A Lesson in How Not to Respond to a Bad Review

A year ago the world outside of Scottsdale Arizona was introduced to Amy’s Baking Company by Chef Gordon Ramsey. The television show was Kitchen Nightmares. Kitchen Nightmares is a well-known show which supposedly centers around fixing restaurants that are not successful. In reality this show attempts to show the struggle and humanity which encompass us all. Gordon Ramsey is the ultimate Brand Manager and Image Consultant for failing restaurants. He sees through people and there flaws to bring out employees, chefs and business owners who we can love and want to support financially.

Following the Amy’s Baking Company Episode, a firestorm erupted. Gordon Ramsey did the unthinkable. What he had often threatened but compassion had always seemed to overcome his frustration. At Amy’s Baking Company he met his match and eventually recognized that the owners did not want to be saved from themselves and he walked out, never to return. One of the constants throughout the episode were the owners references to fake reviews online. Now in the case of Amy’s Baking Company, It seems that the owners were delusional and could not see they were everything those reviews claimed. Instead of following the path that Gordon Ramsey laid out for them, they attempted to fight back through comments. This created such an uproar that almost every major news organization and program had a news segment on it.

The Amy’s Baking Company episode did something else which was obviously unintentional and yet much more important than The show itself. It showed in stark terms what could happen with bad reviews.

Keeping Sanity in Light of Bad Reviews

Bad reviews are not killing the business, Bad food and out of control owners are. That being said, Business owners everywhere should beware what bad reviews can do. Bad reviews can force businesses to close. So the obvious first step in combating bad reviews is not attacking the reviewer but taking it for the criticism it is and working to solve the problems.

While doing that is the best way to help ensure bad reviews are a thing of the past, often more is necessary. Bad reviews float around the internet forever. Google and other search engines along with numerous social media and blogging sites at a high rate. So how does a company or person work to remove and/or repair them? Unfortunately it would be close to impossible to remove a bad review that has been up for more than a day or so. The original may be removed but the internet still has that content.

So now the critiques have been noted, changed implemented, time to forward. Yet still you are plagued by the bad reviews. Now the challenge becomes making the review less relevant to Google and to people. Local SEO can be useful for businesses that want to enhance their visibility and improve their reputation online, however is not a major concern when it comes to addressing bad online reviews. It is good practice and should be done but in reality, the review is probably coming up on search engines in more then one place on the first page. Having great SEO helps you pub your best foot forward on Google search, but in the case of bad reviews, more is necessary to rectify the situation.

A Cost Benefit Analysis: Online Reputation Management Services

Publishing and promoting positive information about your business on authoritative sites that are on a topic matter relevant to your business is a well known strategy that online reputation management companies use to combat bad online reviews . Some of course, are more important than others. But will 5 be enough? It is unlikely that 5 will be. Often it can take 10 –20 or many more to really move those bad reviews down. At this point you may recognize that you are spending much of your time trying to repair your internet reputation. However that is not your business. It is not what you do. It is not how you make a living. You cannot do what you do best as a result. Now may be the time to look for a company that specialized in online reputation management.

An Online Reputation Management (ORM) company is focused on the things that you can’t focus on and do not have the experience to do. They normally can assist you in helping you to repair your damaged reputation so you can move on. A reputable ORM company can do a number of things including:

  • Remove negative reviews
  • Remove internet slander
  • Remove complaints

if you are a target of fake reviews, immediately contact a specialist in internet reputation management who can help those reviews from spreading further and can assist in making sure that they are removed from the public eye.