Last Updated on August 14, 2024 by Allen
How to Respond to Negative Reviews
Negative reviews can drain you as a social media page manager or a business owner. Apart from running the logistics of a business, owners are now overwhelmed in responding to customer reviews and even go beyond as to please customers who leave negative reviews just to save the reputation of their business.
But one should be able to classify a realistic negative review versus a review that just wants to draw attention. Below are some tips for analyzing reviews and how to respond to customers who leave a negative footprint on your business page.
Keep Calm and Delay Replying to Negative Reviews
Calm your nerves and take a walk. Or do something else as you ponder on the negative review. Does the review contain too much emotion? Was it constructive and specific? It is very tempting to respond right away to a review that especially, does not prove true of the way you do business.
However, analyzing and gathering your thoughts and emotions together before replying will prevent you and the customer from more heated exchanges in the online community. Take some time to construct your thoughts. This would ensure that you have thought out your response and would sound more professional and friendlier in your reply.
Engage the Customer
A simple thank you to a satisfied customer with a positive review can go a long way. It shows that you are not just about making money but intend to be an engaging part of your local community by providing good services and/or products. When you receive a bad review, however, it helps to draw that customer into a conversation to understand and consider his or her thoughts better.
Some customers just want to draw attention to themselves, so it is better to converse with them privately to know where they are coming from. Engaging privately will allow the customer to be more honest with you. You would be able to judge if the customer was right in his/her complaints or not.
Private messaging will also prevent the online community from interfering and adding unnecessary comments that can ruin your business reputation. Don’t sound like an auto-bot though when conversing with your customers! Be friendly, positive… and patient!
Lighten the Mood Over Negative Reviews
This does not work all the time, but if humor is your talent take a go at it. Humor can break the ice of a review that is drawing too much negativity. Just make sure that your reply is in jest and is not bound to attack any person. In the end, assure your customer that you have noted their comment and will make sure to do better business the next time around.
Honesty is still the Best Policy
If the negative review was an honest mistake, then admit and apologize. Apologizing does not make your business image weak, but shows that your business values integrity and second chances. After apologizing, it would be good to offer a discount or a freebie to your customer. You can do this privately to prevent other customers from abusing the situation and claiming the same offer.
If all else fails….
Report them. Some customers just want to harm your business, and so they leave negative reviews. If you have done all a good human being should do, and they still rant you, then feel free to report them for harassment. Social media pages and apps now allow you to report people who would just like to harass you and leave a bad reputation for your business in the online community. It may take some time though before you get a response or an action from the moderators, but this is still a good avenue to report hate speech and the like.
It’s Not the End of the World!
Everybody gets a bad day… and a bad review. There is always a chance you will meet people that are hard to please especially when you do business. But life must go on, the same as your business. As Yelp says here:
“Critical reviews can be a mixed bag. Sometimes they are actually helpful, telling you something you didn’t know. It may be something you can fix that will help you provide better customer service.”
Take a negative review constructively, no matter how the reviewer might have wanted to harm you. A negative review, depending on how you handle it, can become an advantage for you. Respond wisely!
What to do to avoid bad reviews entirely
Review Dingo has a special feedback feature that helps prevent negative reviews. If the review is negative, it allows the customer to contact your business directly to remedy the issue instead of them leaving a harmful review online.
Replying online to a bad review? Be sure to read these 5 tips before you do!