Many people base their decisions about trying a new product or service by researching what others have already written about their own experiences with those entities.A review addresses the quality of a company's services so that newcomers can make an informed choice as to whether it's a good match for their needs.For every negative rating, provide a justification for your ranking.Research whether a negative experience was just a one-time glitch or the norm for the business you're reviewing. There may be extenuating circumstances you were unaware of.Bringing a mistake to the attention of the business owner will often yield an explanation, an apology and/or an invitation to give the business a second chance--all of which should be taken into account when writing your review. You need to put yourself in the shoes of families who are and evaluate whether the business is a good value for their time and money and a good place to take small children. Offer suggestions in your review on how the product or service could be improved. Strive for an equitable balance of fact and opinion in your content.Identify at least one positive item to praise in your write-up. If the bulk of your review is negative, make sure that you open with a positive comment or observation. Be honest but fair.Take into consideration your own mindset prior to writing your review of a business. Ideally, you should enter into each scenario with an objective and enthusiastic attitude. Never write a business review based on the secondhand experience of someone else.
1. Customers are looking for negative reviews
48 %of consumers need to consult reviews before making purchase. What are they looking for?
I often ask friends how they use reviews. Almost everyone describes looking for the negative comments to make sure they can live with any shortcomings in products they buy. We all know we don't live in a world of five-star products, and customers are desperate to know product blemishes before they make a purchase.
2. Negative reviews establish authenticity
Do you believe all of your products deserve five stars? Customers know that if there aren't dissenting opinions about a product, then the opinions aren't real. If all they see are five-star reviews, they're reading testimonials, not authentic, credible customer reviews to help make a decision.
You can’t “program out” imperfection no matter how hard you try. Indeed, even trying to do so often just introduces other imperfections. I say this because you must realize that, if you’re in business today, there will be those that are saying bad things about your company. Though as you’ll see, I do believe we have a duty of care to be able to deal with problems if they arise. I don’t care how virtuous you think you are, there will be those that misunderstand your motives, have had poor luck with your services or, for some other reason outside of your control and despite your best efforts to the contrary, have reasons to speak ill of your business.
Since we learned to talk, we’ve been saying bad things about one another—so what’s so different today. Well, the problem is that today we have the power to make our voice heard far wider than the intimate circles of friends. That means that bad words reach more prospective customers and risk damage to our reputation, and also that we are far more likely to hear those rumblings of discontent. So the problem is magnified in terms of both its reach and our likelihood that we’ll notice it.
A trend for those giving bad reviews to try to hide behind some limited anonymity that the web affords them. When most of us are reading reviews we give more weight to the reviews from identifiable people than those from less open personalities, and reviews that sound like personal grudges really are simply ignored.
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