We all know that online reviews strongly influence our buying behavior, with more and more UK consumers buying online every day stating that they are more likely to visit a business after reading a positive online reviews. That makes review websites such as Google Places, Facebook, yell and trip advisor online archive consumer opinions on how a business compares to similar shops and businesses.

Many small business owners don’t take the time to actively monitor and manage reviews, thinking their sole focus should be on day-to-day operations. Unfortunately, there are cases where negative reviews have crippled a business, or even led to its down fall. This means business owners at every level need to not only respond to negative reviews, but also promote the positive ones. Here are some tactics on how to deal with reviews.

1. Pay close attention to what your customer is saying

Monitor review websites by using Google Alerts, which is free. You could subscribe to a reputation management service to monitor all mentions of your company across the Web.. Some review websites will notify you via email when new reviews are posted.

2. Generate more reviews

Reviews often make business owners very nervous, however, happy customers generally won’t take the time to post a review unless you ask them to. Make it simple for your customers by signing up for an online service that automatically emails your customers to request they submit a review. This simple technique has proven to dramatically increase the number of good reviews you can generate.