You wake up and in your inbox you find the one thing that makes you want to crawl back under the covers and rewind time: a negative review. But as much as it sucks to receive it, it’s definitely not the end of the world. With FeedbackExpress’ help, you can use these seven steps to mitigate the potential damage that could otherwise normally be caused by negative feedback.
1. Take Some Time to Let Emotions Cool
When you read a negative review a buyer wrote, it’s pretty normal to feel steamed and wanting to tell that person off. But this is the worst thing you could do. Instead, take an hour or two away from it and distract yourself by doing something totally different. Once you return, you should be in a different head space and ready to deal with the review in a more clear-headed and logical way.
2. Don’t Ignore It
The second worst thing you can do is pretend like the negative review doesn’t exist. It does, and it’ll stay there if you do nothing about it. If you ignore the feedback, then you’re confirming to your customer that their feelings are valid. Not only did they have a lousy buying experience, but they’re having a lousy post-buying experience, too. But if you respond, then the customer will feel heard and you have a platform to move forward on.
3. Address Their Concerns
Whether you agree with the review or not, it’s important to remember the buyer felt wronged by something in the process. Keeping this in mind, this is not the time to tell point out what they should have done or where they were incorrect. Instead, rephrase their feedback back to them by writing something like, ‘In your review, you mentioned you were unhappy with X, Y and Z.’ This reinforces to them that you’re taking the time to understand where they’re coming from and really hear what they’re saying.
4. Ask Them for Clarification
Once you’ve reworded their complaints, take a sentence to ask them if you understand what they were saying or if you missed something. By doing this, you’re opening up a dialogue and sending a message that you’re truly interested in righting the situation. It also helps you to really understand what they’re saying. Maybe you’ve misinterpreted something or maybe they didn’t write exactly what happened — either way, this step helps you form a clear picture of what went wrong.
5. Say You’re Sorry
You might disagree entirely with what they’re complaining about, but you should still find a way to express you’re sorry about how things went. At the end of the day, you missed something on your end that, if it were in place, would have led to a happy ending. Saying something like, ‘I apologise I wasn’t able to deliver the experience you expected and I want to make things right’ will suffice.
6. Offer Solutions to Fix Matters
If a buyer was so unhappy with a purchase they took the time to say so, then they not only want to know you understand, but they also want you to fix it. What a smart merchant will do is avoid asking the customer what they want done — this can lead to either unrealistic demands or unrealistic expectations. A better solution is to offer up two or three alternatives the buyer can choose for themselves. This keeps the ball in your court as to what can be reasonably done to remedy matters, as well as anchor expectations on their end. Some solutions you can offer are a refund, replacement or discount they can use in the future.
7. Give Them a Reason to Come Back
You might be thinking you’ve lost a customer if they wrote you a negative review. On the contrary. What negative feedback can indicate is the buyer felt passionately about something enough to invest themselves in the matter. And when that happens, you’ve got a solid opportunity to right the ship and have them come back. It’s when a customer shows apathy that the odds are low of engaging them in the future. You can write something like, ‘I appreciate that you care so much about the shopping experience that you took time out of your day to tell me. I’d like to ensure your experiences in the future are much better and here’s how it can be’ (ending that sentence with two or three reasons why they chose you in the first place). It’s easy to forget why they chose you over a competitor, but this is the perfect time to remind them.
Top sellers look at negative feedback as a genuine chance to take stock in their own performance and improve in areas of weakness. It takes a certain degree of humility to view it like this, but it works out better for everyone in the long run. To help you deal with all feedback, both positive and negative, use an efficient service like FeedbackExpress to help you craft messages that are concise, friendly and professional. When you’re ready to test the ropes, you can kick things off with a 14 day free trial by signing up here.
Related: 2 Tested Ways to Remove Negative Feedback on Amazon
