The times when a company’s reputation depended directly on word of mouth are behind us. Today, when choosing goods, services, or establishments, potential customers look at reviews on the company’s page or review sites. They help get an idea of the product, understand why online Andar Bahar is a great game, and make a decision, and the correct work with feedback affects sales. Negative comments often provoke difficulties and require more attention than positive ones. Let’s consider how to respond to negative reviews and how they affect the reputation of the company.
Why Work With Negative Feedback
Customers may share their opinions about products or services, and the Internet gives plenty of opportunities to express emotions. Statistically, negative reviews are written more frequently than positive ones: a person spills out their discontent to relieve the stress of a bad experience. Customer resentment can cause several reasons: deception on the part of the company, poor services and low quality of goods or services. A powerful flood of bad feedback can negatively impact a business. A smart approach can help minimize the damage and win the audience’s favor. A customer will be more willing to change their mind if they are promptly responded.
Negative feedback is not the end of the world: it can benefit the company. Constructive criticism will allow you to look at shortcomings and revise work processes. That’s how to improve the quality of goods and services provided.
It’s also important to deal competently with negative feedback for the following reasons:
- Proximity to customers. By reacting to negative feedback, you demonstrate your interest in your customers. Everyone can make a mistake, and it’s important for the user to be heard. By taking responsibility and offering a solution to the problem, you show your audience that you care about their feelings. It’s also easier to win the favor of your customers when they realize that the company employs people like you who also take their side. The feedback and your response will be seen by other users, and you will be ahead of the curve — demonstrating that the company cares about its customers and is ready to solve problems.
- SEO promotion and reputation. A company’s image on the Internet depends on reviews. Search engines give out organizations that are well reviewed. If customers are constantly dissatisfied, then search engine algorithms can send you to the very bottom. But there is a downside: the complete absence of negativity also undermines the trust of the audience — it seems that positive reviews are bought and negative ones are removed. That’s why timely response and working through each case study are important parts of optimization.
No matter how qualitatively you work, one day negative feedback will be written. Sometimes the appearance of negative feedback doesn’t depend on you: the client initially could be in a bad mood or the delivery service made a mistake. Even if they complain about you undeservedly, the damage can be minimized if you handle negativity correctly.
Types of Negative Feedback
To properly respond to a negative review, analyze it: who the author is, the essence of the problem, and the reaction of other users. Evaluate how much this feedback can hurt. This will help you determine the type of comment and the strategy of the work. Consider the types of negativity.
Constructive Criticism
In such reviews, a person describes the problem in detail, giving arguments for their dissatisfaction. They can provide all the details of the situation: the date of purchase, receipt, correspondence with the manager, photos of goods with a defect, etc. The reason for the negativity is a defect on your part. It’s unpleasant to receive such comments, but it’s important to respond to them. This will show the responsibility of the company and help improve the strategy of work to avoid repeating the situation in the future. By expressing constructive criticism, the client expects the company to respond and solve the problem. So, it’s important to convey that the feedback has been considered, the employees are looking into it; and they will be back with solutions in the near future.
Emotional Feedback
This type of feedback is emotional. The purpose is to vent dissatisfaction and frustration without hope or desire to solve the problem. Usually, the person doesn’t specify specific complaints. Your task is to find out the reasons that caused the negativity and try to resolve them. Be prepared that this type of client won’t immediately make contact or refuse to dialog.
Negativity From Competitors or Former Employees
Such reviews don’t contain specific reasons for dissatisfaction and leave them most often from empty fake accounts. This is how competitors and sometimes former employees try to shake the audience’s confidence in your products or services. These reviews can plant a seed of doubt in the target audience. So, it also needs to be practiced. Try to publicly find out detailed information and ask for proof: documentation of the purchase and photos of low-quality goods. Competitors have nothing to say, and you have set the record straight: users understand that the review is fake.
Trolling and Hating
Such reviews are aimed at provocation and inciting conflict. Haters spread deliberately false information, trying to draw you into a useless dispute. You won’t find constructive criticism, only an inadequate reaction, unsupported by anything. The best way to get out of such a situation is to ignore it. If you think that the response will mislead potential customers, the troll should respond. The goal is to change the mind of the target audience, not the trolls. A humorous response will likely ruin the troll’s plans, and no further unfounded comments will follow.
How to Respond to Negative Feedback
There are a few basic rules when dealing with negative reviews.
- Monitor reviews on all possible sites and respond at the first opportunity. If you ignore negative reviews for a long time, customers will get the impression that the company doesn’t care. Also, because of the delay in responding, users may have a misconception about the quality of goods and services. Postponing the response will lead to a deterioration of reputation and a loss of profits.
- Stay calm. Negative feedback is an unpleasant situation, but you should not go along with your emotions. Don’t take criticism personally. Politely discuss the situation with the client and offer solutions. Avoid sarcasm and rudeness. A tactful, structured response will demonstrate the company’s customer focus and keep the audience loyal.
- Demonstrate a personalized approach. A pre-prepared strategy for responding to negativity helps you respond faster to feedback, but don’t rely on templates alone. The customer won’t feel the company’s involvement, which can cause more negativity. Each situation is different. Try to get into the problem and find an approach for a particular person.
- Respond publicly. Demonstrate the first response publicly. Respond on the site where the feedback was left. You deal with the negativity of a particular person, but in the future, future potential customers will familiarize themselves with the comment. The person needs to see that you are willing to work on the unpleasant situation and resolve it. A public demonstration of customer focus will help tip the scales in your favor.
- Write clearly and to the point. Carefully check your response for spelling and grammatical errors. Avoid narrow terminology and cumbersome constructions. Don’t water down; value your client’s time. Your answer should be simple and clear.
Deleting Negative Feedback
The desire to get rid of negativity is understandable: bad reviews can really hurt. But you shouldn’t delete everything. For success, positive reviews should outnumber negative ones. The choice of whether to delete a comment is up to you. A reputation audit is recommended before making a decision.
Be prepared to defend your position and prove the falsity of the review if you want to remove the comment from review sites. On social media or on the company’s website, you can set aside a special section for feedback with designated rules of use: content of an offensive nature will be deleted. This will reduce the number of negative reviews without much effort.
When deciding to delete a review, weigh the pros and cons. Getting rid of all the negativity won’t work. And sometimes it’s not even beneficial. Deleting a comment can make the situation worse.
Structure of a Response to Negative Feedback
When working with customers, a personalized approach is important. But you can identify a certain structure:
- Personal appeal. Try to avoid the stamps “dear user,” etc. Greet the person and address them by name. If the client hides behind a nickname, you can politely ask to introduce yourself.
- Acknowledgement. Don’t forget to thank them for their feedback. It shows that the company is involved in the situation and interested in the audience’s opinion. A negative comment deserves thanks just as much as a positive one. The person took the time and effort to share. And constructive criticism can help improve the company’s performance going forward.
- Apology. Even if the unpleasant situation was not the fault of the company, you were the one to whom the complaint was addressed. Denial of involvement won’t lead to the solution of the problem and may cause more negativity. Step into the client’s situation and show your involvement. Involvement makes you feel good about yourself.
- Clarify the complaint. If it’s an emotional response without specific details, try to find out the details of the situation.
- Deciding and asking for a second chance. It’s the company’s duty and responsibility to help the customer resolve the situation. Offer your options and clarify with the user how best to make amends. Reassure the user that this is a one-time situation, uncommon for the company, and it will not happen again. This approach helps maintain loyalty and level out negativity.
- “Regards, company name,” or at least the manager’s name at the end. Respond to the client from the company’s official account or demonstrate your involvement — specify your position. Such a response inspires more trust than feedback from an unknown person.
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