It doesn’t matter whether you sell a product or provide a service, in the digital age we live in customer reviews play a vital role in decision making. With so much online exposure available at their fingertips customers share their opinions about your brand at the click of the button.

But is the holy grail a 5 star review? While customer reviews play an integral role in decision making, there’s a cynic in all of us who questions perfect write-ups. Nothing is perfect, and as a business negative reviews should be expected and never hidden.

A recent report from Power Reviews analysed data across 40 products categories and revealed that buyers were most influenced by average star reviews. In a reflection of this, commercial giants Amazon recently filed a lawsuit against more than 1,000 sellers for fake reviews.

The simple truth is, by neglecting or hiding negative reviews you put your authenticity under scrutiny. By allowing a good mixture of both good and bad reviews, you’re demonstrating honesty around your brand that builds trust that cannot be bought.

Fake, filtered or augmented reviews show your business in a bad light, and begin to tarnish a reputation you’ve spent so much time and money building up. Nobody truly wants a bad review, for many businesses it can feel like a personal attack, but by ignoring the situation you only set yourself up for failure.

A complaint in essence is a gift as it offers you invaluable feedback about your business that would have otherwise not been noticed by yourself or your team. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes for a moment and think about what you would have done?

When you take the time to gain a real understanding of the problem you can find an effective solution that not only satisfies your customer, but improves your product or service. Because if you think for one minute that your business is perfect than you perhaps ought to rethink what you’re doing!

By responding effectively, you may only deal with that complaint once, and it will show future customers the issue has been resolved.

The Power Reviews report detailed that 82% of consumers specifically seek negative feedback to gain a better understanding of the business, therefore maximizing the value of your bad reviews can in fact drive purchases.

It may be a hard pill to swallow but it makes good business sense to encourage reviews, and open up the conversation between your business and your customers. 5 Star reviews don’t equate to sales, so why bother striving for them in the first place?

Breeding an honest relationship with your customers will generate repeat business, and improving customer retention increases profits by 25%.

As this infographic demonstrates, complaints are just one of the many hurdles on the path to customer retention:

If you can turn your biggest critic into your biggest fan you’ve not only developed a strong and loyal customer, you’ve created a brand ambassador who will spread the news of your business.

If you’re currently giving yourself a pat on the back for never receiving a complaint or bad review, then unfortunately it’s worst news for you.

Zero complaints doesn’t mean that your business is perfect, it demonstrates that your business is lacking in customer communication.

From delays in response times to nobody picking up the phone, the damage of slow reactions to any kind of complaint can push that customer away from your business forever and straight into the hands of your competitor. After all, if you can’t be bothered to listen to them why should they bother wasting their time telling you their problem when it’s you who’s inconvenienced them in the first place?

If they stop talking to you it’s time to worry that they’ve given up on your business.

Glowing reviews or not, as a business your customers give you the opportunity to learn about what they want, and what they’re willing to spend their money on. If you don’t know how to improve your product or service, how can your business grow?

As long as you’re in business you should always have those who complain, it is part and parcel of doing business. While many businesses rave about their customer service the proof is in the pudding, and the true sign of your greatness will be ensuring that they react to complaints successfully.

Have the confidence to let your team publicly handle bad reviews so future customers can see that they’ve not been neglected and will feel encouraged to come forward if they too stumble on any issues.

Ignore the marketing fluff of 5 star reviews and let your complaints do the talking.

Jade Winters is marketing manager at DMC Software