I can't say I'm surprised at how many people I see who don't know how to handle negative reviews. I mean, sure, none of us particularly enjoy receiving negative reviews, but they aren't the end of the world. On the contrary, negative reviews can even be a great opportunity to showcase your professionalism to prospective customers. After all, how you treat your customers when they're angry says a lot about who you are as a business owner.
Now, I'm not going to get into how to prevent negative reviews today since it's not possible to please everyone, among other reasons. Rather, I'm going to go over how to handle existing negative reviews you might have on your Trader profile or on your marketplace thread.
Handling Negative Reviews
Don't Get Angry
Well, it's fine if you get angry, just don't lash out at your customer. Anything you do or say to a customer after they leave a negative review can be used against you (as you can see, I've been watching too many cop videos lately).
In general, you should keep the following in mind before responding to a negative review:
Don't:
Don't resort to name-calling, even if your customer has resorted to this.
Don't threaten your customer. You will receive an infraction for this.
Don't submit reports calling the review fake when you know it's real. If a client or customer believes it's real, it doesn't make it a review, regardless of the accuracy of their claims. Summarised, you thinking the buyer is wrong about their claims doesn't equate to a fake review, nor is it grounds for removal.
Don't pretend the customer wasn't ever your client when you know they were.
Don't offer them a free trial/version of your service. While I've seen this work on occasion, I've seen it fail more often than not. After all, if they thought your service was garbage, why would they want more of it, even for free?
Do:
Respond professionally.
Be patient with them. Not all reviews can be removed overnight.
Acknowledge their issues.
In the case of genuine reviews with 'inaccurate information', address the claims in your sales thread and correct the buyer.
Take the issues they highlighted seriously.
Consider using their feedback to improve your business.
Bury The Negative Review With Real Positive Reviews
"Real" is the key word here, and those of you who do reactive online reputation management are familiar with this tactic because sometimes, you just can't get a customer to remove or edit their negative review.
To clarify, I'm not just telling you not to use fake positive reviews because I don't want to see the forum flooded with fake positive reviews (seriously, don't do that). I'm telling you this because nothing beats a genuine positive review from a happy client. Everything about a genuine review is superior to a shoddy fake positive review, from the tone of the review to the job-well-done feeling it leaves you with. For instance, there's a review one of my clients left me on my Google MyBusiness listing that was absolutely exquisite. I could've never written about our business relationship the way he did, and to this day, his review is still getting me contact requests.
Reach A Compromise
When all else fails, consider reaching a compromise with your disgruntled customers. For example, there have been times in the past where I've offered clients refunds after I said I didn't do refunds. There was even one time where I went as far as offering to help find one of my displeased clients a different business to work with (ha, let one of my competitors deal with them instead).
Ask A Moderator To Help You Mediate The Situation
If a buyer is threatening to take their concerns to the dispute resolution section, you can try to resolve the issue over a private conversation before it goes public. Some of us moderators even mediate these situations and try to help buyers and sellers reach a conclusion that leaves both parties happy.
However, keep in mind that moderators aren't here to be used as crutches for your poor business management skills. It's more important that you learn how to address negative reviews yourself, because if you receive a negative review outside of the forum, we can't help you.
You see, when a seller contests a negative review, the first thing we do is compare the negative review against the seller's report. Depending on the seller's claim, we'll do a mixture of looking for proof of purchase, contacting the buyer for information, and using our own tools to investigate the situation. I'm not going to get into the specifics of it as the exact procedures are for marketplace staff only.
The problem with this procedure is that if a seller sends in an inaccurate report, we can't take the appropriate action against the review.
For example, let's say there's a sales listing here with a negative review from a legitimate buyer that contains some false claims about the seller insulting the buyer. The seller will see this and reasonably want these false statements removed from their sales listing, so they send in a report saying that it's a fake review with someone they never did business with. "Ha ha, this will get the review removed for sure", is what goes through the seller's head. However, when a marketplace staff member comes across a 3-page conversation between the buyer and the seller with multiple order confirmations, it should come as no surprise that the report gets rejected and the seller potentially receives an infraction for abusing the report function.
The reason I provided the example above is because this makes up the majority of our "fake review" reports. If a seller simply states the real issue instead of pretending they never did business with the member, the post would either be edited or removed, depending on the issue.
Now, you might be wondering about the report you sent in today. When a seller has a history of sending in these types of reports or ones where the seller is hastily using the reports function, we'll be much more likely to reject the report to avoid wasting staff resources.
Now, I'm not going to get into how to prevent negative reviews today since it's not possible to please everyone, among other reasons. Rather, I'm going to go over how to handle existing negative reviews you might have on your Trader profile or on your marketplace thread.
Handling Negative Reviews
Don't Get Angry
Well, it's fine if you get angry, just don't lash out at your customer. Anything you do or say to a customer after they leave a negative review can be used against you (as you can see, I've been watching too many cop videos lately).
In general, you should keep the following in mind before responding to a negative review:
Don't:
Don't resort to name-calling, even if your customer has resorted to this.
Don't threaten your customer. You will receive an infraction for this.
Don't submit reports calling the review fake when you know it's real. If a client or customer believes it's real, it doesn't make it a review, regardless of the accuracy of their claims. Summarised, you thinking the buyer is wrong about their claims doesn't equate to a fake review, nor is it grounds for removal.
Don't pretend the customer wasn't ever your client when you know they were.
Don't offer them a free trial/version of your service. While I've seen this work on occasion, I've seen it fail more often than not. After all, if they thought your service was garbage, why would they want more of it, even for free?
Do:
Respond professionally.
Be patient with them. Not all reviews can be removed overnight.
Acknowledge their issues.
In the case of genuine reviews with 'inaccurate information', address the claims in your sales thread and correct the buyer.
Take the issues they highlighted seriously.
Consider using their feedback to improve your business.
Bury The Negative Review With Real Positive Reviews
"Real" is the key word here, and those of you who do reactive online reputation management are familiar with this tactic because sometimes, you just can't get a customer to remove or edit their negative review.
To clarify, I'm not just telling you not to use fake positive reviews because I don't want to see the forum flooded with fake positive reviews (seriously, don't do that). I'm telling you this because nothing beats a genuine positive review from a happy client. Everything about a genuine review is superior to a shoddy fake positive review, from the tone of the review to the job-well-done feeling it leaves you with. For instance, there's a review one of my clients left me on my Google MyBusiness listing that was absolutely exquisite. I could've never written about our business relationship the way he did, and to this day, his review is still getting me contact requests.
Reach A Compromise
When all else fails, consider reaching a compromise with your disgruntled customers. For example, there have been times in the past where I've offered clients refunds after I said I didn't do refunds. There was even one time where I went as far as offering to help find one of my displeased clients a different business to work with (ha, let one of my competitors deal with them instead).
Ask A Moderator To Help You Mediate The Situation
If a buyer is threatening to take their concerns to the dispute resolution section, you can try to resolve the issue over a private conversation before it goes public. Some of us moderators even mediate these situations and try to help buyers and sellers reach a conclusion that leaves both parties happy.
However, keep in mind that moderators aren't here to be used as crutches for your poor business management skills. It's more important that you learn how to address negative reviews yourself, because if you receive a negative review outside of the forum, we can't help you.
You see, when a seller contests a negative review, the first thing we do is compare the negative review against the seller's report. Depending on the seller's claim, we'll do a mixture of looking for proof of purchase, contacting the buyer for information, and using our own tools to investigate the situation. I'm not going to get into the specifics of it as the exact procedures are for marketplace staff only.
The problem with this procedure is that if a seller sends in an inaccurate report, we can't take the appropriate action against the review.
For example, let's say there's a sales listing here with a negative review from a legitimate buyer that contains some false claims about the seller insulting the buyer. The seller will see this and reasonably want these false statements removed from their sales listing, so they send in a report saying that it's a fake review with someone they never did business with. "Ha ha, this will get the review removed for sure", is what goes through the seller's head. However, when a marketplace staff member comes across a 3-page conversation between the buyer and the seller with multiple order confirmations, it should come as no surprise that the report gets rejected and the seller potentially receives an infraction for abusing the report function.
The reason I provided the example above is because this makes up the majority of our "fake review" reports. If a seller simply states the real issue instead of pretending they never did business with the member, the post would either be edited or removed, depending on the issue.
Now, you might be wondering about the report you sent in today. When a seller has a history of sending in these types of reports or ones where the seller is hastily using the reports function, we'll be much more likely to reject the report to avoid wasting staff resources.
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