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Dealer Tips

How To Handle Negative Reviews Online

how-to-respond-to-bad-reviews-onlineMost sites offer a review system related to your Used Car Dealership. Sometimes, an irate outspoken customer voices their frustration with your service. What are your options? What is the best way to handle the situation? Here are some things that you should consider before you reply.

  1. Don’t Be Defensive
    Is your place business clean or dirty? Are you rude or nice on the phone? Do you sometimes ignore customers on the lot or do you greet them quickly and with a smile? Instead of getting defensive, imagine that you are experiencing your dealership for the first time thru your customers experience. If you put yourself in your customers shoes you might be a little more sympathetic to their frustration and this will help you make a reply and ultimately remedy the situation.
  2. Reply To The Review Kindly
    Most review sites offer the ability for the business owner to reply. Take advantage of this feature and reply to the review. A word of caution however: Make sure you do so in a kind, dignified manner without sounding defensive. This is key. If you are harsh and defensive, it’s not going to look good online. If you are apologetic, factual, and to the point, other users will see that and decide to take your accusers words with a grain of salt, or give them no merit whatsoever. Either one is good for your used car dealership.
  3. Analyze and Adapt
    What went wrong? Could the situation have been avoided? Moving forward it may require some changes to the business policy, but these changes will be well worth it. If you can minimize situations like this you will preserve a good reputation online, and that is the first place that most customers come in contact with your dealership first.

So, there are three simple things you can do the next time you encounter a bad review about your business online. You will save yourself a lot of time and headache dealing with a negative review online if you aren’t defensive, you reply in a kind way, and analyze what went wrong so that you can adapt your methods in the future.