With the whole world seemingly turning to the internet when in need of a product or service, a negative review could potentially destroy your business reputation and revenue.
Before a customer orders a product from your website or calls your business to hire your services, they will likely type your name into Google to learn more about your brand. If you have received negative feedback from others, a prospective customer will be unlikely to trust in your company.
To maintain a positive reputation in your industry, you should find out how to protect yourself from a bad review.
Never Ignore a Negative Review
While your first inclination might be to click away from a website and pretend a review doesn’t exist, you must avoid doing so. Instead, you must take the time to respond to the user, no matter how upset or angry they seem with the quality of your service or product. It is, however, crucial to remain professional when responding to negative feedback, which could prove to others that you run a caring, helpful business.
Prepare for the Worst
Unfortunately, a negative review could be an indication of problems to come for your business. For example, a disgruntled client might immediately take to a review site to air their grievances and might choose to embark on a negligence claim in the near or distant future.
If this is the case, a negative review could help you to gain an insight into their dissatisfaction, so you can attempt to rectify the problem as soon as possible. It is, however, worthwhile learning more about professional indemnity costs from Hiscox, which could provide financial cover for legal action and compensation claims for negligence.
Don’t Be Defensive
While it can be easy to take negative feedback to heart, you shouldn’t showcase these feelings when responding to a bad review. Instead, you must make a customer feel as if their thoughts have been heard and that you care about resolving the issue as soon as possible.
Request a User Contacts Your Business
In addition to apologizing for a customer’s negative experience, you should request they contact you at their earliest convenience to rectify a problem. For example, you should provide them with your email address and phone number, so you can learn more about their experience and potentially rectify the problem. Once they are happy, you could kindly ask if they would be willing to revise their initial review to reflect the quality of your service.
Learn from the Feedback
While it is impossible to please everyone, you must look for patterns when reading through your various online reviews. Are multiple customers repeating the same complaints? If so, it could be a sign that your customers have higher expectations for the product or service you provide.
Rather than continually disappointing your customers, you should aim to improve the quality of your business to maintain satisfaction and prevent future negative feedback. For example, if you are seemingly providing a poor customer service, you might need to improve your staff members’ skills and passion for their job.
