The next time you see a customer posting a review of one of the products of your company, will you be able to tell if that’s genuine feedback or a fake one? Thanks to chatbots and AI, many companies are getting fake reviews from people who aren’t customers in the first place. Whether it is positive feedback or a negative one, that comes later, but if there’s no authenticity to what the pseudo customers say, your new customers may not want to believe in your brand at all.
Even global e-commerce giants like Alibaba and Amazon are victims of fake reviews. To make things more complicated, a report says that almost 84% of customers buy products from online stores after going through customer reviews. But, spotting these fake reviews is not an easy task. If a real customer posts anything negative and you dismiss it thinking it is a fake review, your company will take the hit. To avoid such unpleasant experiences, here are a few things that you can do:
1. Encourage happy customers
Negative feedback is inevitable for any business. You cannot expect 100% satisfaction from customers all the time. So, barring a few negative responses, if you can encourage the satisfying ones to post their comment on various social media websites or Google, it will improve your chances to eliminate fake reviews.
The authentic customers may post their reviews as asked if they are genuinely happy. The more reviews you get on other websites, the higher the chances of eliminating or filtering fake reviews. However, you need to monitor the feedback constantly. Many companies post customer feedback on third-party review sites such as Kapa Review so that new customers not only follow what the on-site customers say but can verify their feedback from these sites as well.
2. Respond to all feedback quickly
It doesn’t matter whether customer reviews are good or bad. If you are planning to identify and eliminate fake reviews, then you need to respond to the feedback as soon as possible. Approaching a review like a conversation is the easiest way to respond to customers. If they are already happy with the service, you can encourage them to come back again to shop for new products from your brand. But, if a customer posts negative feedback, make sure you try to understand what’s wrong. If they reply back, you know that it is a genuine customer; if they don’t, chances are the review is fake.
3. Keep your cool while dealing with negativity
Negative reviews can always hurt, especially when thousands of other potential customers are seeing it. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore that comment. Swallow your pride and respond to the customer without rebuking or making them feel bad. Appeasing the customers can make them gain your trust again. Try to understand why they are not happy with the product or service. If the conversation continues, know that it is not a chatbot posting the reviews.
Customer feedback has its pros and cons, but when you are dealing with fake reviews, you need to be just that extra care. Don’t let your emotions ruin customer experience.
