Overview
Every company is bound to get a negative review at some point, but how you react to the situation makes all the difference. By managing public relations with an effective and timely response to any negative review, your company gains a chance to prove that it stands behind its products and service.
All in all, trying to prevent bad reviews from ever being posted just isn’t worth the effort.
Respond quickly to address the customer’s issue
There are many instances with online reviews where a negative review becomes positive when the business shows earnest interest in resolving a customer’s problem. So, it’s important to have you customer service be a crucial par of you businesses strategy.
You’ll want to use it, again and again.
When customers run into trouble and express their dissatisfaction, businesses need to respond quickly. In face-to-face contact or via real-time messages, offer the customer a solution.
When customers have issues with their purchases, the best way to handle them is by doing everything possible to make the customer happy. That includes fast and accurate responses to messages, going out of your way to fix any small mistakes or problems that happen, and issuing any refunds or part replacements as quickly as possible. Things like that can help people imagine a brand’s customer service in future cases — bridging the gap between being a company focused on products and being one that cares about people.
Not everyone is going to have the same expectations
Most of the time, the majority of negative reviews aren’t out to attack you personally. It’s essential to remember that people who leave a review are providing feedback — not just attacking the brand or product itself. Negative reviews can be used constructively to improve and provide an even better customer experience!
Is the statement materially untrue?
TrustSpot only sends out review requests to confirmed purchasers, which significantly reduces the chance of an untruthful response. Thankfully, if you can prove that the comment is factually incorrect, flag the review to request an un-publish within TrustSpot. Consequently, this gives you the opportunity to keep all reviews as factual and accurate for future customers.
Also, do not misstep if the customer makes personal attacks, uses profanity, or is providing non-constructive feedback. Be thoughtful of your online presence.
Is your business offering the right product or solution to their problem?
Eventually you’ll receive a terrible review. It’s bound to happen. But, instead of letting it be detrimental, use it to your advantage. Look closely at what issues the customer has with your product or service and work to help them solve the problem — don’t try to point fingers or invalidate their grievances (after all, everyone loses when that happens).
“People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole. You don’t buy a drill for the drill, you buy it for the hole it drills.” Harvard Business School professor Theodore Levitt said this and it’s a great example of providing a solution to your customer’s needs, not just a product or service.
Maybe there are things you should change in your business
The main reason for conducting customer reviews is to make you aware of problems that customers are having. When a customer leaves a negative review, there’s a good possibility that others had the same experience. That said, you may not be aware of those other experiences. Value this feedback and analyse their concerns.
Feedback is extremely important to keeping any business on track and focused. Did your customers have trouble with the checkout process? Not find the exact product they wanted and had to settle on the next best thing? All of these points are valuable feedback to the you as the business. At TrustSpot, we want to help capture this feedback easily based on the review star level. Collect more feedback from negative reviews with TrustSpot’s automated Experience Survey feature.
While resolving all of a customer’s problems might not be possible, an understanding of a customer’s experience and talking with them can set you up for many future success.
Create a strategy for preventing negative experiences
Here’s a good strategy, take time to regularly assess your service and see how customer relationships and social proof improve. The question is, what can you do to better serve the group of people who are going to buy from your company?
Better yet, how can you go beyond the call of duty to serve your customer so they refer you to others? The longer you wait to address the feedback, the more customers will drift away — and possibly lose trust in your brand.
How TrustSpot can help
One of the most important features we have for helping to resolve customer issues is our “Respond to Reviews” feature. This allows you to send a publicly facing message to the customer to try and resolve their issue. The customer can click a link and change their review when receiving your reply via email to update their star rating and text review.
For more information on TrustSpot features, visit our solutions page here.
