Why is it important for all businesses to know how to respond to a bad review? Well, bad reviews are inevitable. Regardless of how good your products and services are, your business is bound to get at least one bad review every now and then. Although one bad review compared with hundreds of positive ones isn’t such a big deal, any bad review must be addressed promptly and handled properly.
Responding to negative reviews shows that you care about your customers and your brand reputation. It shows that you’re actively taking steps so that other customers won’t have the same unfortunate experience. It shows that you respect your customers’ opinions and take the reviews as opportunities to improve your products and services.
Best Practices on Responding to Bad Reviews
When you receive a bad review, you must be able to react immediately and strategically. Here’s what you can do to respond to bad reviews.
Address customer concerns
Even if you think that you haven’t done anything that warrants the bad review, acknowledge the issue and sympathize with the emotions of your customer. Thanking the customer for bringing the issue to your attention assures them that their complaint was heard and will be dealt with appropriately. At this point, never ask them to remove the negative review as it could escalate things further.
Apologize and be accountable
A genuine apology prevents further tension and shows that you value your customers. It’s also best to include an explanation of what happened to clear up any misunderstandings. If you’re at fault, take responsibility for what happened and not just make excuses. This would also be a good opportunity to insert a bit of marketing spiel by explaining what regular patrons say about your business. Aside from this, offer actionable advice on how they can have a better experience with your business in the future.
Offer apt incentives
An effective way to convert an unsatisfied customer to a regular patron is by offering remedies in the form of freebies or other incentives. Giving out incentives that fit the situation encourages your customers to re-connect with you and become regular patrons. You can send tokens or gifts, a 15% discount on the next service, free consultations, or whatever you deem fit.
Resolve the issue beyond the review
Reach out to your dissatisfied customer by offering to resolve the issue personally. Go the extra mile by addressing their problems through email/phone or letting them know the best way to reach you. This shows how sincere you are in addressing their concerns.
Here are some examples of how you can respond to bad reviews:
· Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. We apologize for not meeting your expectations. We do set high standards for our services and have continually made efforts to ensure that our customers are satisfied. To make it up to you, we are offering 50% off on your next booking with us.
· Thank you for your feedback. We regret that you had an unfortunate experience. We’d like to go over this issue with you and see how best we can handle the situation. Kindly call us at this number or visit our office at your earliest convenience.
· Thank you for your review. I’m sorry to hear about your bad experience. Rest assured that I’ll take the necessary steps to resolve this matter. Kindly schedule an appointment or call me personally at any time most convenient for you.
Efficient Feedback Process Through Reviews911
To be able to respond to both bad and good reviews promptly, you need to have an efficient customer feedback process in place. Reviews911 has a user-friendly review management platform that has a simple 3-step process for customer reviews. It helps generate customer feedback, allows easy monitoring of reviews and responses, and enables you to respond quickly to all reviews and feedback.
Through Reviews911, you can create a custom landing page and funnel for processing reviews. You get notified every time a customer sends a review, and you can then respond to it in an intuitive dashboard. Another important feature of the Reviews911 management platform is the capability to filter reviews that are posted on websites or on the customer feedback feature of your own site.
Settings can be adjusted so that customers who click 4-star ratings or above can choose the platform–such as Google or Yelp–where they would like their review to be posted. Those who click below 4 stars are coursed through a customer feedback page instead. Here, they can freely state why they were dissatisfied with your product or service without the feedback getting posted on your reviews page. This allows you to respond to bad reviews promptly while avoiding low overall ratings on public pages.
Turning Bad Reviews into Good Avenues
Responding to negative reviews helps maintain your integrity and boosts customer loyalty. Instead of ignoring them, use them as avenues to develop relationships with your customers, improve your products and services, and enhance your reputation as a reliable business.
