How to overcome negative online reviews
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It is possible to ease the pain caused by online defamation through principles of tactical transparency. There are numerous examples of organisations that for a period of time suffered sustained attacks on their reputation but nevertheless managed to come out at the end of the dark tunnel cleaner, stronger and loved by their customers.
Dell and Sony are classic examples of organisations that used principles of tactical transparency to recover from shameful criticism of the way they chose to, at one time, treat some of their most loyal customers. The internet is a soft spot for every business. Social media can be utilised to generate new and repeated business but it can also turn into a business killer very quickly, almost overnight. The internet, despite its benefits to commerce is also considered as the greatest threat to business stability, especially to a small or a medium size enterprise.
Negative and defamatory internet contents are a fact of life in modern commerce, simply because no matter how hard you try, you cannot make everyone like you all the time and some internet users will read negative reviews and develop an objection to doing business with your organisation. However, outstanding sales people are those who manage to overcome every single objection, and negative internet posts should be treated as such. Ultimately, it is for the organisation to develop creative ways to help it overcome objections, even if those objections were developed internet users reading false reviews or comments.
Once internet users read negative reviews or comments about a business, they become suspicious, which means they might not trust the business or its owners any longer. So whilst you might work very hard in your sales process to help potential customers overcome buying objections, a single negative review could undo all your hard work. Successful businesses don't waste all their resources in trying to make a weakness disappear. Instead, they learn to use every weakness to their advantage. They take an objective view of the situation and work hard to turn every apparent weakness into a strength. When it comes to negative internet reviews and comments it might, in some circumstances, be appropriate to admit to errors and pledge to learn the right lessons and to improve. This strategy will, in some instances, project credibility and trust and it will help the business positively deal with questions and objections that relate to the unpleasant past.
