What's happening Youtube, Dan Rees here from www.zebranowoodcraft.com.
In this video I going to talk about the one and only time someone left me a negative review
on Etsy, how I reacted and what you should do if it happens to you.
So the whole malarkey started out with a notification on my phone.
“Yes … customer X has left you feedback” and here's me thinking,
“Sweet, another glowing review to add to my resume :)
And then …. Noooooooooooo
Two stars, they left Two FREAKING STARS!
I spent hours making their custom order for them, slaving away until my fingers bled,
not to mention the years it took to hone my skills as a craftsman and build a reputation
online.
Then one angry, impulsive customer comes and leaves a negative review and I feared that
my whole business was going to crumble to dust around me.
(Perhaps just a little bit melodramatic at this point).
So I did the best thing I could do at that stage, which was 1.
drink copious amounts of tea and secondly to sleep on it.
When I woke up I immediately wrote a public response to the review addressing each criticism
in a calm, collected and professional manner.
I then emailed Customer X apologizing for the inconvenience and offered to resolve any
issues.
It turns out that this was a mistake!
Not the whole apologising and offering to resolve any issues (that's bloody good customer
service), the mistake was leaving a public response right away.
You see Etsy offers you the seller an opportunity to respond publicly to reviews under 3 stars
within 100 days of the buyer leaving them.
However, you can only do this one time and once you've left a public reply then the buyer
can never edit their review!
So don't do what I did guys because after emailing the customer and showing them that
I was more than willing to resolve any issues they actually said they were more than happy
to edit their review!
It kinda sucks that I am stuck with a stinky 2 star review, but I feel like my public reply
did me some justice and anyone with a bit of sense will read the review and realise
it's an anomaly.
Most people can see through one bad response in a sea of praise (I hope).
Unfortunately for me, the customer was having a bad day and lashed out angrily without really
considering the consequences and effect it might have on my livelihood.
There's no beef, I can't really blame, I can however gladly report that one bad review
did not effect my business in any negative way!
In fact the following month I had my second best month of all time.
So here's what to do if you get a negative review on Etsy:
1.
Sleep on it as you'll probably say something you regret if you do it when you're angry.
2.
Email the customer first.
try to resolve any issues they have, apologise and just basically do whatever you can to
keep them happy so they change that review.
3.
If you can't resolve the issues then post a public reply (remain professional at all
times!)
4.
Realise it's not the end of the world, learn from your mistakes and implement practices
that will stop customers leaving bad reviews in the future.
5.
Move on and keep smashing it.
Overcome, Improve, Endure.
That's what the business owner do!
If you frequently receive bad reviews then you should seriously look at the way you're
treating your customers, your product and just generally the way you're conducting yourself
in business (maybe this game is not for you).
On the flip side, when someone leaves a glowing review you should consider taking a screen
shot of it and sharing it to your social media followers.
So I hope this has helped you in some way, even if it's just to inspire you to keep on
creating!
Thank you for watching, if you like the video then give it a thumbs ups, share it and subscribe
to my Youtube channel!
Done.