Online Reviews: A Case Study

Recently, one of my friends from college opened a specialty dessert store in his hometown. Business started strong and he was doing well. He got a string of 5 star Google reviews and some nice comments. But then the dreaded 1 star review came in.

There was a reason the service wasn’t up to par for this customer, and the customer service was clearly hard to deal with - but it still hurts to see that reflect on your business in a “public” way. He responded in an appropriate way and addressed the issue. But then he took another step that showed some savvy, even if unintentional. He posted on his personal social about how he needed to better about handling negativity and briefly touched on the topic. He didn’t call the person out, quote the review, or ask for positive reviews, and - likely because he didn’t - he received a very positive response. People in his network that had tried the business went straight to Google and starting leaving positive reviews to support him.

What was the key driver here? I believe it was two things:

1. He reminded people how much his business meant to him, and therefore how much these reviews meant.
2. He clearly had already built a reputation for good service in other instances, because people were defending him.

Now, this isn’t an ideal scenario for gaining reviews, but it just shows the power around that process. You must care about them, and having a strategy around responding them - whether they are positive or negative - is key.

Need help building that strategy? Get in touch with us today by contacting Daniel Smith at 423.503.0388 or dsmith@marketretrievers.com.