We’ve all seen them glaring at you on your screen. That awkward silence when you realise that you’ve just received a bad online review and you’re starting to panic on the inside. Your face has gone red and all you want to do is reach through the screen and throttle the guest on the other side. It’s a common reaction to a bad online review…but it’s not the way to go. The trick is not to beat yourself up. Hoteliers are ‘on stage’ 24 hours a day and nobody is that perfect that we can avoid the odd negative review. So chin up and follow these easy tips for handling bad online reviews:

Stop and wait a minute 

Criticism, however constructive or mean is never easy to deal with. Step away from your computer, take a walk, make some tea and just give yourself a few minutes to calm down. Knee-jerk reactions are the worst way to deal with complaints. Don’t answer your critic straight away. Take some time to really digest the problem and maybe you’ll discover that there is a real problem, even if you don’t want to acknowledge it initially. Even if there isn’t a problem, remain calm and be objective.

Don’t ignore 

Ignoring bad reviews because you think they will go away is crazy. The review won’t go away and everyone will see that you didn’t bother to respond. It implies that you don’t care enough about the guest to respond.

Don’t delete it

If you do, the critic may come back with a vengeance, incite their friends to get involved too and possibly even accuse you of hiding problems at your property.

After you’ve calmed yourself down, respond asap

It shows that you are attentive and receptive to the feedback which helps. It also gives other critics less chance to jump on the band wagon if you’ve responded quickly. ‘Quickly’ means in under 12 hours. (although within 3 hours is ideal)

Don’t deny, acknowledge

Denying that a problem exists in a very public space is asking for trouble. Even if the critic is wrong, just acknowledge the issue – don’t argue about it in public.

Tone is important when replying

Make sure your tone is as professional as it would be if the guest was right in front of you. Remember that you’re not just talking to the guest – hundreds and possibly thousands of people can see your reply…so keep it tidy, keep it professional and keep it original. Don’t use a standard response…that doesn’t show that you understood the problem correctly, it just shows that you have acknowledged the problem. Make your comments easy to understand and avoid CAPS and lots of these @@!%$…it comes across as rude and abrasive even if that is not how you intended the message to be received.

Tone is different when apologising

Why? Because whilst a professional tone is fine when apologising, a personal tone is so much more effective. For example, avoid saying, ‘We acknowledge your complaint and will deal with it accordingly.’ Rather try, ‘We are so sorry to hear about your bad experience. Please accept our apologies whilst we get to the bottom of the issue.’

Don’t counteract with positive reviews

Getting friends or family to ‘push down’ negative reviews on a page can land you in a lot of trouble. It’s false information and ultimately, your bad reviews still remain on your page. Just deal with it.

Don’t cut off communication

A few years ago a leading retail brand in South Africa hit the media for all the wrong reasons involving an HR issue. Instead of dealing with the issue, they simply shut down their social channels in terms of the public being able to comment or query. This in turn made the situation a hundred times worse and more exaggerated. Don’t kill the communication tool. Thank people for taking the time to comment, even if it’s really bad, and tell them that you are dealing with it. Take it offline as soon as you can by asking the critic to inbox or update you with contact information so that you can deal fully with the complaint offline. Make sure your communication channels are open and working. When you don’t, people move away from your brand and start using a different one. It’s bad for your bottom line.

Find out where you are being reviewed

You don’t always know when you have received a negative (or a positive) review and even if you check your social pages daily, reviews are also held on major consumer review sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, Foursquare, Google Places etc. So set up a Google Alert  for your business name so that you receive daily feedback (delivered to your email) about people who are talking about your brand (positively or negatively). Or, why not use a free tracking tool called Social Mention to track online mentions and reviews?

When is it ok to remove or ignore the post?

When someone is being abusive or language is abusive or they have violated the terms of service on the review website/platform.

The more consistent you are at dealing with complaints in an efficient and effective manor, the more potential guests can see that you are engaged and that you care about your customers. Just like you would deal with a negative complaint from a guest in front of you, follow the same process for an online review. And remember that this time; lots of people are watching you to see how you deal with the issue. Keep it genuine, respond quickly, apologise, resolve, thank the guest and move on.

Have you experienced negative reviews online and if so, how effective were you at handling the criticism? Give us your feedback in the comments section below.

Image 1: www.hero-farm.com
Image 2: www.examiner.com