The Nattering Nabobs of Negativism: How to Handle Negative Feedback Online
With apologies to Spiro Agnew, we’re going to talk about how to handle negative reviews, comments, or feedback on your website or on social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter.
Let’s face it. These can hurt. They can hurt your pride, sure. But they can also hurt your business. And you are human after all. Like everyone else, you do make mistakes, no matter how professional or careful you are. It is these mistakes that lead to negative reviews or feedback. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person, or have a bad business. So don’t take it personally. Rather, take it as an opportunity.
So what can you do about negative feedback?
1. Don’t ignore it.
This is the Internet. It’s not going to go away. Negative comments or reviews can all too easily show up fairly high on search engine result pages (SERPs). If people are searching for your company and seeing these right off the bat, you can be in serious trouble. So deal with it.
2. Tell Your Side of the Story.
Maybe the complaint is unjustified. If it is, a calm, professional response describing what actually happened can make the commenter look bad, diluting the effect of his or her comment. But if you did screw up…
3. Own your mistake.
Admit it. Apologize for it. And offer to make it right. Most of the time, this is all the reviewer really wants. In fact, by aggressively rectifying the complaint, you can actually improve your reputation not only with the original customer, but with anyone else who reads the comment thread. You’ve now shown that your company is caring, responsive, and committed to customer satisfaction. It can be some of the best advertising you’ll ever get.
4. Engage.
Especially in a social media environment like Facebook, an exchange with a dissatisfied customer is a great way to get yourself out there, to show your personality and what your company is all about, and to help inspire the trust that is so important to having a successful presence online.
5. Learn from it.
As said before, mistakes happen. Having to deal with them helps ensure that particular mistake won’t happen again, and makes your business more efficient.
In a perfect world, you’ll never get a complaint about anything. But nobody lives in a perfect world. Until we do, make the most out of negative feedback. You’ll find it might not hurt so much after all.
Absolutely agree with 3 and the benefits that can come from doing that. As the article says, everyone screws up – that’s not the big deal. The big deal is when you don’t admit it and make it right.
I think this fits in well with the whole idea of doing everything right from the beginning. In previous comments I’ve made mention that I think it to be a wise move when building up a site to take the time to make sure it’s done right. Same with negative comments. Take the time to make things right in the event of an error. It can only help you in the long run.
as much as it wounds the pride, the truth is the best way to learn is from mistakes. like steve said its no big deal to mess up but you have to make it right. by learning what your doing wrong you can learn how to make improvements to. sometimes negative feedback is just as helpful as positive.
I think you can run the risk of engaging with trolls on some level here, but good judgment as far as determining if the complaint is legit or not is important. If it’s pretty clear they did place an order or something and you dropped the ball somehow, sure. If it’s just someone saying “You suck! I’m never buying frm you again!” then maybe better to ignore it.
As much as I, and I’m sure others, hate to admit it, the advice about owning your mistakes is vitally important. It’s a big step to show that you were wrong, and I think customers will appreciate it all the more and end up giving you another chance.
Just read this one…right on target. I had a bad experience with an ebay order; they shipped me something entirely different from what I bought. They totally owned up to it, apologized, had me send it back COD, shipped the right item free of charge. Could have been a real pain for me but they made it easy, and I gave them glowing feedback as a result. So yeah, it works.