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What Are Ripoff Reports, And How Do They Affect You?

What Are Ripoff Reports, And How Do They Affect You?

How a company is perceived online has a major effect on its business. Online reviews are crucial to making or breaking a business based on building customer loyalty and support. Websites like Ripoff Reports can have this effect, but what exactly do they do that can be harmful to companies and businesses without lifting a finger?

This article will discuss what these websites do and how they can either help or harm businesses. Additionally, we’ll go over what BRANDefenders can do to minimize the damage done to a business’s online reputation.

Ripoff Reports

Ripoff Reports allows consumers to leave records of their experiences at different businesses. It can range from positive, celebratory praise to condemning claims of negligence. When it comes to Ripoff Reports, you can expect mostly negative reviews.

It’s important to understand why these pages are so well-received by consumers. In doing so, companies can learn what consumers are looking for and plan accordingly. This crucial feedback allows businesses to make a positive change, strengthening their relationship with consumers.

Free From Censorship

Consumers want to know that their words are valued. When a consumer posts a review, the last thing they want to worry about is the company silencing their voice or changing their words around to frame their critique in a more positive light. Consumers like Ripoff Reports because it enables them to utilize their free speech to say what needs to be said.

However, freedom from online censorship can easily be abused by angry customers and ex-employees. There are plenty of genuine reviews available for other consumers to read, but there is little differentiation between false claims and accurate accounts for online reviews.

Google Rankings

google home page on a tablet

These review sites score high on Google rankings, meaning consumers can easily view the previous feedback customers left. The algorithm will pick up newer results to show consumers who search for your business. Keywords used in these Ripoff Reports will generate more traffic, meaning that your business may pop up in an unrelated search. That information will make its way to potential customers.

These articles will appear on the first page of Google if their rankings are high enough, which is where many consumers look for results. The further back the content is, the less likely it is to be read.

Building an Online Reputation

Reviews can make or break a business online. Sites like Ripoff Reports are designed to allow consumers to expose the shortcomings of businesses and reveal the terrible experiences they have without fear of retribution. However, this means that their unfiltered words can affect your company’s reputation .

When trying to establish an online presence, managing reviews is crucial. 

How Posts Are Made

Now that we’ve discussed what Ripoff Reports are, it’s important to know how they work. The reason is that once you learn how it works, you can see how it affects your business and understand what steps were taken to leave such reviews. In learning this, you get one step closer to meeting consumers in the middle and securing loyalty with them and your brand.

Users Create Profiles

Anyone can make an account to write a review. It’s a simple process that takes only a few minutes to complete. Often, all the needed information is a name and an email address to get started. 

While additional steps can be taken to customize a profile to make a user more recognizable, this is an optional step and is not required to begin posting.

Users Write “Honest” Reviews

Once the account is made, the consumer can search the database for places they love and places they hate, leaving reviews left and right as they please. By filing a report, users must leave “honest” reviews of their experiences. However, there are no regulations in place to ensure that the reviewer visited the establishment or paid for any services.

While exaggerating the truth and lying can be considered online defamation, there are no systems that fact-check or verify user reviews.

Better Business Bureau Status

Due to the lack of fact-checking, the Better Business Bureau has given Ripoff Reports a failed rating. While not always the most reliable source for business verification, it serves as a way for consumers to check the quality of a company.

Despite the low rating on the BBB website, Ripoff Reports are still potentially hazardous to your business. While the credibility of the reviews may come into question, they can still be viewed by thousands of people due to the search engine results. So what does this mean for your brand?

Bettering Your Brand

We’ve discussed what Ripoff Reports are and how they work, but what do they mean for your business? Reviews are generally meant to be a good thing, but the intent is to vent when it comes to this site. Knowing this, it’s important to operate carefully to ensure no further damage is done.

BRANDefenders will be there to help you navigate through the negativity to salvage your company’s reputation. While poor experiences pose a threat, it doesn’t mean that the situation can’t be dealt with so that both parties come out satisfied.

Negative Reviews Break Brands

An image of a pane of glass that has been shatteredA single review can drive customers away from your company. When consumers see negative reviews, especially in numbers, they tend to look elsewhere to do their business rather than risk getting burned. Additionally, people treat reviews like recommendations from friends and family, so one poor experience can send them running.

If you want to generate traffic and see an increase in your business’s growth, you’ll need to handle these negative reviews with class. BRANDefenders can help alleviate some of the burdens of negative press by turning terrible experiences into learning opportunities.  

Opportunities To Build Loyalty

Every negative review left for your business can be spun into an opportunity to show your willingness to meet customer needs. A poor experience can be met with quality customer service. Offering a refund or a discount can appease some customers, as can seeking to make the situation right for the customer.

BRANDefenders employs a team of skilled specialists to seek these opportunities and salvage your company’s reputation before it crumbles. Your company can save face and earn respect by displaying a genuine desire to do right by the consumer. 

Removing Reports

For every negative review that makes the first page of Google’s search page, your business risks losing revenue and loyalty. While you can’t go after Ripoff Reports as a whole, you can pursue the individual users for defamation if you find false claims about your business. 

However, these methods can be difficult and ineffective. Consumers may become even more frustrated if they notice your business taking down negative reviews. Here are a few ways BRANDefenders can help you manage your online reputation when faced with negative reviews and false claims. 

Damage Control

When multiple negative reviews pop up on the first page of Google, your business is in trouble. Those are the first things people will see about your company and, therefore, will make their initial judgment within seconds. The following steps are crucial to ensure the situation doesn’t spiral out of control.

Bad PR can follow a brand for years, causing mass public backlash and serious setbacks for the company. BRANDefenders can bury these reviews so they don’t harm your company image. The negative feedback will disappear, but will still be available to avoid enraging consumers. This method is preventative, so your company’s reputation is not further affected.

Producing Quality Content

Another way to remove the reports’ damage is to create quality content beyond filler content. Creating new content that will suppress the negative reviews means understanding how to get higher rankings on Google. The more high-quality content produced, the further back the reviews will be pushed.

It takes a team of professionals to remove unfavorable reviews from the first page of Google results, and plenty of content is constantly produced to bump results off. Companies like BRANDefenders can help with this, supplying services that remove unwanted attention from the front page. While the article won’t be gone, it’s unlikely to be often seen afterward.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, your company’s reputation is in the hands of the reviewers. They have the power to make or break your business, and some of them are only keen to leave negative reviews. Services like those offered by BRANDefenders, can eliminate the problem so that your business can thrive.

If you’re tired of letting Ripoff Reports damage your company’s reputation, know that you’re not alone. You can take action to secure your business’s reputation without bringing more harm upon yourself through BRANDefenders.
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