Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM JANUARY 2015 80 W hat seems like many years ago, a business owner had a pretty good idea when they had a customer service issue. The customer would either call or visit the store, or perhaps even call the manufacturer, but at least you generally knew the name of the customer or at least the situation, and you had a chance to resolve it before things got escalated beyond the point of reason. Today, it is often different. Many consumers head straight to social media or review sites—in some cases they don't even give the service provider a chance to correct the issue. Bad online reviews can influence the choices other consumers make when it comes to your business, and while many businesses have a real fear of these reviews, not knowing the reason a customer is unhappy is even worse. Try as you might, you will not have a 100% record in customer satisfaction. If you keep an open mind, online reviews can provide you with a lot of information on how customers view your service. There are ways to address a poor online review, even if you don't know the name of the customer involved. The worst thing to do is to ignore the review. First of all, address the review with your staff, and ask if any of them might have an idea who the customer is. By acting immediately to bring to light and correct the incident that might have led to the review, you can take firm steps to make certain it is not repeated. And there remains the possibility that you can learn the actual name of the consumer and take steps to address the issue with them— always the best possible outcome. If the review is on Facebook or Twitter, you also stand a great chance of knowing the consumer's name, so you can handle the matter with them directly. Even if you never learn, the customer name, you can address concerns or accusations with the review. Consider sending in a response to the review—make it clear that you are the service provider or dealer, and stress what your policies are in relation to the complaint. Be very up front and professional—do not trade punches! Also note that you are more than willing to make it right with the customer if at all possible—this might drive them to speak to you if they have not. If, after investigating the alleged incident with your team and getting no information that might lead you to identify the consumer, you may want to consider contacting the review site to see if this is indeed a "legitimate" complaint. Unfortunately, there have been cases where competitors have sent in bogus complaints in order to paint companies in a bad light. Consider this in particular when there are a slew of poor reviews that you cannot confirm. Many sites will take these reviews down if it can be proven that they are in fact false. Some companies have taken the step to address poor reviews by sending in positive reviews of their own, and some of these may also be false. Bad idea—be honest in your approach to this issue and realize that, no matter the accuracy of the alleged issue, where there's smoke, there is usually fire. Trying to bury the review in made up positive comments is simply a "Band-Aid" to the original issue, whatever it was. Do what you need to do to correct any practices that drove the complaint in the first place. Also, consider a more proactive approach. Set up a survey system to contact your customers after a transaction and make certain that they are happy with the transaction they had with your company, and perhaps they will also provide you with a testimonial that you can put on your own website. At the very least, this helps head off unhappy customers and gives you the opportunity to work with them prior to any steps they may feel they need to take on social media or review sites. The mist unhappy customer will generally appreciate this level of support, and your actions may completely turn a bad situation around. As noted, it is simply not possible to satisfy every customer, but most customers will not become anonymous bomb throwers if you take these simple steps to address or even head off potential problems that could damage your relationship with them and many other customers. Don't ignore poor reviews—understand the drivers and take steps to both address the alleged issue and prevent it from happening again! DON'T FEAR A POOR ONLINE REVIEW—FIX IT! S E R V I C E D E P A R T M E N T RO Randy Carney- Executive Director, PSA

• Cover