Any successful business or brand is bound to have its share of ups and downs. When handling dozens, hundreds or even thousands of customers each day, you will sooner or later make a bad impression upon someone. Perhaps this was due to slow shipping and handling times, or maybe it was related to the quality or condition of the product. Whatever the rationale, how you handle irate consumers can determine whether you end up with a slew of negative reviews or not. Additionally, there are many things you can do to prevent these bad reviews from popping up in the first place. Today, we’ll discuss how to handle the situation and what can be done to prevent negative reviews.

Keep an Eye on Customer Service

The biggest ally that you have in the fight against bad reviews is your customer service support. The likelihood of someone leaving a bad review after contacting customer service is much lower if they had a friendly, amenable and successful resolution via a customer service agent. Whether that person is you or an employee, pinging users with kindness, answering their questions quickly and providing a successful resolution within the confines of what you can all go a long way toward negating the desire for others to leave bad reviews. People understand that things can go awry, but if your customer service outreach leaves a bad taste in their mouths, then expect negative reviews.

Be Proactive in Reaching Out

No transaction should end at the point that the purchase is complete. There are many ways that you can keep the dialogue going – and therefore prevent a lashing-out at your brand by somebody who feels wrong and who feels that they have no recourse. Whether you have the ability to personally follow up via email or phone with a customer following their purchase or you send them a standard feedback form to ask them about their purchase, it’s necessary to reach out to everybody. You’ll be able to catch some bad experiences in the process and prevent that dirty laundry from being aired all over Yelp and other review websites.

Engage with the Reviews

Silence is often viewed as agreement. When a bad review is actually posted to your website or somewhere else, you don’t want to allow it to linger there without engagement. If you have followed the advice above, then there is a good chance that the bad review came either through somebody who didn’t actually make a purchase or who is completely unreasonable. In many cases, other people who read the review will be able to tell this. The best thing you can do in the situation is to offer a resolution for the customer (if you have not already), respond politely and be honest about the transaction. When you’ve reached the point that a bad review has in fact been left, there is not a huge chance that the person in question will be willing to pull it from the site. However, your interaction and attentiveness to the problem will show others who read it that you care about these issues.

The last thing you want are irate customers pinging users all over the internet with negative comments about your business. By engaging with the reviews, you can soften their blows. By being proactive and having great customer service, however, you may be able to prevent them altogether.