How do you react to bad customer reviews?

I’ve seen and heard many reactions to bad reviews,

• You ignore them and never read reviews
• You read them but don’t deal with them
• You believe that you can’t please everyone every time
• You respond and tell them they’re wrong
• You think it’s just someone trying to get a freebie
• You don’t care; most of your reviews are good
• You think some people are never satisfied
• You think some people love complaining

Every business gets negative reviews at some point, even successful ones.

Ignoring them doesn’t make business sense.

Ignoring customers’ complaints means losing them.

Treat a complaint or a bad review as a gift.

A gift, I hear you say?

Yes, because it gives you the opportunity to improve on your customer service
and provide a better customer experience.

So, how should you deal with a negative review?

1. First, you must read every single one of them
2. Respond with an apology
3. Thank them for taking the time to point the issue out
4. Assure the customer that you take their complaint seriously
5. If it’s a simple complaint, deal with it in your reply
6. If you need to investigate, tell them that you will get back to them once youhave looked into the matter (give them a time scale and keep to it)
7. Investigate the complaint thoroughly
8. Get back to the customer and give them your explanation
9. Ask them what resolution they would be happy with
10. Ask them if they are satisfied with the outcome

Above all, treat each complaint as genuine.

And if you tell them you’ll get back to them, DO.

Why should you do all this?

• It shows you care about the customer who wrote the bad review
• It shows other customers, reading the complaint, that you value them
• You will learn something from the complaint
• You can make changes to your systems and procedures, which will prevent the issue from reoccurring
• Unhappy customers will come back if you deal with their complaints satisfactorily

Don’t waste a chance to make a customer happy and improve your customer service.

Remember, customers writing a review are leaving the door open
so that businesses engaged with them and start a dialogue.

Treat your customers with respect and take their complaints seriously.

If you aren’t sure how to deal with bad reviews and complaints, drop me a line and I’ll give you some tips.