In the business world, whether offline or online, reviews can be constructive or destructive.
A good review can tell you about the strength of your brand and work as an endorsement for potential buyers. In contrast, a bad review can put your business in a bad light.
Sadly, every business has to deal with negative reviews. Let’s face it: You won’t be the perfect business for every customer. Therefore, it is absolutely normal.
However, knowing how to respond to negative reviews can turn the tables for you, boosting your credibility.
So, let’s learn the art of positively replying to poor reviews and look at some negative review response examples.
Learn more: User-Generated Content Examples: 5 Ideas to Experience Business Growth.
Why You Should Learn How to Respond to Negative Reviews
Reviews are so important that even Google encourages you to get inspiration from their examples on how to respond to negative reviews and positive ones.
Negative reviews are frequently accurate. Thus, it’s critical to address them.
Responding to unfavorable reviews can occasionally allow companies to win back a client or lessen the harm.
For instance, responding to every review demonstrates your concern for client input.
People are more inclined to support your business when they believe you have heard them.
On seeing no bad reviews on a business, 95% of the consumers think that the brand has fake reviews.
In the long run, this boosts referral revenue and enhances the reputation of your business.
You can advance your company through reputation marketing.
Incorporating testimonials and reviews into your marketing is reputation marketing.
Whether you share testimonials on social media or incorporate positive reviews in your Google ads, you promote your reputation.
Reputation marketing is distinct from brand marketing and reputation management in that it leverages other people’s positive opinions about you to benefit your business.
A positive reputation has the power to spread, bringing with it expansion prospects and more revenue.
Hence, it is integral to learn how to respond to negative reviews.
Read More: How To Grow Your Small Business With Social Media
How to Respond to Negative Reviews: 6 Key Pointers
Here is a rundown of important things that you should know when addressing a bad review:
1. Be Prompt in your Response
It is imperative to reply to clients as quickly as you can.
It demonstrates to disgruntled consumers that your company cares and is always ready to assist.
Whether on social media, a review website, or a private email, try to reply to reviews as soon as possible. The sooner you address an issue, the better.
If done openly, this can not only help stop more bad reviews from being written, but it can also increase customer loyalty.
That is because it demonstrates that you’re taking proactive steps to resolve any problems that may arise.
So, if you were wondering how to respond to a bad Google review, you know what to do.
2. Pay Attention and Take Note of the Comments
Recognizing a negative review demonstrates to clients that your company is one that actively hears them out.
By actively listening to your customers, you may establish an online reputation as a company that facilitates fruitful communication for clients.
When prospective buyers read reviews before making a purchase, this can increase sales.
It boosts the authenticity of your business and demonstrates that your brand is supported by actual people.
It also demonstrates to prospective clients that you have high expectations for the whole client experience.
3. Aim to Turn Around the Negative Review
To turn the negative review around and make it favorable, there is a simple tactic you can use when learning how to respond to negative reviews.
Simply contact them again to find out if the problem has been rectified. If so, you can ask him nicely whether he would mind giving the public an update on this incident.
Getting a testimonial from someone who has experienced a bad experience is one of the most effective ways to generate leads.
4. Steer Clear of a Defensive Tone
If you want to focus on reputation management, you must know how to respond to a bad Yelp review, as it is an open forum.
People who read your reviews will negatively perceive your brand voice. You want to make sure you don’t react negatively to reviews.
Offering your contact details and asking the person to email you to take the conversation offline can be a smart move if they write a negative review about your company.
To ensure that your consumer ends the matter with a pleasant feeling, try your best to handle the matter privately after responding professionally in public.
5. Provide An Answer
One of the most crucial aspects of handling these critiques is coming up with a solution.
Take advantage of this chance to make your customers your biggest advocates rather than losing them due to a single unfavorable encounter.
Let’s take the scenario where you provide laundry services and inadvertently damage a customer’s clothing item.
Therefore, it’s likely that the client would go online right away and discuss his bad experience.
Hence, instead of just brushing it off, you may offer them a free laundry service or inform them that you will replace their item with a brand-new one.
Furthermore, don’t stress over losing money.
With an expanding clientele, you’ll quickly recoup these extra expenses.
6. Express Regret
Always remember to take the high road and apologize to your customers, even if you think they are mistaken.
Once more, this will benefit you by teaching you how to respond to negative reviews.
This will not only satisfy the client, but it will also demonstrate to the other customers your concern for providing superior services.
Surprisingly, more than forty percent of people want nothing more from the maker than an honest apology.
Try to keep your declaration of repentance brief and to the point.
Express your regret and ask the client what you can do to put things right. Describe how unique this is.
Provide them with ways to contact you so that, when customers look up your company later, they will see that you took the time to recover from mistakes.
If you still can’t get things right, you can always ask satisfied clients to write good reviews.
This way, the number of good reviews surpasses the number of bad ones.
You may apologize and extend a discount on your next goods and services.
By doing this, you may be able to keep your customers happy and even get them to revisit the bad reviews and make an update.
Many times, when a consumer updates a review, they write about how delighted they were with your excellent customer service.
And that will be superb in giving a solid first impression to potential customers.
Also Read: B2B Content Marketing Strategy: A 10-Step Content Marketing Framework
4 Negative Review Response Examples
We have described how to respond to negative reviews in the section below with the most common cases:
1. Bad Food Review
In this example, you can see how Richmond Station–a famous restaurant in Toronto has replied to the angry customer.
You can get more of such negative review response examples on Tripadvisor. They don’t have many bad reviews, but they have catered to all the reviews very smartly.
To keep things from getting out of hand and developing into a full-blown debate, it’s best to control your emotions. Online reputation management is not a suitable place for arguments!
Avoid becoming mired in criticism. Concentrate on making the most of it as a chance to listen to, learn from, and strengthen your relationship with clients.
This picture clearly shows how to respond to negative reviews without taking them to heart.
2. Shipping Delays
If you operate an online store, inquiries regarding shipping delays are frequently among the most common causes of unfavorable reviews you get.
Hence, you can find high volumes of negative review response examples on the internet.
Here, we have picked the brand The Citizenry, a home decor brand bringing the work of the finest craftsmen together from all around the globe.
In the previous section on how to respond to negative reviews, we discussed how you can provide a solution while replying to the critic.
Below, you can see that the brand has resolved the issue by providing the customer with information on tracking the shipment.
3. Pricing Problems
For many clients, pricing is a sensitive topic, particularly when it fluctuates during the course of a job.
Many times, people expect their trusted brands to offer cost-effective pricing. If the brand fails to do so, they may display their disappointment in the comment section of a website.
In this one from the negative review response examples, you can see how a famous skincare brand has replied to the user. Evidently, this is the only response their chatbot can manage to provide.
For businesses that want to grow, this is how to respond to negative reviews in the aforementioned situation:
Hello, [First Name]
I appreciate your input. I wanted to use this opportunity to address your concerns regarding our pricing. [provide an explanation for your pricing strategy.]
Although [Business Name] isn’t the most affordable choice available, our costs are reasonable considering the caliber of the product our clients receive. In the future, we aim to deliver the best quality for our valued consumers.
Thank you.
Companies need to pay attention and take criticism seriously.
The information found in customer complaints helps enhance both the overall quality of your customer service and the level of trust that customers have in your business.
4. Quality Issues
One of the best ways to establish your company as an authority in the industry is to use poor reviews as creative inspiration.
Highlight any noteworthy advancements you’ve made in response to criticism of your marketing collateral.
By building trust, incorporating negative reviews into your marketing approach humanizes your brand and demonstrates your readiness to grow and change for the benefit of your clients.
In the end, incorporating the input you obtain from negative reviews into your promotional materials can increase your impact and the general efficacy of your efforts.
In the last one from our negative review response examples, we have a comment on a trusted brand for bags, Vera Bradley.
As you can see, there is no response to the review. So, we’ll tell you how to respond to negative reviews on quality issues.
Hello,
We are very sorry this happened. We appreciate you letting us know so we can keep our customers happy and learn from our mistakes.
Our staff has learned from this, so it won’t happen again.
[Explain how you plan to resolve this with the client.] We value the opportunity to correct our errors and uphold the strict standards of conduct and output.
Thank you.
[Team Brand Name]
The secret to keeping clients is discovering how to improve their future interactions with your brand.
FAQs
How to respond to negative reviews to present yourself in a good light?
There is a method to make the consumer less angry and demonstrate to other prospective customers that you want to give the greatest experience possible for all customers. That technique is to respond to negative reviews with empathy and accountability promptly.
Can I avoid bad reviews?
Ultimately, bad reviews are almost a given in business; no matter how hard you try, you can’t please everyone.
Why is it important to learn how to respond to negative reviews?
Every customer connection is a chance to learn more about your clientele, how well your product is received, and how well your employees serve customers. It also gives a chance for daily interactions that business owners typically do not get to experience.
In Conclusion
Finally, you know how to respond to negative reviews in the best way.
Having a plan for handling and acknowledging negative reviews helps build a relationship with clients and demonstrate that your business is genuine.
It enables you to establish your company as a leader in the field by tackling prevalent problems and helps you engage your audience more deeply.
Although it requires some work, actively managing reviews in conjunction with other strategies to preserve or enhance your internet reputation benefits all potential clients in the long run.
If you have too much on your plate and can’t deal with this too, divide your workload with The Dreams Agency.
We can seamlessly handle your SEO marketing, social media marketing, website creation, and much more!