Introduction

“I don’t know what to do about our online reviews!”

You live in a time when online reviews are prominent and powerful, and you may have even written a few reviews yourself, but if you’re like many business stakeholders, you’re confused or overwhelmed by online reviews. Some businesses prefer to hide their heads in the sand, and others take an uneducated stab at dealing with reviews and find themselves facing negative consequences.

One friend of ours, a restaurant owner, told us that he used to read his reviews every night, feeling thrilled at the positive ones and furious at the negative ones. He never shared negative feedback with his head chef—“That would only upset her!”—but he did post angry anonymous responses and eventually ...

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