Hi there, Nicholas Campion here from 1st Formations, the UK's leading company formation agent.
Welcome to another episode of Whiteboard Thursday, where we provide a wide range of advice
on business and company matters. If you find this video useful, please like it and share
it with your friends and colleagues. If you want to see more, please subscribe to
our channel.OK, let's get started. Today, we're going to talk about negative customer reviews
and how to deal with them. The world of customer reviews can be a blessing for small businesses;
that is, if they are handled properly. If not, they can become something of a marketing disaster. This
is something many business owners have discovered the hard way, with poorly judged responses
to negative customer reviews. So make sure you learn from their mistakes,
by handling poor feedback in a professional and courteous manner. First of all, let's just discuss
what not to do with negative customer reviews. Number one - do not try to get them removed.
On receiving a poor review, some business owners will contact the review platform and
try to get it removed, citing various reasons: for example - offensive language, it not being
factual, or disputing that this is a genuine review from an actual customer. The truth is
every business receives poor customer feedback at some point or another, and most people looking at a
company's reviews will probably start with the one star reviews. Now, why? Well, because people want to
see how the company handled them. Did they use good levels of grace and diplomacy, and show empathy and
understanding in their response? Or were they defensive, dismissive or even confrontational?
Handling a poor review properly will always work to your advantage, by showing that you care, you have a
good customer aftercare policy and business improvement strategy. So don't waste your time
trying to remove negative customer reviews - instead, show the customer and everybody else
that you are a caring company, with the capacity and willingness to do the right thing. Number two -
do not ignore them. It is vitally important that all customer reviews receive an online response.
Yes, all reviews should receive a response, not just the negative ones. If a customer takes the time to
provide positive feedback, the business needs to show a good level of gratitude, by acknowledging
and thanking the customer. Similarly, by not posting an online response to a negative customer review,
you are showing your customer and the world that you do not care about customer service,
or your business is in a very poor state, where it simply does not get involved in
resolving customer issues. Also, a disappointed customer should receive an offline response
from the business, to try and resolve the situation to their satisfaction. Not trying to
turn the bad experience around is a cardinal sin in the world of customer service excellence.
Number three - do not argue with the customer. Any business owner knows that the customer is not
always right, but they should always be allowed to feel that they are. The golden rule when dealing
with negative customer reviews, is to never blame the customer. You should accept that they have had
a bad experience, apologize, and strive to rectify the situation, while ensuring it doesn't happen
again. Simple, right? You would think so, but some people tend to get very defensive when someone
insults their business. For example, a Glasgow hostel owner went viral after he did absolutely
everything wrong when responding to a negative customer review that was posted on Tripadvisor.
The owner made several spectacular errors of judgment, disputing almost every claim
made in the review, and calling the author some pretty unpleasant names.
Numerous stories detailing his horrific approach to customer service now populate the first page
of search results for his company. Not so clever at all. It is therefore important to always remain
calm and in control of your emotions, no matter how badly your conversations with the customer go.
Do not get sucked into an argument. which can all too quickly turn into an ugly and irretrievable
affair. OK, so now that we've had a look at some of the do not's, let's have a look at some of the
do's. At number one - do respond properly as soon as you receive a negative review.
Publish a holding response, letting the customer and everybody else reading the review know that
you are very concerned with the poor level of service reported. Explain you will be conducting
an investigation as soon as possible, and you will report back to the customer directly by email
to resolve the situation to their satisfaction. Also, contact the customer by email to repeat this
message and open up a line of communication, which you will need later in the process. Number two -
carry out an investigation. Turning around the poor review is in many ways like solving a
murder. If you don't manage it within the first 24 hours, the chances are it will remain unresolved.
So, it is really important to set the wheels of investigation in motion as quickly as possible,
before the customer loses patience and refuses to deal with you. Number three - take the matter offline.
It is important that you carry through with your promise to contact the customer directly, either by
telephone or by email, immediately after concluding your investigation to resolve the matter.
If relevant, explain to the customer what went wrong within your organisation in this instance.
Let them know the steps you're putting in place to make sure it doesn't happen again.
For example, retraining a member of staff or changing an order fulfillment process.
You will find most reviews are caused by misunderstandings or poor communications, and
they can be easily turned around with personal contact, so approach this task with a positive
attitude, and have faith in your customers ability to be reasonable and understanding,
if treated properly. Next up, number four - be polite at all times. It goes without saying, you
should never become emotionally involved, no matter how testing the situation becomes. Always remember
to thank the customer for choosing your business, and apologise for any inconvenience caused by this
poor experience. And most importantly, remain calm composed and in full control of your emotions. Once
you allow yourself to be drawn into an argument, you will find the situation very difficult to
retrieve. Finally, number five - always publish a final online response after you have closed
the matter with the customer, hopefully with a positive outcome. You should replace your temporary
holding response with a final response to the negative customer review. The final online response
should confirm an investigation was carried out, the customer was contacted promptly, the company
made every effort to resolve the situation to the customer's satisfaction, the outcome of the matter
whether it be positive or negative, and an apology for any inconvenience caused to the customer.
Always remember, if the customer is found to be at fault and the complaint
is non-meritorious, never point the finger of blame at the customer, especially in the online response.
Always be gracious and diplomatic. Most people reading the review and the company's
response will be able to discern what actually transpired, without you having to spell it out.
Now, let's talk about some of the things you can put in place to improve your company's performance
in handling negative feedback. The first - I'd recommend setting up customer review
alerts, or monitoring your review platforms. Before you can respond to customer reviews,
you need to know that you are receiving them, right? Many review platforms allow you to set up email or
text alerts when the new review is posted; however, some platforms do not provide this functionality,
so it is important that someone in your company is assigned to the task of monitoring your
review platforms and responding to all reviews in a punctual manner. Your online reputation
is critical; therefore, you must be aware of all customer reviews and publish an online response
to each one. Secondly, it is vital that you see the value of the occasional negative customer review.
Why? Well, because negative reviews add authenticity to your customers' review profile. Think of it like
this - if every review was a glowing five-star recommendation of your services or products,
your reviews would tend to look fabricated and somewhat unbelievable. The irony is, negative
customer reviews can help a company build trust, by validating the positive reviews.
Also, as mentioned earlier, customers want to see a company handling negative reviews, so
always remember to use them to your advantage. And finally, create a policy where you share all of
your customer reviews with your team. This will let them know how they are performing from a customer
service point of view. You will find that your team will usually respond in a constructive and helpful
way, if they are kept in the loop. Taking this concept a step further, you can create a business
improvement initiative by analysing the customer review data. This will identify trends and
recurring causes of complaints in your business, giving you the opportunity to work on those areas.
Now, as with many things in life, there are alternative ways of dealing with matters,
and here is one - some businesses take a different approach by making light of negative
customer reviews and using humor to generate entertainment value. Now, please note this tactic
is not suited to all lines of business, so make sure your regular customers will appreciate the
joke before choosing this path. For example - some restaurants decide to display negative reviews on
a board outside their front door, essentially challenging people to come in and try it out.
Their good humour about the situation gets them plenty of attention online, and it's usually worth
its weight in free marketing buzz. Meanwhile, the Michelin-star Longman and Eagle restaurant in
Chicago has even printed their favourite negative review quotes on stylish cards, to raise a chuckle
among customers. Again, it helped get them noticed online. There is even a restaurant that received
mountains of buzz online, by actively striving to become the worst-reviewed restaurant on Yelp.
The owner of the Botto Bistro is so confident of the quality of his food, he thinks online reviews
ultimately will not damage his restaurant - and so far, it seems to be working. So there you have it -
remember, no company is perfect. Negative customer reviews are inevitable at some point,
even if you do everything right. Indeed, it's important not to lose sight of the fact that
there are ways of making these blots on your otherwise perfect review ratings
work for you, as long as you are working hard on achieving customer service excellence, and
you have a good customer-centric policy in place, you should be OK.
If you have any questions about what we've covered, please ask in the comments section below,
and we'll get straight back to you. In the meantime, be sure to subscribe to our channel
to get more tips and advice on limited companies, reporting requirements, tax obligations, and more.
We're always happy to help, and we can't wait to hear from you. Until next time, cheerio!