If you want to improve your company’s reputation and image, creating consistent positive interactions with potential customers and followers online is essential. The truth is that sometimes, no matter how hard you try to do this, results won’t always be positive. So if a customer isn’t happy with your services/products and then posts a negative review on your website or somewhere else on the internet, it’s going to be easily seen by other visitors.
If you let your emotions get the best of you, then you risk handling these negative reviews poorly and hurting your client’s trust and reputation even more. However, if you respond correctly, you will be able to mend relationships and attract a lot more customers. With that in mind, below, we’re going to focus on the five steps every business should take to handle negative comments or reviews properly.
Suppose you have a negative review or comment on your website, and you didn’t yet take the time to respond to it. In that case, this can show other visitors that you don’t care if the comment provides a very negative view of your business. Then replying to it much later than you should makes others think you agree with that review. While you don’t need to keep an eye on your website every hour, it is recommended that you try to answer negative comments within twenty-four hours.
Another issue to be aware of is that letting your emotions get the best of you and commenting as such is a big no-no. Always think very well before following up on a negative review or comment, since what you write will be seen by many people. As unimportant as it may sound to some, misspellings and grammar are very important, and you can bet that they’re going to stand out to those reading your comments.
By default, these will make you look less educated and knowledgeable. To put this more straightforwardly, if you don’t think about what you’re writing, your answer can send out a negative vibe that doesn’t honour your company. And if you do respond to the negative comments or reviews, but you provide no real answers, then everyone reading your comments will deem them useless.
You know, there are plenty of reasons why an individual may decide to leave a negative review on a review website, on your social media accounts or even on one of your videos. There are also people known as “trolls” in the internet community that leave negative feedback to attract attention or anger other users. In most cases, these individuals didn’t interact with the company. So when you see such comments, don’t mind them, since they have nothing to do with your products/services.
On the other hand, you should also keep in mind that there could be many people who are not happy with the way your company handled their requests or the quality of the services/products they got from you and even if they wanted to, they may have lacked the opportunity to post their negative experience with you online. When you find a negative review online from a client who felt insulted by how your company treated him, you should treat it with respect and speak to the concerns that influenced him to get in touch with you indirectly.
As strange as it may sound, negative reviews have the power to help you improve your business in many ways. For instance, if the reviews on your company’s website or those on review websites are all positive, this could make potential clients suspicious, thinking that the reviews aren’t genuine. At the same time, it does sound like a paradox; having negative reviews on your company’s website can help you build trust instead of reducing it.
In some cases, negative reviews can attract attention to an issue that you weren’t aware of, but one that can severely affect customer trust and satisfaction. So, while they may be delivered bluntly and sometimes with a lot of sarcasm, negative reviews are one of the best ways to become informed of the issues your business is struggling with so that you can take the appropriate steps to fix them.
Agreeing to compensate your customers in a small way, by offering them a partial refund or sending them a bottle of wine or a box of chocolates for the product they weren’t happy with, you can immediately remove their cause for complaint. Now, this can vary significantly from one situation to another. Still, in general, it’s going to prompt the unhappy comments to edit their original review or write a new one extolling you about the way you handled their problem. At the same time, they may also increase your star rating if the website they posted their review on has one such system in place.
The main reason you should share all the negative reviews you’ve received from your clients is that this way, you can inform your customer service representatives of the issues that people are mostly complaining about. By knowing what they’re doing wrong, your employees can change how they interact with clients to offer them better services. Not to mention the fact that sharing negative reviews with employees can also help create a client-centric mindset that will benefit your business a lot in the long run.
Regardless of how great of a job you’re doing as a company to satisfy your clients’ needs, there are always going to be negative comments and reviews from people who weren’t happy with their interaction with you. In this case, the key to winning their loyalty and turning them into long-term customers lies in how you handle their reviews and provide a solution.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Comment *
Name *
Email *
Website
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Post Comment
