Recently, much has been made in the press about businesses posting fake reviews of their goods and services in a bid to unfairly boost trade and whether there needs to be a clamp down on this illegal practice.
According to The Business Regulator, an initial study on the issue had unearthed evidence that firms were posting fake reviews in sufficient numbers to warrant an investigation. It also found that online reviews greatly influenced more than half of adults when they were shopping online.
As sites such as Glassdoor, a website where employees and former employees anonymously review companies and their management, become increasingly popular could this be an issue that employers face in the not too distant future?
Power is Now in Employees’ Hands
Candidates have never been in a better position to research employers. And they have never been more empowered to spill the beans when it comes to reviewing their place of work. Sites like Glassdoor give candidates and employees the unprecedented opportunity to share the inside scoop on what it’s really like to interview or work at a particular workplace. Leaving you vulnerable to receiving public negative reviews.
The challenge with the wealth of avenues available to ex-employees is that if you do part on bad terms with an individual, there is every chance (and in fact it’s highly likely) that they will take great pleasure in going to town on you and your company with friends, family and online.
Of course there are benefits to this trend of posting reviews. These websites can act as a good marketing tool for the business when the comments are positive. However, there’s no way around it: bad reviews happen and seeing an ex-employee go to town on you and/or your company can be hurtful and hard to deal with.
Bad Reviews Don’t Mean That You’re Bad
Once negative feedback about your company is posted on the web there is very little you can do to change it.
The first rule of dealing with negative reviews is to not take them personally. As your business grows, you may see more and more of them. If you have 100 reviews as a smaller company, five of which are bad and you let those five get to you, how are you going to deal with 50 bad reviews out of 1,000, or 500 bad reviews out of 10,000?
If you have received negative online reviews, you’re likely to feel powerless; there aren’t a lot of options to defend yourself.
But There Are Steps You Can Take To Salvage Your Reputation
- Be transparent: If you do get challenged by a candidate about a negative comment that they’ve seen, simply explain why the comments are there. Perhaps there was a new management structure put in place which meant significant changes, for example. Be open and honest, being defensive will only look like you have something to hide.
- Build on what you can control: Manage your business’ online presence. Asking for recommendations on your LinkedIn Company page is a good example. Determine the sites that are the most influential to your potential candidates and customers and focus on enhancing these sites by building on their content.
- Respond to all reviews – positive or negative: Review sites give employers the opportunity to respond to reviews (on Glassdoor you can have an employer profile for free). The value of this opportunity shouldn’t be underestimated. If you receive a negative review, respond as quickly as you can. Job seekers will not only be reading the reviews, they’ll be looking to see how businesses respond to these reviews. Responding promptly and politely will show you care about the opinions of your employees; and this can go a long way to minimizing the impact of a negative review.
- Don’t lash out: If you’re considering working for a company, and you see a negative review, which approach from the business would make you more confident? a) them getting defensive and listing all of the reasons why the ex-employee is wrong or b) them being human, empathetic and apologetic. The answer might seem obvious when we look at it from that perspective, which is what makes it amazing to see how many companies will lash out as a first reaction.
- Take the issue offline: As much as possible, try not to engage in discussions of details; the last thing you want is to air your dirty laundry online, or get into a “he said, she said” situation. Respond in a non-defensive way that shows you’re listening, and whenever possible, take the conversation offline as quickly as possible. For instance, rather than specifically addressing negative remarks, you could say, “Thank you for your valuable feedback. I would love the opportunity to talk with you about your experience in detail. Please contact me at your earliest convenience.
DO NOT Try To Prohibit Bad Reviews
As the importance of online reviews has risen in recent years, so too have reports of small business owners going to extreme measures to stop customers leaving negative reviews of their company online.
Let’s be clear, it is a bad idea to try and influence what your employees post on these sites (other than by being a good employer!) and if there are issues that are leading to negative reviews you would be wiser to spend your time addressing these. Glassdoor itself has a policy on these types of reviews and states that “you can always encourage employees to post feedback on Glassdoor, however if we suspect you are encouraging or incentivising specifically positive reviews, those reviews are subject to removal”.
Your Business Might Just Not Be A Good Fit For That Employee
Your business isn’t right for everyone. And that’s a great thing, because you can’t be all things to all people. And remember, some of the people who leave negative reviews – very, very few – are, quite frankly, just idiots. These are the ex-employees who make personal attacks and aren’t constructive in their feedback. These are exactly the type of the individuals you don’t want in your business anyway.
The World of Online Reviews Can be A Blessing For Small Businesses If Handled Properly
If not, they can become something of a marketing disaster. This is something many small business owners have discovered the hard way, with poorly judged responses to their company’s negative reviews going viral. So make sure you learn from their mistakes and handle negative reviews in a professional and courteous manner.
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Photo Credit: a butterfly in broken glass by Richard P J Lambert
