Key Takeaways

• A Glassdoor survey shows that 65% of job seekers say their perception of a company improves positively after seeing the employer's responses to negative reviews.
• Positive reviews increase the pool of job seekers considering your organization as a workplace and help attract better candidates.
• Responding to reviews instead of ignoring them tells the prospects that the company values employees and they continuously use received feedback to find ways to improve its work environment and culture generally.
• Responding and appreciating a reviewer for taking out time to leave a review, even if it is negative, tells the reviewer that the company is sympathetic to all feedback including unfavorable ones. This further helps establish that the company is a good place to work.

Introduction

In this project, we have provided the best practices for managing a company’s reputation on Glassdoor. Details provided include, but are not limited to the following: how to respond to positive feedback; how to respond to negative/1-star feedback; what strategies experts recommend when responding to reviews; do’s and don’ts when responding to reviews, etc. We prioritized those that are backed up with quantitative data and/or are recommended by experts/specialists.

Don’t Ignore It, Respond

Description

• Glassdoor members claim to have been influenced by online reviews of companies. As a result, responding to reviews cannot be overemphasized.
• When a company ignores and fails to respond to a negative review, for example, they miss an opportunity to address, neutralize it, and also leverage it as an avenue to positively showcase the brand to stakeholders who will read the review in the future.

How It Should Be Done

• Respond on time and apologize in a professional tone. Leave out emotions, address the raised issues and provide feedback on plans you have for improvement. Doing this shows the company's humble position and further iterates that the company is not perfect but it strives for continuous improvement based on received feedback.
• Respond to the negative reviews in the right way. This tells the prospects that the company values employees and it continuously uses received feedback to find ways to improve the work environment and culture generally.
• A survey by Glassdoor, a company reviews platform, showed that 7 out of 10 people said their opinions about a brand changed after reading the company's response to a negative review.

Impact on the Company

• Responses to reviews have a great impact on job seekers' perception of companies. Genuine feedback is often the kind of social proof they look out for when scouting for a new workplace. A Glassdoor survey shows that 65% of job seekers say their perception of a company improves positively after seeing the employer's responses to negative reviews.
• Positive reviews increase the pool of job seekers considering your organization as a workplace and help attract better candidates.
• A negative or 1-star Glassdoor feedback on a company can rob the company's reputation. This also affects the company's business operations, growth, and profitability as most consumers will rather not do business with companies that have low Glassdoor ratings.
• Negative Glassdoor company reviews lead to higher recruitment costs, reduce the number of job seekers interested in choosing the company as a potential workplace, and the company subsequently ends up with under-qualified candidates.

 

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Say "Thank You"

Description

• It is best practice to always start a review response by appreciating the reviewer for taking out time to leave a review. This singular act tells the reviewers that the company truly values their feedback and they feel more encouraged to drop more reviews.

How It Should Be Done

• When responding to a review, It is a great start to thank the reviewer for taking the time to share their thoughts.
• This tells that a company is sympathetic to unfavorable reviews and further helps establish that the company is a good place to work. Even when the reviews do not give much to work with, ensure to still thank the reviewer for sharing the feedback. The company can also further reach out to them for an offline session to get their thoughts.

Impact on the Company

• Thanking the reviewer tells the reviewer that the company is sympathetic to all feedback including unfavorable ones. This further helps establish that the company is a good place to work.
• Appreciating reviewers can help encourage employees to provide more reviews. This helps the company identify issues and improve accordingly.

 

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Research Strategy

Key Takeaways

• The two best practices for managing a company’s reputation on Indeed include: politely & quickly responding to negative feedback and never ignoring positive feedback.
• SHRM maintains that 76% of job seekers send job applications, depending on a company's timely responses to online reviews and complaints. Prompt and professional response by a company promotes organizational change and attracts more qualified talents. Moreover, 45% of consumers buy from a company that responds to negative reviews.
• According to Learn Hub, "89% of consumers read replies to reviews." With 85% of consumers trusting online reviews, responding to positive reviews increases sales revenue and the likelihood that a customer buys from the business.

Introduction

Best Practices for Managing a Company’s Reputation on Indeed

[I] Politely and Quickly Responding to Negative Feedback

• With 77% of potential buyers 'always' reading company reviews in 2022, a company should friendly, honestly, and politely respond to negative reviews as soon as they are posted on Indeed. While company representatives should never ignore such feedback, they respond hastily.

 

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• Reputation Retail Consumer Report shows that 33% of "consumers who received a prompt response to a negative review subsequently posted a positive one." Max Bailey, customer marketing manager and a feedback specialist at Aircall, recommends the example below to help illustrate how this best practice should be done.

 

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• Mr. Bailey adds that responding to negative reviews goes beyond being 'sorry' as a company representative should corroborate what has been or is being done to solve the issues associated with the complaint. Responding quickly and thoughtfully demonstrates that the company cares about the concerns of its present and future employees and customers. Handling "100% of negative reviews" on Indeed promptly illustrates a company's ability to handle more serious workplace issues, thus, giving potential employees and customers confidence in the entity.
• According to a survey by SHRM, 76% of job seekers depend on company reviews to decide whether to send their job applications. Thus, promptly addressing negative feedback increases the chances of a company receiving applications from top qualified talents. Approximately 45% of consumers are likely to buy from a company that responds to negative reviews because this diminishes the damage brought by the negative review.

• Moreover, approaching negative comments with honesty and professionalism allows an organization to detect potential areas that require change, thus, promoting change. In the end, this allows a company to expand its reach and attract new leads.

[II] Never Ignore Positive Feedback

• According to Learn Hub, "89% of consumers read replies to reviews." Like negative feedback, a company should never ignore positive feedback. The company should comment by thanking the customer for taking the time to post the feedback and show the customers that they care by participating.
• Experts recommend that companies would maintain "at least 20% response of positive reviews." And because roughly 95% of buyers rely on product reviews to make purchase decisions, companies cannot afford to ignore positive feedback.
• By acknowledging the value of customers who leave positive feedback, a company keeps these buyers coming back, thus, keeping the "company actively engaged with customers [... while building] brand credibility and customer loyalty." It is also an opportunity to maximize the good by making it great.

 

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• With 85% of consumers trusting "online reviews as much as recommendations from a friend or family member," responding to positive reviews increases sales revenue. Thus, 5-star ratings should be taken seriously because "when a product gets five reviews, the likelihood of it being purchased increases by 270%."

Research Strategy

Introduction

Respond Quickly/Promptly

• It is important for businesses to respond to both positive and negative Google reviews quickly/promptly (if possible within a day).
• According to insights from the 2018 SOCi summit, about 40 percent of customers expect a response to their reviews within 24 hours.
• According to Localiq, responding to positive reviews in a timely manner shows that the business/company is paying attention. Additionally, responding to negative reviews in a timely manner shows that the business is proactive with customer service and also helps in giving it transparency.
• Responding promptly conveys that the business takes complaints seriously and is dedicated to resolving them. Another reason to reply quickly is to allow potential consumers to see "both sides of the story before they make a rash decision based on a negative review." 
• Customers who feel heard can become the company's biggest evangelists. Timely responses to negative reviews also enable businesses to "regain some control of the outcome."

Be Empathetic

• Experts believe it is important for businesses to be empathetic when responding to negative Google reviews. The response should demonstrate that the business understands the point of view of the customer.
• In the response, the customer's concerns should be addressed directly. The aim should be to defuse the issue by expressing sympathies for whatever offended them enough to submit a negative review.

• Being empathetic when responding to negative reviews, demonstrates the company's empathy for potential customers.
• According to an article by UneeQ, the more businesses connect with consumers " on an emotional, empathetic level, the better they’ll trust" the business in the long run.
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Research Strategy