Yet, for all the internal tactics you apply to this process, external factors can affect the integrity of your brand image. In the digital landscape, one of the most prevalent of these is negative reviews.
A robust approach to review management is essential to navigating this. In fact, with some careful planning, you can leverage your negative reviews to support your ongoing PR resilience.
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Be Proactive
The first step in transforming negative reviews into positive PR is to be proactive. One of the worst things you can do is let negative reviews sit around the internet unaddressed. The speed of your response and resolution sends a clear message to consumers about your brand’s commitment to customer relations
Having someone constantly monitor your social media and all the review sites is only sometimes practical. Instead, you can set up alerts on review sites and social media accounts for mentions of your brand. By ensuring these alerts head directly to customer service and PR staff, they can swiftly assess and respond to issues.
Another proactive step is preparing in advance with robust reputation management protocols. By taking the time to understand what reputational risks your brand is subject to, you can design review response measures that not just mitigate complaints but keep consumers’ impressions of your brand positive. This begins with understanding what your current reputation is and what issues there are. For instance, if your brand struggles with a rep for being too unemotional, you can design your review response measures to be more authentically human and empathetic.
Communicate Effectively
PR, at its heart, is based on good communication. Whether you’re maintaining your good reputation or navigating a crisis, your commitment to clear and positive messaging with consumers and the wider public is key.
When responding to negative reviews, prioritize clarity. Confusing language and vague information can make things more frustrating. In your initial review response, come from a place of empathy—even if you’re not yet sure whether your brand is to blame—and outline the next steps in handling the matter. This also provides clarity to other consumers, which may boost confidence in your brand.
Additionally, strong internal communication is an important resource for managing customers’ experiences and perceptions. In a direct sense, it improves the efficiency and efficacy with which front-line customer service staff collaborate with managers and PR staff to resolve negative consumer experiences. Indirectly, good communication provides staff with a more consistent knowledge of the brand’s values and standards, which informs how they interact with consumers.
It is, therefore, vital to adopt strategies to enhance internal communication. This should include having convenient communication tools that link customer service and social media staff to employees from other departments, such as instant messaging platforms. You should also develop a culture of communication, in which you encourage staff of all levels and departments to interact with one another openly on a daily basis. This strengthens relationships and may lead to more innovative and collaborative approaches to boosting the PR value of handling reviews effectively.
Aim for Mindful Transparency
When it comes to managing negative reviews, being transparent can help showcase your authenticity and your open commitment to improving customer relations. This naturally supports PR goals related to building trust with the wider public.
When responding to reviews, avoid taking the matter entirely behind closed doors. This can be a red flag to those posting and looking at negative reviews. At the same time, it’s not practical to handle a complaint completely in public, not to mention that other customers may lose interest in a comment response chain before its final positive resolution.
Therefore, start by being transparent in your initial response, including providing the aforementioned information on the next steps of the complaint process. You can then invite the customer to move the conversation offline to gain more details. Don’t force them to do so, but make it clear it’s in the best interests of a speedy and positive resolution.
Once you’ve managed the complaint behind the scenes, leave a final response to the review thanking the customer for their information and their collaboration in resolving the matter. You can also mention improvements you intend to make related to the complaint. This transparent resolution is a PR opportunity that reassures other consumers of the strength of your customer service standards.
Conclusion
Negative reviews aren’t great for your PR, but your response to them can be an opportunity to show your commitment to good service standards. This involves being proactive about addressing reviews, alongside maintaining transparency that improves the visibility of your efforts, among other tactics. Remember to encourage your PR team to work closely with customer service staff, too. These collaborations can lead to negative review response approaches that keep consumers happy and serve PR goals.
