Admit it…There have been many a sleepless nights where you have tossed and turned, mulling over some bad review that you have received on your business!
Do you ignore it? What would be the correct response? Is it even true?
Of course, all reviews good or bad deserve a response, if the person took their time out to express a belief about your business, again good or bad, then you should make the effort to respond.
But what if it just wasn’t true. Maybe the person was having a really bad day, and something about the color of your walls just sparked them off, causing them to spew forth a bucketful of diatribe!
But what if somewhere in their review, there was a modicum of truth?
You see, Not all bad reviews are truthful…but not all truthful reviews are bad.
No-one likes to admit that there may be a problem with their business, whether it is your employees, your product or even the color of your walls! At the end of the day, the reviewer felt strongly enough to write and tell you.
So we address the problem, after we have ascertained that there is something to be solved. Burying your head and re-hashing that old “Its the way we’ve always done it” Ain’t gonna cut it! but we’re only human and we’re always prone to making some mistakes. But it’s how we deal with our mistakes that really matters the most.
Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.
Bill Gates
Complaints from your customers are not meant to take down your business. At least don’t let yourself feel that way. Whatever it is, complaints should not be treated as something negative, in fact, in the UK, a recent study suggested that in 43% of cases, complaint management was the key factor in separating the top brands and businesses
When faced with a bad review;
- Always be open to discussing problems with your customers.
- Learn to listen and understand why your customers might be frustrated.
- Don’t get defensive.
- Apologize for your mistakes.
- Reflect on what could’ve been changed.
- Follow up with your team.
- Follow Up With Each Customer.
The point of having a business is to never stop learning and doing what you can do to maintain your success and improve it.
Every business and brand needs consumer feedback both positive and negative in order to make changes and keep those customer relationships strong. By listening to unhappy customers, brands may be able to identify flaws in services, or pinpoint innovations for product improvement. Your brand is something unique that describes only you and no one else.What you need to change is the quality and that is not the same as changing your brand.
Learn from unhappy customers. They may be giving your business the answers you’ve been looking for.