The first time you get a negative review, it can feel like a sucker punch. Where did you go wrong? Why don’t they like you? How could you mess up after prepping so much? But hey, it’s not the end of the world and FeedbackExpress will show you four ways you can mitigate the negative seller feedback you receive.
1. Video-Speak Directly to the Buyer
When a buyer leaves you a negative review, the traditional route has been to respond to them via email. But often, there can be a lot left to be desired, and you might have trouble making things right with just a short paragraph. If that’s the case, why not make an apology video?
Instead of risking blending in with the masses who send a semi-generic message, say how you’ll make things right to a camera, not a keyboard. It doesn’t have to be super fancy or filmed over several takes, as long as it’s from the heart. When you’re done, upload the video to YouTube and send it to the customer.
2. Use Others’ Negative Reviews to Strengthen Your Listings
While you’re waiting for the buyer to view your video, capitalise on your competitors’ negative reviews by turning their weaknesses into your strengths.
For example, if you notice a common theme among their complaints, like t-shirts tear easily or earbud cords get frayed quickly, add bullet points that address how your t-shirts are durable and your earbud cords don’t fray.
If buyers are frustrated enough, they’ll notice how your listings are the opposite to their negative experiences and you can potentially poach more consumers onto your pages.
3. Ask Those Close to You Where You Went Wrong
If you’re around something long enough, it can be easy to miss the forest for the trees. You put your head down, you throw yourself into something 100%, and you become blind to the details. If and when that happens, it’s incredibly useful to get an outsider’s objective perspective of what’s going on. And who better than your staff?
They’re familiar with your business and products, they’re familiar with your competitors, and they’re familiar with what makes up a good online buying/selling experience.
Better yet, try incentivising it so your team can give you a more detailed and thought-out answer. Turn it into a contest: the employee (or team) that comes up with the best solution on how to fix the negative feedback gets a prize. This way, you’ll increase your chances of getting a really solid solution, as well as get to pick from a number of diverse ideas you might not have thought of on your own.
4. Get Feedback on Your Improvements Based on User Complaints
Or, in other words, run a focus group.
Let’s say you’ve noticed multiple buyers say your fruit parers had slippery handles. You’ve already responded to each unhappy buyer individually, but the next step is to improve your product — and make sure it’s actually improved before selling again.
Get a focus group together and test out your improvements on them. Get them to use the parers on a bunch of different fruits, under a variety of different conditions (the parer is wet vs. the parer is dry, etc.). Then incorporate their feedback into a new product, put it online, and highlight the changes you’ve made to make it better.
To go one step further, send out an email to your list explaining how you’ve made changes to the fruit parer, and maybe offer a discount if they’re willing to give the new one a go.
Final Thoughts
We’re not saying to totally forget about the old standbys of emailing a buyer, asking them for detailed and constructive feedback, and figuring out a way to change the situation (so they can hopefully change their review). Instead, use the time-honoured ways with these four creative methods of changing reviews. To help you with the former, FeedbackExpress has you covered with templates and timings you can use to get your missives out on time. So sign up now and get your first 14 days absolutely free.
