They say that whatever you do, good or bad, people will always have something negative to say. This maybe a debatable statement but this is the worst thing that can happen to your business. The fact that you’ve put all your blood, sweat and tears in building your business just to be defamed by just one bad review from a customer. However, there are ways to minimize the damage if you’re savvy enough.
We know that receiving something like this might be a huge blow especially when you’re new and still trying to build your business, but don’t give in to those emotions easily. If you want to provide the best customer experience, you should take a step back, breathe and stay focused. Take this situation from every angle and assess everything with a grain of salt.
The first thing you should face is the validity of the review itself. There are times that competitors will fight dirty and can possibly stoop to a level of making fake reviews. This means you should cross-reference their review with your records and make sure that they were really a customer. After you’ve made sure they really were one, look at what they bought, the time of service and even the overall experience. When connecting with customers, take this as a learning experience and improve to prevent another bad review like that from happening again.
No matter how bad the review was really and foregoing the validity of it if it’s fake or not, don’t hesitate to respond to the problem. This means you should reply within the day of the bad review, keep the explanation and conversation brief, own up to the problem at that time and apologize no matter who was at fault. Also, offer to fix the problem or at the least compensate for the dissatisfaction, and follow up with possible promises. Listening to customers is important, and this shows that you care and are committed to a standard of customer service.
It may seem that you’ve been put back to square one and as if someone just hit the hard reset button your business, but this isn’t the end. You should pick up the pieces and start again by first identifying what the problem was. This may seem like a lot of work but it’s worth it in the end. This isn’t a road block but more of just a bump on the road. It’s a learning experience and a wakeup call where you can still improve. If you’re still getting more negative reviews, maybe it’s time to reassess the whole situation and making some bigger changes. All in all, never stop trying and keep pushing on and improving to provide the best service you can.