Handling a negative review poorly could cause you a lot of problems!
No company enjoys receiving a negative review, but from time to time it happens.
We’ve mentioned many a time before exactly how you should manage your online reviews, we’ve even detailed why 1-star reviews aren’t always a bad thing!
The key points to remember when handling negative reviews online are:
- Point them in the right direction – If you feel like the review is a genuine complaint, direct the customer to your complaint procedure or alternatively provide them with a contact number so you can resolve the situation
- Responding in a timely manner – make sure you reply to all negative reviews by the next working day, but ideally within 24 hours. This makes the customer aware that you have taken notice of their complaint
- Attempt to resolve the situation – acknowledging the customer and offering a solution to their issue will hopefully win the disgruntled person back in your favour and will also show other customers that you care
- Take it on the chin – Employees have off days, and sometimes faulty products slip through the quality check. Sometimes you need to accept that the customer is genuinely upset about their experience – just make sure you attempt to resolve the problem
What could happen if you handle bad reviews poorly?
You may have seen in the news recently that a man was ordered to pay a company £25,000 in damages due to a negative review he left on a well-known review platform.
The firm which the negative review was directed at claimed the review was untrue and defamatory.
The reaction to the case resulted in a flood of fake reviews on the firm's review provider page.
The reviews mentioned are either 1-star reviews in support of the unhappy customer, expressing their outrage at the amount of money he’s been ordered to pay or 5-star reviews in support of the company, agreeing that his review has caused them to lose a significant portion of their business.
This whole situation highlights the many issues that occur when review providers do not have processes in place to prevent fake reviews.
JudgeService reviews are 100% verified and genuine. You’ll only find real customer reviews on our website.
This means that no matter how you choose to manage your online reviews, you will never run into an awkward situation like this one.
Want to sit back and relax in confidence, knowing your reviews are being handled by professionals? Call JudgeService on 01423 255 166 or email us using our contact form.
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