Negative reviews and feedback are an inevitable part of being a business owner. No matter how hard you work or how awesome your product is, you can’t please everyone.
At the same time, reviews are a key metric customers use when choosing where to spend their money. In fact, a Podium survey found that 93% of consumers report factoring in online reviews when making a purchase decision. According to research from BrightLocal, 80 per cent of American consumers say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations in some circumstances.
People are more likely to believe a personal recommendation than an advertiser’s promotional statements. Positive statements are genuine gifts as recommendations made by people customers know carry an enormous weight. It also means that negative comments can cut right through your advertising.
This makes it extremely important for companies to learn how to respond to negative reviews.
It’s tempting to avoid negative reviews and feedback. If someone comes to your store, you won’t avoid them. But many businesses do that online. Doing it online is even worse than doing it offline. In your shop, few people might see the incident. But online, thousands of people will see it. Not responding is a response. A response that says ‘I don’t care about you.’”
Too many businesses focus too much on finding new customers, with comparatively little attention paid to keeping the customers they’ve already paid to get. If you fix their problem with emotional intelligence, you’ll be able to make them come back and sing your praise.
According to the latest National Customer Rage Study, companies are losing more customers than keeping them once they complain because of ineffective customer care.
Most business owners think they know how to handle negative feedback. They’ve been doing it all their life. They just have to fix the problem. But how you handle your customers’ complaints is as important as solving their problems.
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Why You Should Be Grateful for Negative Reviews
If customers have a bad experience, most of them leave without telling you. Ninety-six per cent of unhappy customers don’t complain, with 91 per cent simply leaving and never returning. They just switch to another company, another product. But if they complain, or write a negative review, they are still communicating with you. This means you still have a chance to fix and continue your commercial relationship.
Negative feedbacks also give you a way to gain information that could help you improve your business. Complaints brought directly to businesses are the most efficient and least costly way of getting information and understanding what doesn’t work and what can be improved. If you fix the problem, you’ll eliminate complaints from the next batch of customers.
You may think you can get the same info from focus groups. However in focus groups, most of the questions that are asked are what marketing experts consider important. It won’t bring customers closer to you in the same way a complaint-handling exchange can accomplish. Further, it’s not always possible for medium-sized and small companies to do market research or hold focus groups.
There is another benefit to negative feedback. In today’s world, everything can be copied. The products or services that you sell, your price, your website functionality, and your marketing strategy. Since so many businesses have mediocre customer service, this can be one way you can differentiate yourself from your competitors.
How to Respond to Complaints and Negative Reviews
Respond to All Negative Feedback, Quickly
There are many social media listening software that can help you find public, online references of your company and product. If you come across any negative reviews or complaints, respond to them quickly. If possible, try to do it within 24 hours.
Many businesses have a policy where they only respond in their preferred channel. But you must interact with customers in the venues they prefer. This is a great way to show respect for customers’ preferences. We also mentioned this in our article on building customer loyalty.
Always reply publicly at first. If you message them privately, other people won’t be able to see your great customer service or your consideration for your customers. You’ll lose most of the benefits of the response. So start by responding publicly. Only go private when you need sensitive information from them.
Responding really quickly to customer reviews can result in amusing incidents. A great example happened with Virgin Trains, a UK train operator. It appears that a teenager using an onboard restroom discovered there was no toilet paper. He pulled out his cellular phone and tweeted a clever comment about Virgin Trains falling down in service with no toilet paper in the trains. He also sent it to his Virgin Trains account. Someone in the corporate offices immediately saw the tweet and messaged the train’s engineer that someone needed toilet paper in Coach J. The engineer ran down the train with a roll of toilet paper, knocked on the identified toilet door, and said, “Sir, here’s your toilet paper.”
The teenager then tweeted, “Can we please take a moment to thank the best train-service provider.”
This is a great example of how a viral message about Virgin Trains can start as a negative comment and end up providing positive publicity. The story even made it to newspapers.
Thank Customers for Their Valuable Feedback
It doesn’t matter whether their complaint is legitimate or not. Thank them for their complaint. Your goal is to turn their mind around. Thanking them is a great way to calm them down and build a connection.
But just saying thank you isn’t enough. You have to tell them why you are thanking them. Author Janelle Barlow, in her book A Complaint Is a Gift, writes:
“Thank you” by itself can sound cynical or worthless. You need to say something about what the complaint means to you. For example, the complaint will allow you to fix the problem better and change something in your service processes to make sure others won’t face this problem: “Thank you for speaking up,” “Thank you, I’m really glad you told me so I can fix this for you,” “Thank you. I’m happy you shared this because it gives me a chance to improve our service or product— and this is what we stand for,” or “We’re better than this. Thank you for letting me know.
Apologise for the Inconvenience
After thanking them, apologize profoundly for the inconvenience the customer has experienced. Don’t be defensive, don’t try to shift the blame. Many customer service experts say that apologizing in the first-person singular works best. So instead of saying ”We’re sorry,” say “I am really sorry for any inconvenience x has caused you.” You’ll come across as more sincere.
Apologies from businesses are rare. But they can be incredibly powerful. The National Customer Rage Survey asked one thousand customers what they want when complaining. Three-quarters said they want an apology. Only 28 per cent receive one.
The survey concluded that when a remedy such as an apology was added to monetary relief as a way to fix the complaint, complaint satisfaction nearly doubled from 37 per cent to 73 per cent.
Many people don’t want to apologize when the customer is clearly at fault. But apologizing doesn’t mean you are taking the blame. Again Janelle Barlow brings up a good point:
Humans say they are sorry for all sorts of things they aren’t responsible for. If you know someone who has experienced a death in the family, a natural, courteous expression is to say “I’m so sorry.” You’re not saying you caused the death. You’re saying you are sorry the person is going through this experience. It has nothing to do with fault or blame. In the same way, when we tell a customer we’re sorry about something that happened, it doesn’t matter who did what to whom or who caused something to happen. We wish it hadn’t happened. The customer will understand your concern and appreciate your empathetic statement.
Empathise, and Ask Open-ended Questions
You are not trying to win against your customer. You are not trying to be proven right. You are trying to change their mind so that they give you money again in the future. So if customers are venting their frustration, let them. Be a good listener. Try to demonstrate that you sympathise with them. You believe them. You understand why they are upset.
Then it’s time for you to get more information from them so that you can fix their problem. You shouldn’t have to ask for basic information. Their name, address, product model, when they bought it, if they contacted you before – information like these should already exist in your database.
Jill Applegate & Ann Thomas, in their book, Pay Attention!: How to Listen, Respond, and Profit from Customer Feedback, have some good advice for asking questions:
Asking valuable open-ended questions will encourage participation and get you the highest quality information. These questions typically start with the basic “w’s”: who, what, where, and when. In addition, the indirect openers such as “Give me an example of . . .,” “Describe for me . . .,” or “Tell me about . . .” require an answer beyond the simple “yes” or “no” responses to closed-ended questions.
Note that in the list of the basic “w’s” for open-ended questions, the “why” is omitted. Asking a “why-based” question puts the customer on the defensive. When a customer is already frustrated, angry, or confused, the last thing you want is to make her defensive. Avoid the “why-based” questions at all costs.
When you are talking, avoid corporate speak at all costs. Talk like a normal person. Again, from Pay Attention!:
For example, how would you feel if you received this boilerplate response to a review or post you made about an exasperating problem you experienced at a business? “We are sorry to hear about the inconvenience, and we appreciate your comments. We are happy that you have spoken up so we can make improvements. We will be working hard to ensure that your next visit is more enjoyable.” Without any specifics—or a sense of humanity—in the response, such a canned answer is likely to do more to infuriate reviewers than to calm their ire. Seek to be real, use specifics, and avoid robotspeak.
Never, Ever Argue with a Customer
If you lose your head, you risk having your response show up over and over again on social media and blogs. So if you see any negative comments and become angry, try not to respond instantly. Take some deep breaths, sit up from your chair and walk around for a bit. Then write a proper, professional response. It will also give the customer time to calm down.
Remember, you are not trying to win against your customer. Let your customer win. If they’re happy, they’ll give you money in the future. Their money isn’t different from other customers. So by letting them win, you are winning.
Lee Cockerell, the former Executive Vice President of Walt Disney World, shares in his book The Customer Rules:
Never, ever argue with a customer. Don’t get defensive. Don’t get rude. Don’t get sarcastic. Period. Will some customers try to scam you? Sure. Will some try to take advantage of you and get something for free? No doubt. Do some people have a lousy attitude and an outsize sense of entitlement? Oh, yeah. You bet. But none of that matters, because business is business and profit is profit
So the louder they get, the quieter you should get. The more agitated they become, the calmer you should become. As the old saying goes, “When you argue with an idiot, there are two idiots.”
And don’t take their anger personally:
When a customer has a tantrum, it is vital not to take it personally. The anger is not about you—the customer doesn’t even know you or care about you—it is about a situation. He’s been disappointed or frustrated. Maybe she feels ripped off. The complaint may be totally unreasonable, and the reaction may be way over the top. Or not. Either way, it’s not about you. It’s about the circumstances. You’re just the available outlet for the customer’s rage. Fix whatever is wrong and you become the hero rather than the target.
Keep this in mind, too: Everyone has problems that you don’t know about. The customer screaming at you may have had the worst day of her life, and what happened at your business was the final straw. Maybe she lost her job. Maybe a loved one died. Maybe she just got a horrible medical diagnosis. Why make her day worse than it already is by drawing her into an argument?
Another thing you should keep in mind: don’t get baited. If they try to bait you into more arguments, don’t get defensive. Ask open-ended questions to make them rational. According to Janelle Barlow, three open-ended questions posed one after another will help angry people become more rational:
One method is to acknowledge that the customer is upset but not necessarily focus on their words if they are trying to bait you. The question “When did you start treating your customers like dogs?” is designed to pull you into an argument. You could respond to them by saying, “I’m very sorry that we’ve offended you. We shouldn’t have done that.” If customers say, “If you cared even a tiny bit about your customers, you wouldn’t have such stupid policies,” they are baiting you to say, “But we do care about our customers.” Defending yourself will only give your customer more ammunition to continue doing battle: “Then why . . . ?” and the battle will rage onward.
A better way to respond is to ask a question about their attack. You could say with curiosity, “I’m very sorry. What happened that makes you think we don’t care about you?” This question will surprise them. They expect a defence, not a question. If you do not defend yourself, it is more difficult for customers to continue their assault. It’s also critical to accept the angry person for who they are and what they are expressing at the moment. People tend to get stuck when they sense you don’t accept where they are. They want you to hear them. Your acknowledgement can help them change and soften their tone. Once they start to become more rational, you can help move your customers to a more positive emotion. With anger, this means if you do not acknowledge their anger or somehow respond to it, they will probably just get angrier.
Jay Baer, in his book Hug Your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints and Keep Your Customers, suggests replying only twice to angry people. If they don’t calm down and seek your help, you should move on:
Violating the Rule of Reply Only Twice can drag you down into a vortex of negativity and hostility, and it’s also a waste of your time. Here’s how it works in practice.
Chad: You guys are the absolute worst. I can’t believe you actually have the guts to accept American currency for your terrible product!
Business: We seem to have fallen short in your eyes, Chad. Can you tell me more about what happened, and I’ll do whatever I can to assist?
Chad: It won’t matter. It’s not like an idiot like you can fix all that’s wrong with this ridiculous company.
Business: I’m sorry you’re unhappy, and would like to help if possible. Please contact me via private message if you’d like me to give it a try.
At this point, if Chad continues to complain, just let him do so. You’ve made two legitimate attempts to solve his problem. He has acknowledged this to be true by replying back to you, and the spectators will see the same. Now it’s time to let it go and walk away.
When you get a bad review, never do what English author Richard Brittain did. After he received a critical one-star Amazon review of his book, he tracked down the 18-year-old reviewer using Facebook. He then travelled 400 miles to the supermarket where she worked and hit her over the head with a wine bottle. He was jailed for 30 months.
Fix the Problem and Show Your Effort
Show a sense of urgency. It will let customers know you are serious about their problem. If it’s not possible to resolve the problem quickly, let them know what you are doing and how long it will take. If you show that you care about them and provide a rational explanation, most customers will respond in kind.
Whenever you are dealing with customers, you must signal that you are putting in a lot of effort. Even if you are not doing anything special. Customers value it a lot. You can do it by carefully choosing your words.
From one of the best customer service book The Effortless Experience by Dixon, Toman & DeLisi:
In three experiments, we showed a test group of several hundred customers the same exact service scenario, but in each case, half the subjects were shown “Rep Response A” and the other half were shown “Rep Response B.” We then asked all the subjects to rate that transaction for overall quality of experience and for customer effort, using a scale based on the Customer Effort Score (CES). What the customers in each group were required to do was exactly the same, and the steps the customer endured in each situation represented a relatively high degree of effort. Rep A and Rep B offered the same solutions in each scenario, but the language they used to take control of the experience, as you will see, was very different.
Customer Scenario: You have a new bicycle that you’ve only been using for a short time, but there is some issue with the brake cable that is making the bike unsafe to ride.
Rep Response A: “It’s really difficult to tell what’s happening over the phone. You should just bring it into one of our certified repair shops to have it looked at.”
Rep Response B: “I know that can be frustrating, so I’ll definitely pass your feedback on to our engineering team. Okay, let me check to see if other customers have had a similar issue with that bike model—that should tell us if it’s a repair issue or if it just requires a break-in period. Okay, I’m not seeing many instances of customers having the same issue, so I’d recommend bringing it back to the shop and having them take a look at it, especially since it’s still under warranty.”
So, the same answer from both reps—you’re going to have to bring the bike into the shop, there’s no getting around it. The difference, though, is the degree of advocacy shown by the two reps. The impact on the customer’s interpretation was dramatic.
The customers who heard Rep B’s response said the quality of that experience was 67 per cent higher than what was reported by the control group who received Rep A’s response. When we asked them to rate the interaction for customer effort, the B group reported 77 per cent lower effort.
You Can Offer Some Value-added Atonement
You can offer a partial refund, a discount, a gift card or something similar to show your goodwill. Most customers don’t want the world. They just want your sincere apology for the inconvenience. Offering something for free is a good way to do that.
In his book Hug Your Haters, Jay Baer shares the story of Erin Pepper. She is the director of marketing and guest relations at Le Pain Quotidien, an international chain of bakery-restaurants. Whenever she encounters a negative review, she acknowledges the problem publicly and apologizes.
But she doesn’t stop there:
She says (typically through a private message) something along these lines: “You know, sir, you are a discerning patron. You noticed deficiencies in our business that, frankly, most customers never see. What we’d like to do with your permission, sir, is digitally load funds onto a LPQ gift card. And what we’d like you to do is, anytime you’d like, please go to a different Le Pain Quotidien location near you. After your visit, I would ask you to complete a short online survey, and send me an e-mail detailing your observations about how we’re doing, because you see things other people don’t.”
This is so smart. This tactic turns hate into help, creating a nearly free volunteer customer experience department comprised of previously disappointed and vocal customers.
Follow-up to See if They Are Still Happy
Almost no businesses follow up. So this is another way you can differentiate yourself from other businesses. A few days after offering your solution, get in touch with them. Send them an email or call them directly. Ask them if the solution met their expectation.
If you have changed something in your company as a result of their complaint, tell them. Thank them again for contacting you. Your customers will be impressed.
I hope you have found my guide on handling negative feedback helpful. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
