How to Respond to Negative Reviews

Getting a negative review may feel like a slap in the face, but having a couple of them on your page can be a good thing. 

For one, it gives all of your reviews a major boost in trust and credibility. If you saw a product that only had all glowing 5-star reviews, you would be skeptical about the validity of any of them. We intuitively know that if a company is gathering reviews from real people, there will inevitably be some negative ones in the mix. Not every experience will be amazing, not every person is reasonable, and bad interactions do happen. Having those reviews on your profile, let the reader know your ratings are real.

The second reason negative reviews are good is because they give you insight into your opportunities for growth. You don’t know what you don’t know and someone taking the time to tell you should be viewed as a gift. Maybe it’s something that you can easily fix and has been happening for a long time, and until this reviewer decided to spend a couple minutes publicly complaining about it, you had no idea. Sometimes people leaving negative reviews are just wanting a place to vent, but it’s important not to take this personally. Is there any truth to what they are saying? Is there an opportunity you can identify and rectify?

The third reason negative reviews are a good thing, is because they give you an incredible opportunity to win back a customer. If I have a terrible experience somewhere and write a review about it and no one ever says anything to me, I’ll likely never return to that business. But if I have a terrible experience, and write a review about it, and the company responds, apologizes, and tells me how they are going to fix it, I’m going to return to that place of business to see my feedback in action. 

Responding to Negative Reviews

You should be responding to every single review that comes in about your business. Especially the negative ones. This shows your prospects that you listen and truly care about what your customers think.

Just because you’re responding to negative reviews, doesn’t mean you should ever argue with a customer online. The customer is always right (even when they aren’t), and online is not the place to forget this rule. Even if it’s a customer that you don’t care if you lose. The bottom line is, others will see your argumentative response and, without knowing the full story, will likely side with your customer.

When you get a negative review, first examine it for truth. Are there things the person has pointed out that you could fix? If so, do you have an idea of how you will fix it? Here’s an example of a response you could use with a customer who has pointed something out that has some truth to it:

“Hi {FIRSTNAME}, Thanks so much for taking the time to share this feedback with us. I am so sorry for the negative experience you had with {NEGATIVE}. We have {CHANGE IMPLEMENTED}, as it’s important to us that {WHAT THE CHANGE ADDRESSED}. We hope you’ll let us serve you again. "

The anatomy of this response is

1. Thanking them for the feedback
2. Apologizing
3. Acknowledging you hear what the problem is
4. Addressing how you are fixing the problem
5. Inviting the person back again to see how you’ve changed. 

If you receive a negative review that is rude, wrong, and unfair, you still need to take the high road. In this scenario, it’s best to not over explain yourself. People like that are likely to come back and argue with you, and then it becomes a drama rather than a place for you to showcase great customer service.

A good response for someone like that is:

“Hi {FIRSTNAME}, I apologize that you had such a negative experience. We pride ourselves on our ability to provide excellent customer service, and I apologize that this was not the case for you. Thanks for taking the time to share this feedback.”

This still thanks them for their feedback and apologizes, even though they may be wrong.

Responding to negative reviews is crucial because it shows your prospective customers that you care about your customers and are listening to their feedback. 

Do you have a negative review on your profile that you aren’t sure how to respond to? Send us an email at support@carriersource.io or call us at 708-374-7144 and we’ll be happy to help. 

Have only negative reviews? Check out our article on how to gather reviews from your customers.