This is a topic most business owners today tend to underestimate. Most people are convinced that a few negative comments can’t make an impact on their online presence, so they simply decide to neglect them. Unfortunately, this can often lead to a lot of harm, which can end up influencing the development of your moving business as well. However, this does not mean that you should call in an emergency board meeting as soon as you see a couple of bad reviews. Instead, you should focus your efforts on fake reviews management. After all, bad reviews are easily resolved with a little negotiation and customer care. The same can not be said for made-up complaints.
Why should negative reviews raise alarms?
What are some of the main reasons why bad comments and online accusations should worry you?
- 94% of consumers report that bad online reviews were the main reason for them to avoid dealing with a certain company.
- Last year, before deciding whether or not to do business with a local firm, 93% of online customers checked their reviews first.
- 85% of people value online opinions as they would personal recommendations from family members or friends.
- Bad online reviews can also cause your company’s website to lose rank on search engine results, thus hurting your SEO strategy. Recent studies show that online reviews account for up to up 10% of local search engine ranking decisions.
Online reputation management is something of a must-have in modern business. The main reason behind this claim would be what you want customers to see when they Google your business? This is why you should do your best to quickly mitigate any potential damage caused by unflattering reviews. And to accomplish this, you need negative and fake reviews management solutions.
What are your options in terms of fake reviews management?
The first thing you need to do is categorize the bad reviews your company has online. And the best way to separate them would be into truthful negative reviews and fake spam reviews.
Before you decide which reviews to tackle first, pay attention to how high they rank in your search results. The higher on the page they appear, the more likely it is that a potential customer will read them. Since the moving industry is a well-developed branch, you should also look up your company on the most relevant online mover reviews websites, such as:
- Better Business Bureau
- Angie’s List
- Movers.com
- American Moving and Storage Association etc.
After you identify which negative reviews to target, you can decide how you want to manage them. You have several options when it comes to the management of bad reviews. The best results usually come from combining all four of the following fake reviews management strategies:
One way would be to improve your business
Not all reviews are necessarily fake. No matter how hard we want to believe it, no person or business is perfect. And accidents and mistakes happen every day. So, the first thing to do when it comes to dealing with bad comments is to determine whether or not there is truth to the comment. If so, then you should invest time and energy into improving your business and avoiding any future comments on the same issue. Listening to your critics and acting accordingly is your most effective tool for preventing bad reviews on the Internet.
Another way to deal with fake reviews management is to simply remove them
Ask the website to remove a negative or fake comment – seems simple enough, right? Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. According to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, websites aren’t liable for what their users post. And therein lies the issue. This means that you need to convince the owners of a website to remove a certain comment about your business.
Thus, taking care of fake reviews becomes all the more complex. Especially the process for deciding to remove negative reviews is entirely subjective. So, the final decision rests with the website. And you actually have no guarantees that the website will share your opinion even if you find the comments posted badgering. In the end, you will have to adjust your tactics for each site you are trying to remove content from.
If the reviews are negative and from actual customers, you can respond to them
Your next negative & fake reviews management tool is to simply respond to them. This is especially important when websites refuse to delete bad online reviews. Replying to a review can be a powerful method to help a potential customer can see both sides of the problem.
When it comes to replying, there’s a set of rules you need to stick to for the best effect:
- Use common courtesy. Sometimes being polite is the best weapon for rudeness and criticism.
- Apologize and see what you can do to resolve the situation. A good way to excise a bad review is to show that you’ve heard their complaints and care about them.
- Learn all sides of the story before you act.
- Never make threats, legal or otherwise.
Finally, you can always focus on burying the bad comments with positive ones
Yet another tool in your fake reviews management arsenal – create a contrast between a handful of bad reviews and a plethora of good ones. Encourage your customers to review you with the help of:
- a clear linking strategy
- working on your social media presence
- sending well-composed email campaigns
Another good idea would be to create other content that will rank higher than your negative reviews on search engine results. This content can include blog posts and social media posts, listings on business websites, 3rd party articles with backlinks leading to your website etc.
Can I prevent negative reviews from affecting my business again?
Unfortunately, this is something nobody can guarantee. In a perfect world, all you would need in order to avoid the need for fake reviews management is top-quality services and devotion. However, this is not the case today. Today, even if you make sure that your moving company and crews are flawless, you only secure a temporary peace of mind. So, you need to always be at your top game and monitor what people write about your company. Only by doing so will you be able to react in time and prevent any permanent marks on your company reputation. If you need more advice in terms of marketing solutions for movers, consult some of our other articles.
Remember, you should be the one in charge of defining your company’s reputation, not strangers on the Internet.
