Questão 1986071

Text 5 to answer questions 16 to 19.

A bad review is forever: how to counter online campaigns
1 For the California restauranteur Andrew Gruel, poor online reviews demand rapid responses. One of his new Slapfish restaurants, serving 4 sustainable seafood, was hit this year with dozens of bad reviews that complained about its prices (too high) and portions (too small). 7 So Mr. Gruel pulled out all the stops. He sent emails to customers begging them to come back. And he rejiggered menu prices, increased portion size and even introduced 10 combo meal deals. Quickly, those one-star reviews shifted into five stars. “You can get buried by bad reviews,” said Mr. Gruel. 13 “So it’s a race to stop the bleeding.” Mr. Gruel’s extreme approach to bad reviews may sound like overkill. But studies show that consumers 16 overwhelmingly choose businesses based mainly on star ratings. Even a decline of one star, on a scale from one to five, can hurt revenue and send a business into a slide. 19 So tracking a business’s online reputation is a critical part of building a thriving company, experts said. “Star ratings persist forever,” said Daniel Lemin, 22 author of “ManipuRated: How Business Owners Can Fight Fraudulent Online Ratings and Reviews.” After problems are addressed and solved, he added, there’s a high chance 25 that disgruntled customers can become avid advocates. So small businesses have nothing to lose by engaging their critics, Mr. Lemin said. The recipe is simply apologizing 28 and asking for another chance. The criticism may hurt, he 29 adds, but the way a business responds matters. […]

Internet: < http://www.nytimes.com/2015/ 12/10/business/smallbusiness/small-business-counter-bad-reviews.html? &moduleDetail=section-news-5&action=click&contentCollection=Food ®ion=Footer&module=MoreInSection&version=WhatsNext&contentI D=WhatsNext&pgtype=article >. Access: 12 Nov. 2015, adapted.

According to the context and to your knowledge of English, the sentence “So it’s a race to stop the bleeding” (line 13) means