Negative Review Protection

How To Reply To Negative Online Reviews

 

Online reviews are a great help for both the customer and the owner of the business. Clients seeking service can check reviews and choose a company they can trust. The reviews also do a great job for owners of businesses as there is a rule — the more good reviews you have, the more new customers you get, so your business grows much faster.

 

On the other hand, the bad reviews can be really harmful. Unfortunately, you cannot make everyone happy, and no matter how hard you try — you will always get a few that could possibly make an impact on your business. That is why it’s important that you check yourself while dealing with bad reviews by following these simple steps.

 

• Make sure you respond to them and do so in a timely manner.
  
  

It is imperative to respond to each and every negative review as by doing so you reply not only to the clients who are already not satisfied with your services but to all the future potential clients. While checking the reviews the client who is in doubt would less likely be interested in your company if he sees that there is no one who deals with unfortunate situations. 

Also, it is extremely important to reply to the negative review as soon as you see it. That way you can assess the situation and provide the service recovery to the customer in a timely manner, hopefully getting them back onboard for future appointments. 

 

• Introduce yourself and thank the customer for taking time to leave a review.
  
  

Always remember to introduce yourself, and let the client know what your relation to the company is. It is always nice to know who you are addressing your issue with and who is going to take care of your needs.

Don’t forget to thank the customer for taking the time and addressing the issue. Remember, by doing so, he or she is helping you to improve your business.

 

• Use a personal approach.
  
  

People tend to trust personalized replies more. Make sure to use the customer's name and that you don’t copy and paste the same reply to each and every negative review. In this case, a template does a bad job, as for a customer it creates a feeling that they are talking to the computer, not a real person.

 

• Apologize and acknowledge the problem, showing empathy.
  
  

Sympathize with the problem your customer is facing. You may use the words “I am sorry that your experience with our company did not satisfy your needs” or “I understand how frustrating this situation must have been for you” etc. I bet you know and there’s no need to repeat that, but you should never try to argue with the customer or prove him/her wrong. The situation always has two sides of the story, and sometimes upset customers may just exaggerate. But if your client is already upset, who is right and who is wrong does not really matter anymore. You need to gain their trust again by smoothing the experience. 

 

• Take some time to investigate the situation and make necessary corrections if needed.
  
  

Bad customer feedback may be good for your business, as no one is perfect and there’s always room for improvement. Talk to your colleagues/employees to investigate what was the situation with the customer and figure out if you should implement some changes on your end to avoid negative feedback in the future. 

 

• If there was a misunderstanding, give the customer an honest and sufficient explanation.
  
  

Most negative reviews are caused by misunderstandings between the customer and technician, the customer and the company’s policies, etc. Try to give the customer as clear an explanation as possible, and remember that it should be done in an extremely polite way. 

 

• Reinforce the Company’s Standard Values and take the discussion offline if needed.
  
  

It is important to let the viewers know that the customer’s negative experience is an exception, not a norm in your company. Briefly mention what your standards for customer service are, and that you take any feedback as a course of action. 

Offer to contact them by telephone or email to discuss how you can help to resolve the issue. 

 

• Offer a solution, and ask if it would satisfy the customer.
  
  

Once the customer contacts you directly, again apologize for the experience they had and offer a discount or refund for the inconvenience. Don’t forget to then ask, if this solution would be satisfactory for the customer. 

 

We ensure that this simple advice will help you to gain customer satisfaction. However, we would also like to mention that it is always best to eliminate negative reviews on Yelp, Google, Facebook, and other websites as you don’t want the potential reviewers to have them as a first impression about your company. At Orcatec, we provide our customers with a great tool for your business — Negative Review Protection! If you like to learn more, please feel free to reach out!