The last time you went online to look for a product or service, what was one of the few things you considered before deciding to buy? For sure, you first checked the customer reviews. Given how easy it is now for customers to leave feedback online, businesses are now doing what they can to avoid or at least minimize negative reviews. The same goes for staffing firms whose main line of business is built greatly on the trust that clients and candidates give them.
Today, online reputation in staffing is given so much value that dealing with reviews — especially negative ones — has become crucial for reputation management. But no matter how hard you try to improve your services and train your recruiters to be better at what they do, one or two of your candidates might still leave negative feedback for you. The best way to handle it? Respond and resolve, as this will show the public that you are receiving genuine feedback and truly give importance to how candidates perceive your recruiting brand.
6 Tips on How to Deal with Negative Reviews
Here are some tips on how you can properly deal with negative reviews and maintain a positive online reputation.
1. Check for negative reviews regularly.
To help you stay on top of any negative feedback or complaint you receive, you should see to it that you regularly check all the social media channels and review the websites you use. Most customers post their reviews or recent experiences about a brand via social media, while others will share them on forums, review websites, and if you ask for candidate feedback, your own review forms.
One best way to help you keep better track of negative reviews is by being more proactive and asking your candidates to submit their feedback to channels you actually monitor. This way, you will have better access and funneling of the feedback provided to you by the candidates you have recently interacted with.
2. Provide timely response.
Apart from checking for reviews regularly, you must also ensure that you respond as timely as possible. Knowing how negative reviews can impact your online reputation in staffing, it’s imperative that you set up an alert system that will help you monitor any mention of your brand on various platforms online.
One of the best methods of helping you keep track of any mentions of your brand name online is by setting up Google Alerts. Through Google Alerts, you receive notifications whenever your name comes up on social media, forums, blogs, news sites, and other online pages. As soon as you are notified, your team can then take action, especially if you are mentioned due to a negative review.
Additionally, having a reputation management tool that allows you to collate candidate reviews can also help you gather reviews after any interaction with candidates. This then makes it easier for you to provide an immediate response to reviews, as you won’t have to search around the internet for any mentions of your brand.
3. Take ownership of the issue.
Responding to a negative review is one thing. Taking ownership of the situation is another. More than just responding to a negative review, show responsibility and understand how to resolve the problem.
There is a reason why you are getting a one-star review. It can be because of a delayed response to a candidate’s application inquiry or maybe an unprofessional treatment received from one of your recruiters. Once you have identified the issue, see to it that you did not just come up with a solution but also figured out a way to avoid the same issue from arising again in the future.
One process that you and your team can carry out to take better ownership of the matter is by running a root cause analysis until you pinpoint all the areas of your recruitment that need improvement. For example, if it’s a delay in responses, what could be causing it? If it’s an unprofessional treatment from a recruiter, do a one-on-one with the recruiter and identify if retraining will help improve the recruiter’s performance.
By taking every feedback as an opportunity for improvement, the negative reviews that you receive can help empower your team and help you avoid any similar issues from recurring in the future.
4. Express empathy.
Empathy might seem like a small detail, and it might not be the resolution your client is looking for, but it can definitely show that you understand the impact of the situation. Any person who shares their grievance will surely want to receive an acknowledgment from someone who has a great hold of the situation. They will want to get a response from a real person, not just a canned, automated response from a computerized system.
When you respond to negative reviews, it is best to come up with a personalized response that expresses how you value their time in sharing their feedback with you. Let the candidate know that their grievance is heard and understood and that someone from your recruitment team is ready to take action. With that in mind, you must also see to it that every response you create is specific to the situation and exudes the staffing firm’s brand of candidate care.
Apologizing for the inconvenience and committing to finding a resolution can definitely appease a disgruntled candidate. This can help make the next conversations much easier, as the candidate will be more willing to work with you to figure out the best course of action in resolving the issue they are complaining about.
5. Offer a better venue for the conversation.
As part of the empathy that you incorporate into your response, you should also look into offering a private process where the situation can be dealt with more accordingly. Sometimes, keeping the conversation going on a public review platform or social media might take longer and may also cause inconvenience for both you and the candidate who posted the negative feedback.
Moreover, by keeping the discussion going online, you may be inviting more people to join in, which can worsen the situation. Instead, offer to directly contact the candidate via phone call or email so that you can better discuss the situation and figure out a resolution. This way, you get to focus on the issue at hand and acquire as much information as you can get to help you improve the candidate’s experience with your recruitment company.
6. Aim to turn things around.
Every negative review that you receive from candidates need not remain negative. Of course, the ideal situation is not to receive any negative reviews. But if one arrives, you should have a strategy in place on how to handle them and what the best course of action will be for any of these situations.
One thing that you can do with all of the negative reviews that you receive is to collect them and use them to come up with a process improvement strategy that will help avoid such bad candidate experiences from happening repeatedly. You can also record the steps you have taken to come up with a resolution as it can come in handy in the future, in case the same situation comes up again.
By properly responding to negative reviews, you can turn a bad experience into a positive one. It can even earn you a recommendation if you get to resolve the situation positively. But the best way for your recruitment team to deal with negative reviews is by using them to help improve your recruitment strategies.
Resolve Negative Reviews with Our Reputation Management Software
Dealing with negative reviews in staffing is one of the most critical and delicate aspects of online reputation management. Providing your customers with a venue to speak up and give feedback can help you improve your brand of quality recruitment services.
With an online reputation management software like Great Recruiters, you can gather candidate reviews from every touchpoint in your recruitment process and use these reviews to enhance your recruitment processes, provide a better candidate experience, and improve your online reputation in staffing. Take the first step towards staying on top of negative reviews. Add Great Recruiters to your reputation management tools now.
Want to know how you can gain better insights on the type of candidate experience that you provide? Book a demo today.
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