It’s going to happen at some point, if it hasn’t already happened to you; you’re going to come across some negative reviews or feedback about your business. Your first instinct will most likely be to panic and get angry at the same time, but after you let that phase pass, train yourself to react in the following ways.
Pay Attention
As the owner of the business that someone is tearing apart with their scathing review, no matter where you come across it, it hurts because this business is like your child. You have created it and raised it to the point of success where it is now, and to have someone publicly say how awful it is can be very difficult to stomach.
Even so, you have to pay close attention to what these reviewers are saying so that you can gain a deeper knowledge of your customers’ experience.
Regardless of how bad their experience was, if they are writing a public review about it, then something about your business was so negative to them that they had to take the time to write the review. That’s something any business owner should listen to.
The Most Useful Feedback
Bad reviews are a gold mine for understanding how to improve your business. The more negative the review, the more it can help you because it will show you exactly where you’re falling short, or at least where to look.
Most of us see bad reviews as something that has to be dealt with and hopefully deleted (which isn’t the worst thing that could happen), but instead of obsessing over how to deal with it, you’ll do yourself a favor if you take what it says as constructive feedback to improve your business.
Understand Why
There is motive behind everything we do, including someone who leaves you a negative review. First of all, this person was upset because they really wanted to use your service.
They expected something great and found that it didn’t measure up to what they expected, which tells you right away that they originally thought that you were going to provide something great. You can actually take a negative review as a very good sign.
It’s no sin of course to sell a small variety of products for which you know there is an active market, and you can make them all with great quality. The point is that by simplifying what you sell, it’s much easier to do that one thing extremely well, as well as gain the confidence of your customers because again, that single thing is all you do, all the time.
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Stephanie
Stephanie is the Marketing Director at Talkroute and has been featured in Forbes, Inc, and Entrepreneur as a leading authority on business and telecommunications.
Stephanie is also the chief editor and contributing author for the Talkroute blog helping more than 100k entrepreneurs to start, run, and grow their businesses.