How to Find Bad Reviews

In today’s business landscape, word of mouth has taken on a whole new structure with the introduction of social media. Potential clients are now able to interact in a way they have never been able to before, by viewing what strangers have experienced at hotels, restaurants and holiday parks. In past decades, these reviews were limited to official channels, such as professional reviewers. It’s why it’s more important than ever to ensure your business has measures in place to locate, and deal with, any negative feedback your business may have received.

Have a Robust Monitoring Schedule

This is one of the key factors in finding bad reviews. We ensure that our reception staff include a process that covers searching the Internet for any reviews that may have been posted. We do this once a week and make sure that there’s a reporting process in place so that the management team are aware of what’s been said, and that the team members are clear on how and when to respond to these reviews.

Get Technical

Allocating time to staff to locate and respond to negative reviews can be time-consuming and difficult to manage during peak seasons. There are several platforms that you can purchase, such as Hootsuite or Buffer, that will allow you to monitor in real time when your business is mentioned online. These programmes are relatively inexpensive to purchase for your business and have many features available that can really improve your response time and ability to find commentary and reviews online. These programmes monitor multiple social media platforms and mentions of your business in places like travel blogs and articles that you may not have the ability to see otherwise.

Take Control of Your Business on Review Sites

One of the most essential elements in finding bad reviews is to ensure that you are monitoring review sites such as TripAdvisor and Trivago. These review sites do not need your permission to have your business listed, so relying on the fact that ‘you haven’t set it up yet’ doesn’t mean people won’t, or can’t, leave reviews about your business. These sites, at their core, are there for people to share their experiences they have had, both negatively and positively, so without taking control of the listing there and being proactive in responding to and dealing with reviews you run the risk of losing clients without knowing about it.

Businesses can close off the back of a bad review from a customer that is shared far and wide on social media, so ensuring that your business is set up to find these reviews before they go viral is imperative. Your businesses service is now laid bare for the whole world to see, it is now up to you to make sure that you’re there to respond.