Google gets most of the attention, but Yelp and the Better Business Bureau show up high in search results too. A complaint left unanswered on either one can follow your business for years. The good news: both give owners a way to respond, and a professional response often matters more than the complaint itself.
Handling a BBB complaint
When someone files a complaint, the BBB sends it to your business and gives you a set window to respond, usually a couple of weeks. If you don't respond, the complaint is closed as unanswered, which can hurt your BBB rating.
- Respond before the deadline. Check the deadline in the complaint itself, not just the email.
- Get the facts first. Pull the customer's records, payments and messages before you write.
- Be factual and polite. Explain what happened and what you've done or offered, without blame or emotion.
- Offer a resolution when it's fair. A refund, a redo or a call with a manager.
- Expect a reply. The customer can accept or reject your answer. If they reject it, you'll get another chance to respond.
Your response may be posted publicly, so write it for future customers as much as for the person complaining.
Handling Yelp reviews
- Public reply: Short, calm and professional, like a Google reply. Thank them and invite them to contact you directly.
- Private message: Yelp lets you message the reviewer directly. This is the best place to ask for their booking details and sort out the problem.
- Report rule-breaking reviews: Yelp will review reports of fake reviews, conflicts of interest or reviews about things that didn't happen at your business.
- Don't ask for Yelp reviews. Yelp discourages it and its software may hide reviews it thinks were solicited.
Track what keeps coming up
If the same complaint shows up again and again, such as pushy sales, unclear pricing or slow delivery, that's not a reputation problem. It's a process problem, and fixing it stops the next ten complaints.
A complaint log is the cheapest customer research you'll ever do.