When you get a good review, your brand will benefit from positive press, instantly.

Online reviews actually influence 67.7% of buying decisions.

But, good reviews are, well, good for business—and you can really maximize their value even more.

How to manage good customer reviews:

1. Use your reviews for social proof:

Typically, humans will conform to the actions or suggestions of others, often based on their reviews or referrals—that’s social proof in a nutshell.

To maximize your good online reviews of social proof, here are a few tips:

• Add testimonials, reviews, and ratings to your paid ad communications to validate your performance as a brand and encourage more engagement.
• Place a review tab or widget to your website so people can view your positive reviews and feedback with ease. Make them almost impossible to miss!
• Share positive consumer testimonials.

2. Earn more positive customer reviews:

Not only your customer feedback serve as vital data for improving your communications and service, but the better the reviews you get, the more you will benefit.

From signing up to popular review platforms to push your customers to leave reviews across platforms in exchange for free shipping or a discount code, there are many ways you can earn additional positive feedback.

How to tackle negative customer reviews

1. Be swift, be approachable. Get to the heart of the issue:

No matter what the customers say or what the issue is, you should always aim to reply to bad reviews testimonials as quickly as possible and in an approachable, friendly tone.

2. How to respond to negative customer reviews:

• Apologize, empathize, and own the issue
• Be professional yet conversational to ensure your response is approachable and most importantly, personal. Try to respond to every customer by their name.
• Always offer a practical resolution to your customer’s issue and thank the negative reviewer for their feedback.

3. How to deal with fake customer reviews:

What’s more frustrating than a stream of negative reviews? Being plagued with fake reviews—ratings and testimonials that are completely fabricated.

As unjust as fake reviews may be, they do exist—and it’s likely you’ll have to deal with them from time to time.

Here are the common traits of fake online reviews:

• They lack any real detail and are vague or generic
• They are far more heavy on verbs than nouns
• They use lots of first-person pronouns like “I” or “me” to sound sincere
• They are usually given either a five or a one-star rating
• The reviewer has a track record of leaving lots of reviews using different tones of voice or in different languages across lots of different platforms.

Conslusion,

Dealing with online reviews can be a tricky business, but handled with care and a certain sense of urgency, you’ll not only preserve your brand reputation—you also stand a solid chance of strengthening your consumer bonds.