How to Respond to a Negative Review

It’s inevitable that at some point, whether it’s warranted or not, your business will suffer a negative online review. When that happens, how are you supposed to respond? You might have heard that any publicity is good publicity, but it sure doesn’t feel that way in the moment. And sometimes people aren’t even justified in the criticism they’re giving.

You might be tempted to just ignore the negative review or argue back with them about why their review isn’t reasonable. Neither of these is a good option. Instead, you need to see this as a marketing opportunity and respond to the negative review in a way that demonstrates your brand’s values and dedication to customer service for anyone who is reading. In the process, ideally, you’ll also assuage the customer who had a negative experience and retain their loyalty.

Let’s take a look at the best ways you can approach a negative review…

1. First, remember that you always have to respond.  

Yes, you should always respond, whether you’re looking at a bad review, a good review, a review that details the customer experience with a lot of words, or a review that is just stars with no wording — you get the picture. People who are reading the reviews want to see that you, as a business owner, take the time to read through the reviews and take what people say seriously. It shows people that the patronage of your customers is important to you and that you go out of your way to assess how well your business practices are being received.

Remember, your response is not merely for the person who left the review, whether it was positive or negative. Your response is there for every single person who is reading through the reviews, many of whom may have never even patronized your business and are still considering whether they want to give you their business.

2. Empathize, address the concern, and offer the promise of improvement.

The first thing you should do when responding to a negative review is to acknowledge the problem. Let the customer know that the experience they had is unacceptable according to your standards and you are sorry. If it would be accurate to say so, let the customer know that this is not part of your business model and explain the policies and procedures you have in place to avoid problems like this. Explain that you will aim to assure this breakdown in procedure will not happen again.

For example, if somebody says they received rude customer service from one of your employees, you could reply that you train your team to make all guests feel welcome, but you will take this negative feedback as an opportunity to remind your team of this procedure. They made a mistake, and you want to make sure the mistake doesn’t happen again.

In other situations, the complaint might not be about any breakdown in procedure but just a shortcoming of your business. If you’re a restaurant with no gluten-free options on the menu, this might be a disappointment to someone with Celiac disease. If this is the nature of the negative review, let the customer know you will plan to expand your menu to better serve people with food allergies and that your chef can always make accommodations — then make sure to follow through.

3. Make sure you’re timely, straightforward, and respectful (never argumentative). 

Only slightly better than not responding at all is responding to a negative review three or four days later. Responding to reviews might be a time-consuming and tedious daily task, but as already stated, it shows your customers that you care about what they think. If you take a week to respond to a negative review, you will have missed the opportunity to get your reply out there in front of many people reading through the reviews — people who may never come back to actually read your reply.

Additionally, if your reply is overly verbose, this could come off as seeming defensive or as if you’re making excuses. Keep it to fewer than 100 words, and be polite but straightforward in your explanation. No need to go on and on.

Above all, don’t argue. Ever. Even if the reviewer is being a jerk or is making statements you have a feeling are not true, the best thing for you to do is to stick to a magnanimous response. Most readers who are skimming through the comments will recognize that this person is being unfair and you are doing your best to take care of them anyway.

4. Offer to continue the conversation privately. 

Sometimes there’s a major problem that deserves to be rectified. In these cases, a simple apology from you online won’t be enough to patch things over, but it’s not appropriate to settle these disputes in a public forum. Provide the reviewer with a way to contact you directly, such as a phone number or email address. When you are talking to the customer privately, you can offer some kind of compensation, if appropriate, such as a refund or a freebie the next time they come in.

By observing each of these important steps in responding to criticism, you will better position yourself to turn an unhappy customer into a happy customer, thus retaining their loyalty to your business, and you’ll demonstrate to everyone reading the reviews that you are a business owner who cares about what your customers think.

If you want advice or assistance with other marketing opportunities in the digital realm, you can count on Ann’s Social Media and Digital Marketing. Learn more about how digital marketing can benefit your business by calling 443-679-4916 or emailing ann@asmmdigital.com.