Negative Reviews Can Help Your Business Grow

Writing by nick on Tuesday, November 20, 2007 Leave a comment

I like reading Marketing Pilgrim. They have useful information in every blog post and I always learn something new. For instance, this morning The Pilgrim wrote an excellent piece about negative reviews and how they can benefit your business. Everyone wants to get positive reviews, but did you know you can negative reviews into a profit for your business?

Just about every local advertising website online allows users to review the businesses that advertise. Most of them do. That means you customers are likely to go online and shout your name at the top of their lungs. It’s no secret that people will spread negative news faster than positive news, but should that scare you? Here are five ways Marketing Pilgrim suggests you can benefit from negative reviews of your business:

  • You can identify your own weaknesses by negative reviews
  • Negative reviews build credibility
  • Fix your problems and disappointed customers will return with their friends
  • A public show of good faith in fixing problems will show that you care about your own reputation and your customers’ needs
  • Look at your competitors’ negative reviews and learn from them

This is a great list. The one that seems the most counterintuitive is the second one – building credibility. It would seem that negative reviews would hurt your credibility, right? But if every review of your business is positive then they could appear fake. Remember, your customers are smart. They can see through a negative review or a positive review like glass. If it’s fake, they’ll know and that will hurt your business more than help it. On the other hand, if a negative review is nitpicking at something that is not easy to control then potential customers will see that too. But if a negative review makes a good point then you can take that point and fix your problem, turning a negative into a positive. That will go a very long way in building credibility and attracting new customers. So don’t be afraid of negative reviews.

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