Nobody likes to get a negative review for their business. Negative reviews are the outcome of either poor customer experience or poor products. This also can happen due to poor communication between you and the buyer. As a business owner, when you see a bad review about your business, your first reaction might be to take the reviewer’s comment and low-star rating as a personal insult.

No matter if you provide great products or services, a poor reputation can harm your sales and business in a big way. That’s why it’s so important to learn how to respond to negative reviews. In this article, we will look at how to deal with negative reviews and save your business from a bad reputation.

Why reviews are important?

Businesses need to have a good reputation. Reviews have a great impact on brand perception and influence buyer’s decisions.  This study shows the growing consumer dependence on ratings and reviews for deciding their product and brand. This is where your approach to managing negative reviews plays an important role in building online reputation.

You should always expect negative reviews from those who are not satisfied with your services or products. But handling those negative reviews is important. By talking personally to understand the issues and finding solutions, the majority will turn to your loyal customers. This is where your approach is crucial in managing negative reviews.

What you shouldn’t do with negative reviews

Ignoring negative reviews: Never ignore negative reviews, this is the worst thing that you can do. Ignoring negative reviews shows that you don’t care about them. 

Defending your side: Never try to argue or defend your side. Defending will not win the heart, it can make the situation more worst. 

Blatantly deny things: Most time, the customers may write negative reviews out of the frustration that they come across when they do business with you. Never try to deny the facts and give an impression that you are not going to correct yourself in the future.  

Take it as an opportunity to improve 

As a marketer, you can also use these negative reviews as a valuable tool to gather more insights about your product or services. Every business will have ups and downs, it’s normal. But when something goes wrong, if you don’t take proper steps to mitigate the mistakes in the future, it can go fatal.

Try to speak to the customer and understand what went wrong and what best you can do to make them satisfied. This will make them happier and sometimes leave good feedback. Feedback is essential for improving your business. Not everyone is perfect, so treat negative reviews as an opportunity to make it better in the future.

Respond Promptly

Promptly responding to negative reviews shows the customer that you care and value their opinion. Don’t think that getting a negative review is the end of the world. Without taking them personally respond to them promptly and professionally and you’ll turn the whole thing in your favor.   

When customers see that you respond to their concerns and issues, they are more likely to stick with you. Respond to them in public, so that everyone can see your professional approach in handling unhappy customers. Try to keep an eye on your reviews all around, if you fail to respond promptly it’s as good as not responding.  

Be polite and professional

Always be polite and professional in your communication with customers who left negative reviews. Don’t take it personally, try to start a conversation with them and listen to them. Accept the mistake and make them confident about fixing the issues that they faced. 

Thank them for their sincere feedback, they had allowed you to resolve the issue. Be honest and share your understanding of what happened with them. Focus on your reputation and keep a positive and transparent attitude while dealing with negative feedback.

Understand the issue

One of the key things in handling negative feedback is to listen to your unhappy customers and understand the issue. You can’t fix the issue unless you had understood it in detail. Identifying the root cause analysis and taking actions to fix will create huge respect and reputation among your customers.

Once you respond to them in public, you can always ask them to join a private conversation in a chat or email. This will make the conversation more personal and helps in understanding it better. It’s always better to take them in private talks to take their confidence and feel that they are taken care of.  

Fix the things and notify 

A negative review is an opportunity to improve your business and customer experience. Once you understand the issues behind negative feedback, try to fix it. Talk to your customer about the actions you took to avoid such issues in the future and thank them for their valuable feedback for improving your business.

Most time, you cannot attend to all the reviews and fix them. Empower your employees to fix the issues and add customer happiness to their Key Result Area. When you start fixing issues and notifying the user who left negative feedback, things will turn positive, and sometimes they will be back to become your loyal customer. 

Conclusion

Reviews are a great way to build a reputation. Negative reviews are equally bad to bring down your reputation. But if you can proactively manage negative reviews by responding to them and fixing the issues, it will bring a huge positive impact on your customer experience. And this will further help to strengthen your brand name.