How to Handle Bad Online Reviews
Over time, all of us have dealt with customers who, for one reason or the other, were unhappy at the end of our transaction. Maybe they weren’t a great fit in the first place, or maybe something went wrong that was out of your control. Of course, sometimes we make mistakes - we’re all human, after all! - and the experience was objectively negative for everyone involved.
It’s not a great feeling when that happens, and it’s even worse when those particular customers decide to add a negative online review to your Google or Yelp profile. The bad news is that it’s there forever (unless the review is truly spam), and future potential customers will be able to see exactly what went wrong, whether true or not.
Fortunately, the way you handle online reviews - even bad ones - can actually benefit your business and your public image. So how do you handle bad online reviews? Here are a few important tips:
Do not delete or mark them as spam. Unless the review is truly a spam comment (and yes, those do happen), it will actually hurt you to mark a simple negative rating as spam. Google does their research, and they will almost always figure out that the comment is legitimate.
Respond to every comment. Yes, even the bad ones. This signals to future customers that you’re listening, that you care, and that you see when something goes wrong inside of your business, even if the fault doesn’t lie with you on any single occasion.
Don’t get defensive. This is hard, especially when your personal feelings are wrapped up in the business or that particular scenario. From an outside perspective, though, nobody wants to deal with an angry business owner, even if that anger is justified. If you made a mistake, own it and sincerely apologize. If there truly was nothing you could have done better, express regret that this person had a bad experience and assure him/her (and everyone reading it!) that you are doing everything you can to improve the interaction.
Ask for positive reviews from your best customers. I won’t go into too much detail since I wrote about this here, but the best antidote for a bad review is a whole lot of good ones that show the 1-star rating as an anomaly rather than the norm.
Move on. It’s hard to forget when someone makes a negative comment about you, your business, or all of the above. At the end of the day, though, this is just one person’s opinion, and if you are learning from any mistakes you made and doing the best you can, soon this will all be a memory.
I truly hope you never have to deal with negative online reviews, but use this framework if you ever do to make lemonade out of lemons and improve your overall reputation. Your business might just depend on it.
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