Marketing 101 By Mike French mike@mikefrench.com

Successful Online Reviews W

hile preparing an advertising piece for a client, I looked at their web- site and also at some review sites to get some information about them. I found two reviews posted, one was positive and the other was very negative. The negative reviewer ended their comments about their experience with the company by saying that they would “never use this ter- rible company to buy parts from again!” Ouch! If I had been someone looking for a company to buy parts from and had read this scathing review, it would have seriously affected my decision to use them. This bad review has probably cost my client some valuable business! Bad reviews do hurt business. The truth is, consumers do pay attention to reviews and reviews are quick and easy to look up on smart phones. Sadly, you really can’t do much about a negative review. You can’t remove it, and unless you can go back and make the person happy and they remove it themselves, it will continually show up every time someone looks up your com- pany online, forever!

An Ounce of Prevention If you do get a negative review, there

are some things you can try to do and I will get to that in a minute. First, be sure you are doing everything you can to keep from getting bad reviews in the first place. I know of one business that’s lost well over a million dollars over one mis- handled bad review fiasco that went viral. They would have been much better off had they made the customer happy, even at extra cost. Here are some suggestions. • Put strict quality control systems in

place. Make sure your parts are tested, clean and inspected with the name and contact info of the inspector on the part. • Describe parts correctly. If there is any kind of anomaly with the part condition, put it in writing and make sure your cus- tomer is in agreement before it is shipped.

If you use a parts grading system, make sure your client understands and agrees to the graded part he’s getting so there are no surprises upon delivery • Develop shipping preparation and delivery systems. Make sure parts are pre- pared correctly for shipping so parts won’t get damaged during travel. Tell customers how the part is being shipped and when he will receive it. Provide track- ing numbers if common carrier is used. • Fix problems quickly and make sure customer is happy with the fix. Ask them if they are happy and if there is anything else you can do for them. • Have a strong no-hassle return policy and a 100% customer satisfaction policy in place. • Train employees. Teach them to always be professional and courteous no matter how the customer behaves. Empower them to fix problems.

Handling a Negative Review • If you get a negative review act quick-

ly to do everything you can to fix the cus- tomers’s problem. Ask what they want you to do to make them completely happy and then do it. After you’ve done all they ask, and if they still haven’t removed the negative review, post a fol- low-up comment to their review (without using any negative words) saying that you appreciate their business and you are sorry that you had messed up their order, and that you want them to be 100% sat- isfied. Then state what steps you’ve done to resolve the problem and ask them again if there is anything more you can do for them. Even if they still don’t remove the negative review, people will see what you did to resolve the problem. • Bury negative reviews with positive

ones. If say, you have one negative review and ten positive ones, most readers will dismiss the negative review as an oddity. Current positive reviews will come up first and the old reviews will go to the end.

Warning, don’t ever make reviews up.

You will certainly get caught and have worse problems. To begin with it’s illegal and clearly unethical, and it will come back to bite you. Yelp, for instance, will post consumer alerts against you. You cer- tainly don’t want that message coming up every time someone searches you online. Continually work to get positive reviews for your company. How do you get them? You must ask people for them. Each time a customer expresses a positive comment to you ask them to do you a big favor by posting a positive review. By the way, if you are running your company right you should regularly be getting positive com- ments!

Do’s and Dont’s, and Hints Do be proactive. Send a follow-up e-

mail after every transaction asking “how did we do? You will be able to catch and fix problems before they can get posted online as complaints.

Do be nice, kind and professional, at all times. Don’t call online reviewers bad names on your company Facebook page, like the owners of a famous baking com- pany did recently. Their bad behavior went viral and escalated the negative feed- back far beyond where it started. It cost them a lot of lost business.

Move the conversation offline to email or private postings, if possible. It’s more productive to have the conversation with- out fans giving opinions and even fanning the negative flames. Do ask the person to amend the negative post once the prob- lem is resolved to their satisfaction. Treat every person like a potential reviewer and understand that they can praise you or trash you. Actually, it’s sim- ply a good philosophy of life! ■

Mike French, president of Mike French & Company, Inc., can be reached toll free at 800- 238-3934, or visit his company’s Web site at www.MikeFrench.com.

January-February 2015 | Automotive Recycling 23