Would you walk into a local restaurant if you saw it had a one-star rating?
Neither would we.
And that tells you how easy it is for your reputation to take a hit, cost you customers, and eventually tank your entire business.
Miriam Ellis recently shared a local business rating scale, showing how different ratings impact customers’ decisions:
- ⭐–⭐⭐: Poor. Only 2% of customers would even consider you.
- ⭐⭐⭐: Needs improvement. Every third customer may consider you.
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐–⭐:Good or great. The majority of customers would consider you.
Not surprising, right?
The good news is, if you’re struggling with “reputational damage,” Miriam has tips to help you solve the poor reviews issue.
Time to shoot for those stars…
Table of Contents
First, avoid the vocal minority.
This is the most obvious case for poor ratings.
Think about it. Ten people visit your business, nine love it, one has an awful time. Just one leaves a 5 star rating, while the annoyed guest slaps on one star. Your average rating is now three stars.
To fix this, launch a review acquisition strategy so you have a regular stream of new, positive reviews coming to the platform.
Update business listings.
Many customers write negative reviews after they’ve encountered inaccurate or old business information about hours, address, phone, etc.
This is easily manageable and will help you avoid unnecessary reviews while also providing precise information – helping you with customer acquisition.
Bad customer service.
Yep, 65% of review writers write a bad review thanks to rude or bad customer service.
The sad reality? It’s easier to motivate a badly treated shopper to leave a 1-star review than to motivate a happy shopper to write a positive review. Unfair, we know…
But if most of your bad ratings come from bad customer service, a simple fix might not suffice. That’s a systematic problem that you’ll have to solve quickly.
5-star advice, no?
You’ll find six more tips in Miriam’s article to help you tidy up that reputation, too. Good luck!