Stop fearing negative feedback, or working with a reputation

In 2008, Tim Handorf worked for BigMachines, a company offering software to corporate clients to automate their sales. That year a very controversial decision was made to invite potential customers to the annual user conference held by the company. As before, prosperous companies were not invited. This was because company executives knew that some customers were not fully satisfied with the product. And they rightly feared that they would scare other customers. However, later it was nevertheless decided to invite several successful companies. Of course, the customers revealed to them the negative sides of the product and asked the representatives of the company some very critical questions on the famous forum. But, believe it or not, absolutely all the prosperous companies that attended that conference became clients of BigMachines. How do you like this job with a reputation?

The companies with fear awaited the results of this experiment and were very surprised by it. Based on statistics, it was investigated how sites with reviews like TripAdvisor, Yelp and Amazon influence companies that provide services and products to a wide range of customers. In 2011, Michael Luka from Harvard Business School discovered that a review with just one star on Yelp could result in an increase in profits of between 5 and 9%. Having discovered the power of feedback, some company owners began to try to fake reviews of their products and competitors' products.

According to research by Michael Luke and Giorgio Zervas of Boston University, published in 2013, 16% of restaurant reviews are fake.

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Obviously, most companies fear negative reviews and negative press information. Companies themselves and their investors seek to form an extremely positive image of the company. Despite the fact that researchers have not yet studied the impact of negative feedback specifically in the segment of companies providing software to corporate clients, they found that negative feedback can be a valuable contribution if the right conditions are met. Like clients who criticized BigMachines, negative feedback about your company can bring you the trust and awareness you need from new clients.

Negative reviews help unknown companies.

John Berger and colleagues from the Wharton Business School found an interesting contradiction in the scientific work on the New York Times book reviews: positive feedback always increased sales, but "the effect of negative feedback depended on how new or established the company was."



Berger and the team analyzed about 250 artistic novels and found that for relatively unknown authors, negative reviews increased sales by an average of 45%. On the other hand, negative reviews of famous authors reduced sales by 15%. Unknown authors (or brands) received negative feedback from the audience.

In other words, for a small, virtually unknown company selling software, a large number of reviews are guaranteed to bring success. Positive reviews, like negative ones, have the potential to dramatically increase sales.

A courtesy style can add a negative touch to a negative review.

The language in which negative reviews are written can affect sales growth or decline. In the article “Let's talk straight, this is not the best article in your life: using unwanted phrases in oral communication,” researchers said that a polite style of customer feedback can drastically change the reader’s perception of the product being described.

Using “unwanted phrases,” such as “Honestly,” “Don't get me wrong,” or “I don't want to sound rude, but ...” who start a negative review, it seems to readers that you can trust the author. Also, researchers have found that such positive feelings apply to a product or service, and the brand itself seems to readers sincere. Is this the best result of working with a reputation? When testing, it turned out that buyers who read negative reviews about expensive watches with “undesirable phrases” were willing to pay an average of $ 135.58 for a watch. When there was no such phrases in reviews, buyers wanted to pay only $ 94, $ 67.

So, the style in which the review was written plays a huge role. On those sites that contain negative reviews with superficial and offensive expressions, the assessment of the goods will lead to a negative effect. On the contrary, sites with professional, detailed reviews, written in polite language, can lead to an increase in profits regardless of whether these reviews are positive or not.

Other benefits of negative feedback

Tim Handorf, co-founder of G2 Crowd, a site with reviews of companies selling software to corporate clients, says that service visitors are more interested in reading negative reviews. They have three times more transitions to negative feedback than positive ones. Moreover, companies that have positive reviews with some negative, get the most leads. So far, we are not ready to explain the reason for this phenomenon, based only on the available information, but the study of the site with ratings and reviews - Revoo will help to understand this.

In a study conducted in 2013, Revoo experts found that 68% of customers trusted those feedback, which contained both positive and negative opinions. And 95% of users suspected that all reviews were fake if there was not a single negative among them.

Thus, the guys from Revoo found that customers spend 5 times more time on the site in search of negative reviews (26, 1 minutes instead of 4.6 minutes) and the likelihood that they can become real buyers becomes 85% more (4 , 35% instead of 2, 35%). Revoo suggested that the extra time that visitors spend on the site is a key factor in increasing conversion. But this is only an assumption. So far, we know little about the impact of negative feedback and we need to consider this phenomenon in detail.



So, according to the works of scientists, the popularity of your company and the style with which negative feedback is written have a powerful effect. If your company is still young and unknown, do not be afraid of negative reviews. By the way, think about how a large number of reviews and reviews on popular services can affect your development. The recognition your brand gets thanks to these reviews carries more value in the short term than their negative or positive content.

If opinions are written in a polite style, they can improve the reader's perception of the novice brand. Thus, it is necessary to find a service with reviews from the professionals in an amiable style.

One last thing: Revoo research suggests that negative reviews attract visitors and can make them spend more time on your site or read other reviews.

Do not be afraid of negative reviews and do not try to remove them. A company becomes vulnerable as information about it spreads over the network. Taking care of your customers and improving the product or service after negative feedback is the best course of action. Take such opinions as the opportunity to develop, strive for the best and do not hesitate to them. And who knows, maybe your key clients will help you make some good deals?