While negative online reviews can be completely unsubstantiated, car wash owners must face a hard truth: the Internet never forgets.

Essentially, without a detailed strategy in place for dealing with negative reviews, a thumbs-down from a car wash customer — or a series of customers — can stay on the Web forever, and consequently, erode profits, forever.

Indeed, according to a BrightLocal (http://www.brightlocal.com) study, 88% of consumers surveyed said they read reviews to size-up a local business.

Moreover, 67% of those relying on surveys said they read up to six reviews to fully assess a business. “The significance of these stats is that it sets a benchmark for the number of positive reviews that they need,” says Myles Anderson, BrightLocal’s CEO. “With 85% of consumers reading 10 or less reviews then we need to ensure that we have at least 10 reviews to satisfy them, but more importantly that the most recent 10 reviews are all positive.

Of course, the easiest way to head-off a bad mouthing from customers is to solve the problem before it happens. Generally, consumers often contact a car wash with a grievance before resorting to a flaming rant online.

One of the easiest ways to put out an antennae for this kind of customer is to send an auto-generated email after each purchase or service, asking the customer how the car wash did, and volunteering to solve any misunderstandings or mishaps.

Solve the problem at this juncture, experts say, and you’ll be dealing with someone who does not yet feel they are past the point of resolution, and are not eyeing their keyboard with fantasies of vengeance.

Of course, even with this tactic, some bad reviews will still slip through — threatening

to permanently damage your online reputation. At this point, experts recommend the following best practices:

*Claim Free Accounts to Manage Your Reputation on the Review Services: Most of the major online review services, including Yelp (http://www.yelp.com), offer free accounts to businesses, which they can use to monitor positive and negative reviews that appear on the review services, and respond to reviews accordingly.

*Keep Cool: While it’s tempting to lambast a negative reviewer — especially if the review is unsubstantiated — resist the temptation and work to restore your reputation only after your emotions are in check.

“Give yourself a cooling down period,” says Luther Lowe, director of public policy at Yelp (www.yelp.com). “When someone is using a public forum like Yelp to attack something you’re pouring your heart and soul into, a very natural response is to get emotional. Don’t. The last thing you want to do is overreact to someone online.”

*Stay Completely Positive, If Possible: Generally, the best solution is a private, offline response to a consumer that offers a concrete solution to their complaint and essentially turns a negative customer into a positive one. And if you’re car wash is in the wrong, own it and make authentic amends.

“On Yelp, a business owner can respond privately or publicly,” Lowe says. “We recommend starting with a private, diplomatic response.”

Specifically, Lowe recommends using this script:

Introduce yourself. (“Hi, It’s Bruce, the owner of…”)

Thank them for the review. (“Thank you for sharing your feedback…”)

Apologize. (“I’m deeply sorry you didn’t have a 5-star experience…”)

Acknowledge their complaint, and explain what you’ve done to address the problem.

Don’t be too defensive. As tempting as it is to try to convince reviewers to see things from your vantage point, it’s easy to come off as dismissive of their accounts.

Invite them to return. (“We hope you’ll consider joining us again…Here’s my direct contact information if you do…”)

Adds a wry David Tucker, co-founder, RightNow Communications (http://www.netrafic.com/), a search engine optimization marketing firm: “Remember, it is vital to be professional and ingratiating.” Or put another way: embrace that time-tested mantra, ‘The customer is always right.’

Go Public If You Must: Unfortunately, there may be some complaints that are irresolvable via back channels, and you’ll have to go public with a response. Take care in these instances to come off as consummate professional who is truly looking to satisfy customers.

Says Kathleen Fealy, president, KF Multimedia & Web, (www.kfmultimedia.com), a Web design firm: “The office should respond to the review in a professional manner, acknowledging the issue and stating what they are doing to correct the situation.”

Adds Yelp’s Lowe: “You shouldn’t view the public comment feature as an opportunity to nitpick at slight inaccuracies within a review. Instead, it’s a chance to demonstrate to would-be customers that you’re on top of your customer service.”

Don’t Be Defensive: “Getting your side of the story out isn’t as important as demonstrating you can keep your cool when problems arise and that you care about customer feedback,” Lowe says.

*See The Value of Negative Reviews: Some car wash players, like Corky Matney, president, Green Island Car Wash and Detail, based in Austin, Texas, believe negative reviews add credibility to a business’ overall track record online. The reason: If people only see positive reviews, they many think the reviews are being laundered. “No one is perfect,” Matney says.

*Trust in Everyday Common Sense: While the Web’s Wild West nature often inspires over-the-top, negative reviews, many people can spot the unfair panning of a business. “Some negative reviews are just unreasonable,” and it shows, says Al Lam, president, Redwood City Car Wash, in Redwood City, California.

*Counter-Balance Negative Reviews With Your Own Online Reviews Domain: Given there will probably be instances when you’ll deal with a belligerent customer who cannot be pleased not matter what you do, the next best thing is to maintain your own, online reviews domain on your Web site.

There are a number of service providers with turn-key solutions that will enable you to do this, including Zuberance (http://www.zuberance.com).

*Secure Positive Reviews From Happy Customers: Sometimes, all it takes is a request from a pleased customer to see a glowing review pop-up on your Web site minutes later. “If you have a customer that is beside themselves with glee over your service, you need to take advantage of that,” says RightNow Communications’ Tucker.

“Ask them to write a brief testimonial and then place it in on a special testimonial page on your site. You can link this page to your Google Maps page quite easily. Look for the “Link to this Page” link that is found on the bottom right corner of your reviews page. Add the link to your testimonial page, and you’re done.”

*Solicit Reviews from the Keyboard-Challenged: *Customer Lobby (https://www.customerlobby.com/), an online reviews service provider, includes a service that calls your customers, solicits their feedback over the phone, and then transcribes the reviews to text for easy posting online. It also syndicates these reviews — as well as those it secures from people who know how to use keyboards — across the Web including Facebook, Twitter, Bing, Google and Yelp.