How to address bad reviews?
Should you care about what Google, Facebook, and Yelp have to say about you? Yes! Customers want to look for products and services that are top of the line.
Clients think that finding a provider with charisma, quality, and knowledge at the same time, with great social and communication skills is as hard as winning the lottery.
Online reviews represent a powerful tool that customers have to lower the risk of not liking their providers. In fact, 72% of clients use online reviews as the first step to knowing more about a company, and thus, choosing it among others.
As a company, you should also know this: it is not possible to please everyone. Aristotle once said:
“Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing”.
You should do your best with each one of your clients, but bad reviews will possibly be found. At Blooming our strategy focuses on potentiating your good reviews so the bad ones are not a majority. We appropriately handle good and bad reviews making sure that they are all addressed in a timely and professional manner. Your potential customers will notice it and their first impression of you will be a very positive one.
See what we have to offer to manage your online reputation.
These are our top 5 recommendations on how to address your bad reviews:
- Be smart about your answers. Think before you write. You want the bad feelings about you to fade away and get those potential customers to like you. And very importantly: Be careful about how you reply ALWAYS.
- Don’t get upset about a bad review. One bad comment is not the entire reflection of your good work. Don’t give emotional replies, it will only reinforce what your customer is thinking of you. Although you should reply fast, better if you calm down first or ask someone with great customer skills to reply to you.
- Don’t underestimate a bad review. Try to get to the bottom of the situation and let your clients know you care about what they think. Acknowledge, apologize, and change the wrong behavior or service if there was one. This will empathize with your current and future customers.
- Work on having more good than bad reviews. As you do this, bad reviews will fade away and your future clients will notice an overall satisfaction with your job.
- Never ask a customer to remove the bad review even after the problem was solved.
Remember: Difficulties are meant to arise, and do not get discouraged. Use a bad review as a learning experience and turn it into a chance to grow your business by showing your clients you are a trustable company willing to learn and improve along the way.