We’ve long stressed the importance of maintaining your business’s reputation, as public opinion is slow to change and so crucial to your ongoing success. There are many factors that can influence that reputation, but one major concern is the reality that negative customer experiences are far more likely to result in bad word-of-mouth than positive experiences result in good. It’s unfair, but the ugly truth is that most businesses are going to face an unfair emphasis on the negative than on the positive.
To put this concern into numbers, consider that MarketingCharts.com found that customers “who suffered a bad interaction were 50% more likely to share it on social media than those who had good experiences.” Moreover, “86% of respondents who have read negative reviews claimed that the information impacted their buying decision.” You can surmise from these statistics that negative reviews are more likely to show up, and when they do, they’ll highly likely to impact a customer’s decision.
Undoing the damage of negative reviews is tough, which is why it’s so important that your business delivers an exceptional customer experience. As Inc.com reports, the ratio for overcoming a bad review is a staggering 40-to–1! How can the number be that bad? Well, the basic arithmetic works like this: if your business hopes to maintain at least a four-star average rating (out of five), then it’ll need four 5-star reviews to mitigate every 1-star review. (Here’s the actual math: 1+5+5+5+5= 21-stars combined. Divide that by five reviews for an average of 4.2 stars).
Author Andrew Thomas explains, “Assuming that only one of every 10 happy customers leaves a positive five-star review, and knowing that it takes four five-star reviews to make up for each one-star review, you can figure it takes 40 positive customer experiences to make up for a single bad review.” That assumption that only one out of every ten positive experiences results in a good review may vary from industry to industry and area to area, but you’ll find this discrepancy to be broadly accurate and deeply troubling.
This grim reality is precisely why negative experiences should be avoided whenever possible, but there’s another lesson here that business owners can glean. Rather than accept that abysmal one-in-ten ratio of good experiences resulting in good reviews, we should all be far more proactive in encouraging our satisfied customers to leave feedback and not just hope they’re one of the ones who do.
There are a number of ways to accomplish this: first, you could instruct your employees to ask your most loyal customers to take the time to write reviews, framing it as a favor that would really help them out. (A great time to mention this is right after a great customer experience, of course!) Next, you could post positive reviews on a testimonial wall someplace in your establishment. For example, a furniture store near our D.C. office displays a board of framed 5-star reviews as a proud testament to their dedication to quality customer service. Lastly, you could even incentivize reviews by creating contest flyers or emails that have a direct link to your business’s Google, Facebook, or Yelp listing. Perhaps you would perform a drawing at the end of each month and award the winner a gift card.
Avoiding bad reviews to begin with is a smart first step, but bolstering your business’s reputation and encouraging brand evangelism through positive reviews can carry your profitability for years to come. This is why most of the surveys we design at The Brandt Group ask a very simple but important question: “Would you recommend this business to a friend based on today’s experience?” That’s a question you need to know the answer to, a question you need to feel confident is going to be answered yes every time.
If you want to help ensure that this answer is yes for your customers, start by reaching out to The Brandt Group now. Let’s design a strategy for maintaining high customer-service standards and boost your customer satisfaction, Together, we’ll strengthen your business’s reputation for years to come.
