5 Steps to Dealing with Negative Reviews
Managing your company’s online reputation in the Information Age has become a process that is as delicate as it is complex. A positive review is a single brick in the continuous process of building your business, but a negative review can raze your hard work to the ground in a single blow.
The modern marketplace is filled with fickle customers presented with an abundance of competing options. Even when you can be sure the negative experience of an unhappy customer was an isolated incident, potential customers with a limited perspective will only see that review as emblematic of a typical experience with your company.
Dealing with negative reviews is an essential part of managing your reputation and strengthening your online presence. Fortunately, the process for doing so can be clearly outlined out in five simple steps.
Listen to the Reviewers
The Internet offers no shortage of outlets for people to express themselves, and a myriad of sites amass candid reviews of businesses of all sorts. Depending on the type of product or service you provide, you’ll need to pick the sites your team monitors.
Anyone who takes the time to leave a review, be it positive or negative, should be seen as a valuable resource. There was a time when companies had to actively solicit feedback in order to determine what was working and what wasn’t. Now, that feedback comes to you. Listening to your reviewers can offer valuable insights into your company from the people that matter the most.
Get All the Facts
Unlike other marketing mediums, the Internet offers an unprecedented opportunity to engage with not just potential customers, but past ones as well. Take advantage of this fact to do some investigating into the causes of the negative review.
When people are disappointed or angry with the interaction they’ve had with your company, they tend to fall back on superlatives. “That was the WORST experience I’ve ever had!” Your task now is to look past this person’s original, visceral reaction, and dig more deeply for the facts by asking some important questions, like:
1. Who did the customer deal with, and what did he buy?
2. Was this a case where the customer’s expectations didn’t match what you offer?
3. Did you sell a defective product?
Reach out to the reviewer and be apologetic while making it clear that you are very interested in correcting the problem. Don’t get defensive. Allow him to explain the situation again; he has probably had a chance to reflect on the experience and can offer a more articulate explanation than his initial review.
Find a Desired End Point
You’ve established what the problem was, now it’s time to rectify it. The unhappy customer may not have considered what, if anything, would remedy the situation, so it will be important to engage him and offer some possible solutions. The nature of the problem will help guide this conversation.
Was it a faulty product? A bad customer service interaction? A miscommunication in the order? Whatever the issue was, offer some options that directly address the crux of the complaint and let him express his desired end point.
Maybe it’s a replacement, a refund, or just an apology. Short of an unreasonable demand, you should be willing to find an end point that’s fair. This isn’t a take-it-or-leave-it scenario, but rather a conversation about what will make him happy. Proposing the solution should sound like exactly that: a proposal. If your offer isn’t accepted, continue working to find another.
Take the Solution a Step Further
You and the customer have established the solution that would make up for the original, negative experience. But you aren’t looking to break even, begrudgingly responding to a negative review for fear of its impact on your business. You’re looking to prove to him that this was an anomaly, and that you truly care about your customers.
After you’ve fulfilled that desired resolution, take it a step further. This additional good deed can take several forms, from a free voucher for your service to a handwritten note. The customer will recognize that you could have called the case closed with the originally agreed upon resolution, but that you are genuinely interested in making him happy. In a world of increasingly automated transactions and canned responses, a personal touch can show customers that they aren’t a line on a spreadsheet.
Engage with a Follow Up
So far, you’ve listened objectively to the complaint, assessed the circumstances of the customer’s interaction with your company, agreed on a proper resolution, and gone one step further. Now, it’s time to reconnect with the customer and gauge how effective the solution was. Make it clear that this issue has remained on your radar, and will continue to until you have confirmed that the customer is happy.
Your follow up should reinforce that you are not pleased with how your company performed and that the underlying issue has been addressed. After all, what good is an apology without making it clear that it won’t happen again?
Express your regret that you let him down, review the resolution, and ask if there is anything else that would help make the situation right. Explain that the negative experience with your company is not typical, and that while you let him down this time, it certainly won’t happen again.
A simple reality that all businesses must face is that you will never please every customer. Whether the negative reviews stem from something you can control (like a faulty product) or something you can’t (someone’s personal taste), it can be tempting to write off the reviewer as wrong. But engaging such a reviewer with humility and determination isn’t just about mitigating the adverse effects on your reputation - it’s about proving that you’re the kind of company that is proactive, considerate, and attentive. Those are the traits that don’t just negate bad reviews, but reverse them.
Article by Scott Setzman, Web Marketing Specialist. For more information about FocusMX, contact Deb Rosica, Marketing & Web Specialist, 215.489.5460, x.355 or deb@focusmx.com.