We’ve all been there. You are enjoying a relaxing evening at home when you get a notification, you glance down and see IT. Panic and fear start to take over as your mind scrambles to comprehend what has just happened.
Yes. Emily H from Denver gave your company, your pride and joy, a one-star review. She followed it up with specific details about what went wrong with her order and how her questions were handled by staff.
t’s important to remember that each person leaving a review is a human being who is frustrated and angry. They want to direct their anger at someone and because of all the ways you can review companies, they can furiously write and send out their experience for the whole world to see.
How do you salvage your reputation after a negative review?
1. Take time to understand the issue and address it publicly
The best thing you can do is take time to read exactly what happened. If you have a team that takes care of these issues, speak with them about the review and see if they can provide additional information. Depending on the scale of your business, time is of the essence. Genuinely (no canned apologies, please) and specifically apologize and request that the customer speak/email you offline to resolve the issue. This way, other customers (or potential customers) can see that you are being proactive and offering genuine support to the person who is upset.
2. Take responsibility and focus on solutions
Regardless if the problem is user error or the fault of your entity, the disgruntled customer wants to hear from you that you are sorry for their negative experience. It is important that they feel heard and cared for as your valued customer. As difficult as it can be, shoulder the responsibility.
Focus next on solutions. How did this happen and is there anything your team can do to improve the customer experience? If applicable, offer discounts, free shipping or store credit to the customer affected. Small things like this can affect how the customer sees how you right a wrong and can lead to them changing their mind (and possibly their review)!
3. Ask your customers how you can improve
If you notice the same issue or types of issues come up, address them with your web designer or team. If you are unsure what part is confusing customers and leaving them with a bad experience, ask them for help. A word of warning, issuing a call for “helpful” feedback can be a wild west of ideas and changes that largely will not make sense nor address the problem. Be very specific about what kind of feedback you need or it may be appropriate to ask a select group of your customers (preferably from wide ranges of experience) and ask them what part of a specific process could improve.
This is the most difficult step but ultimately changing parts of your business that are confusing people about your website, app, or brick and mortar store, can pay off in customer satisfaction and five star reviews.
Please note that we are talking about the internet and there will always be one upset/angry/hurt person for every five happy ones. While you can’t please them all, your business can take proactive steps to insure their needs are met and they continue to do business with you.
Let’s lighten things up with some of the funniest reviews from the internet via The Best Social Media:
Author, Laura V. Boston
The C3 Group