Improve your online reviews. Seriously. That’s a directive, not a topic of conversation.
Google your business name and variations of it. What you see is likely what others see. Save the platform specific areas like Yelp, Healthgrades, etc. until you solve this first.
What shows in the top search results should be your TOP priority.
Now that you are aware of them, what should you do?
First, take the comments shared to heart. Ye,s it might hurt your ego, and yes it might be mostly untrue. But, something made that person write that horrible thing, so you failed somewhere along the way with your process. Maybe it’s even ‘how to handle an angry client’ or ‘how to best break up with a customer that’s not a good fit’. So fix anything you can. You know, companies used to spend thousands collecting this valuable research data!
Second, gently encourage your current fans, customers, etc. to post positive reviews if they’ve had a good experience. Many platforms openly frown on aggressive encouragement in this area so be cautious of how you go about this. There are also several tools out there to assist with this if you have the budget. I do think a human resource for this can be quite powerful as a first step.
Third, keep an eye on things. Set up google alerts at the very least so you can see if anyone mentions your name, company name, etc.
I’d love to hear about successes and failures in this area. Every industry has its niche of review platforms, but the core ones like Google, Facebook, etc. should be paid attention to by all.