Protecting yours online reputation it means more than ever before. approximately 94% of customers claim that a negative review has convinced them not to buy from a brand. This shows that “bad” reviews can be problematic for business owners, but there are ways to approach them and turn them around to be more positive.

At some point, you will have to face it negative customer feedback online and must learn to respond effectively to criticism. There are countless techniques out there, but here are the ones we've used with great success at Keever SEO, taking cues from some of the most popular brands.

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1. Creating a special support handle

As our brand grew, we struggled to complete our daily tasks. Direction competitor research, mastering content marketing and sending customer support emails made managing our online reputation difficult. One way to combat that issue was by creating special support gloves, which is similar to what Nike did.

Nike created a separate Twitter account (now X) (@NikeSupport) dedicated solely to handling customer questions and complaints. We used our company name and it is working fine. The goal is to keep customer questions and comments in one place. This helps you respond to your loyal fans quickly and efficiently, but also reduces the risk of negativity on other feeds.

For example, our clients' Facebook pages are often flooded with questions and sometimes negativity as their clients need help getting in touch. Once we added a dedicated X handle for support, everyone knew they could go there for questions and concerns. We recommend that you create a special support handle for your brand. It doesn't take much time to complete and will make it easier to find and address negative feedback.

2. Using humor to respond to criticism

While creating a dedicated support handle is helpful, we still found that some customers were somewhat stuck. Since we were focused on being funny, warm and welcoming, we took inspiration from the Joe Dough sandwich shop in NYC and sometimes used mood to deal with criticism.

Humor should only be used for criticism when the complaint is not serious and is only appropriate if match the tone of your brand and style. It's easy enough to cause a backlash of unhappy customers if you don't take things seriously.

When done well, humor diffuses a challenging and difficult situation. Joe Dough Sandwich Shop used this style to respond to a bad review on Yelp. The clever comment created a funny moment and raised the brand's profile online. After a Yelp user complained that the meatball sandwich was the worst he'd ever had, the shop wrote about it on the chalkboard menu out front. People commented on how funny it was, which created more engagement.

If you plan to use humor to deal with complaints, we recommend doing so only when it makes sense. A one-sentence comment like “this sandwich sucks” might get a funny response, but someone who rages on for several paragraphs likely needs a more respectful and thoughtful response.

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3. Showing that you are competent

Sometimes, a customer is angry, so a polite response won't calm them down. This has happened to us before and it is disheartening to read comments like this. However, ignoring them won't help — can actually make things worse.

One time, a person claimed that our client provided terrible customer service. They went into detail about their package deal and how they didn't help them make the deals they promised on the website. Ultimately, they were wrong because the customer didn't actually guarantee the things that were listed on the site.

We recommended that the customer thank the person for their comment, address the issue directly, and explain how they will fix the problem in the future so that no one else is upset.

Why did this work? Generally, we realized that viewers would see the person's comment and response and realize that they were unreasonable. Although we reassured the original commenter by answering them, we also showed others that we were competent enough to handle all kinds of questions.

4. Avoiding canned responses (even though it's easier)

Investing in online reputation management is essential for all types of businesses, whether you're running a startup, a small company, or a large corporation. You might think that abbreviations like artificial intelligence (AI) are often a great way to answer people's questions and needs, although they have their limits.

You've probably heard of chatbots, which answer a customer's question without the need for human touch. It works well for traditional FAQs and other things, but it's not ideal for complaints.

When we observed customers switching from a human response to a chatbot for review responses, we found that everything seemed canned (because it was). While this isn't necessarily a bad thing in some situations, it doesn't work for complaints because people want to feel heard.

We then recommended that people write comments using scripts, but that still didn't work. Canned responses seem boring and often annoy the commenter more. Therefore, it is always wise to have a real person create the words. It may not be perfect, but it will provide a personalized touch.

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After all

although many tools are available to help you manage your online reputation, it's all about how you react to people's comments. Periodically there will be negative reviews and you have to decide how to respond.

Humor and sarcasm can be great comeback options. However, they only work when the problem is not severe. Likewise, creating a separate support handle can be helpful because it keeps all negativity or questions in one place.

In general, you want to respond quickly to negative feedback, avoid canned responses, and explain how you will address the issues customers raise. Doing these things (and implementing any changes) shows that you care about the customer and their experiences.

Whether you use online reputation management tools, hire a dedicated staff member to write responses, or handle the job yourself, acting quickly and responding professionally is essential.