We all know the power of reviews, it is so powerful that it can force someone who was not ready to buy a product, buy it, adore it, and even fall in love with it. But the other side of reviews i.e negative reviews are that it can make a potential customer reconsider, stop and even never look back at the product or service he or she was about to pay for. These mere words can adversely impact a business or a brand’s reputation and can even bring down the reputation of a well-established and reputable business in no time.
But how gravely can these negative reviews affect a business and to what extent people can go to promote these trends? This can be proved by a study that says respondents were 50 percent more likely to share bad interactions than nothing at all with a company on social media, and 52 percent more likely to share a review.
Review sites such as Complaints board and ripoff report removal can damage a business name horrendously. The worse the thing is, reports published on these websites may instantly rank in Google’s Top 10 search results, resulting in lost business, defamation of brand, or worse.
As mentioned earlier, negative reviews can undermine a business in quite a powerful way, degrading the reputation of the brand and leading to various consequences such as:
A Drop in Search Engine Ranking:
The star rating on major review websites immediately affects the buying behavior of the consumer. This change in consumer perception can go a long way in affecting the results on various search engines as they will also rank the business based on reviews and ratings. This can threaten the very existence of online business as the lower it goes in search engine rankings, the lesser are the chances that it will be visible to potential customers. This eventually results in loss of business.
Reputational risk:
Negative reviews steer away potential customers to look into other alternative businesses or competitors which offer the same product or services. Once this chain is set, it can turn out bad for a business as more and more customers looking for alternatives will be leaving more and more negative feedback. If this vicious cycle starts once and goes unchecked, it may even bring down the whole business or brand’s reputation to nothing. Moreover, it also has a very unhealthy impact on the existing customer base, as these kinds of situations can often undermine the bond of trust between the consumers and the business.
Hard to fix:
Once this cycle of negative review starts, it goes in a downward spiral. And if such negative reviews are abundant, it affects the customer and brand reputation in an adverse way. This trust bond is the foundation of any business. Once it is affected, it becomes pretty difficult to regain trust, rebrand the business, and build a great online reputation.
