Nobody likes to get negative feedback BUT it does have benefits

Some negative feedback is normal. Stuff happens, mistakes are made the question is will the customer tell you? If they do it gives you a chance to fix it or will they go public with their scathing review on Google, Facebook, Yelp and more where it is too late to do anything about it. Or is it too late?

Reminder: Private Feedback comes to you directly. A Public Review is what a customer posts on Google, Facebook, Yelp etc.

Every negative feedback or review is a chance to improve your business and win back a customer. Is that a different spin on it?

Consider that from a negative review you may discover a problem in your system, with an employee or defective product. To be a great business you need to be informed of these problems, and fast.

Many customers say nothing but will not return and that hurts your business. Some customers will go public with their complaint without notifying the business, that’s a problem but it can be addressed in a way that makes your business look great.

The ideal is a customer who gives negative feedback directly to your business so you can deal with them directly and immediately to either correct the situation or at least smooth things over. If you do a good job of that your customer respects you even more and if they do leave a public review it will be a better one than before.

What can you do about a negative review online (Google, Facebook, Yelp etc.)?

There are things you can do but you first must know about the review, that is where monitoring public review sites is important. We offer a monitoring service that notifies you of every online review immediately so you can praise your staff or follow up with the unhappy customer.

That’s right, the best strategy is to be proactive and contact the unhappy customer directly to discuss the problem first hand and offline (no email and not just a review response). Communicating electronically is stilted and limited. Having a conversation is a much better way of sorting things out, much more personal and usually is appreciated by the unhappy customer.

If the call goes well sometimes people will edit their review and even increases the star rating. After the call is when you should consider responding on the public review site directly with your concern and context for the complaint. We offer a system to make it easy to track and reply to all online reviews. When people read a negative review online but see a caring and complete reply from the business it makes you look great.

Everyone has bad reviews the question is how do you handle them? In a way that makes you look good or not?

Remember, some negative reviews are to be expected – it comes down to do you know about them and how you handle them. All the best and be awesome.

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