How to Handle Stingy Reviews
Robin Singh
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How to Handle Stingy Reviews? How to make new customers through reviews?
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“Relative anonymity” is a golden opportunity used by most customers when they have not been giving the best product or service. This is when customer reviews begin to sting. And, when someone doesn’t appreciate or like it, things can take a toll on your brand reputation in the long run. You must understand the silver lining in online reviews: customers take time and share hundreds of feedbacks online. Every feedback, both positive and negative, are important. While it’s natural to get pushed on the back foot due to negative feedback, it should rather become a driver for improvement.
Every negative feedback can be used to improve your products and services while getting incorporated in a knowledge base software at the same time. So, how will you handle negative customer reviews? When your brand receives stingy reviews, what you are ought to do?First of all, you must appreciate the fact that both your brand and the customer are not “perfect”. What matters is how you handle imperfection. Your steps and attitude really count. With this being said, here is a simple overview on how to handle every stingy review you get. There are interesting strategies for converting stingy reviews into something positive. -
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#1 Business Leaders should play a role!
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Every day, business leaders handle multiple issues related to customers, vendors and internal teams. They have so many responsibilities and roles to fulfill. When compared to an individual team member, the work done by business leaders is quite delicate.
Responding to customer reviews is not treated as a task for leaders. However, it is important for leaders to understand the importance of customers. When feedbacks and responses are made by a company’s General Manager or business owner, it will have a better reach. When people on top of the latter take ownership of the mistakes and pledge for an improvement, it’s good enough to sweep customers off their feet.Experts reveal that small business leaders take time and respond to every online review personally. This gives customers a sense of importance. In the long haul, these customers will stay connected with your business. At all times, the top priority of your business should be “customer satisfaction”. Regardless of what happens behind the scenes, you must treat the happiness of your customers on priority. -
Go beyond traditional methods
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A lot of businesses (both big and small) rely on common review platforms like “Yelp”.
Undeniably, “Yelp” is a leader when it comes to business reviews. However, millennials who have not gone through Yelp may miss your business. Even if your business enjoys high dominance in Yelp, customers who don’t visit this website will not know about you. This means you should look beyond Yelp. Negative reviews must be responded in several places. You can use other platforms like Zagat, TripAdvisor, Facebook, Google Reviews and OpenTable. These are reliable platforms for responding to customer reviews.
When your business is based on a specific niche, choose sites that are meant for your industry. This off beats traditional review websites.
In all the review sites, you must ensure high levels of consistency. “Consistency” in all the platforms is powerful and is a “golden thumb rule”.
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Tailor Meaningful and Specific Responses
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Do you know that negative reviews offer you an opportunity to stand out? In most cases, responses to both positive and negative reviews are repetitive and generic. In fact, some responses can be frustrating and meaningless. This can send loyal customers away.
As a rule, you must put some effort while responding to reviews. Try to give the response a personal touch. Use a reliable knowledge base software to put an end to frequent customer concerns and to get acquainted to their expectations. Then, respond to the review. Now, the customer will feel important. Because you have spent some time and learned more about them before responding to their review.
Here are few mistakes you must avoid while responding to stingy reviews:
- Never copy a response from elsewhere. This doesn’t add value to your brand or the customer. Instead, use an FAQ software to understand more about the customer, the product, and the need. Copying responses is an offensive move. It means that you have not given any value to the issue.
- Never apologize for the inconvenience caused. When you apologize for the inconvenience, you are not focusing on the actual issue. Also, it means that you are not interested in converting it to something better. Apologizing for the inconvenience caused means that you are trying to breeze over the actual issue.
- During the response, steer away from “this”. “This” is not a sign of active listening. It can mislead readers. Never say, “we are absolutely sorry for this”. Instead, talk more about what “this” represents.
- Don’t use a robotic language while responding to negative customer reviews. Speak in a voice that validates the fact that you are genuinely making an effort, and not faking it.
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Match Your Voice and Tone
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Moving on, you must be very careful with your voice and tone. Try to be someone who is respectful, courteous and kind. You must be a gracious person. These are characteristics a customer can sense!
When you respond to a stingy review, a gracious tone can mean many things. Try to use appreciative and warm words. This way readers will be encouraged to reconsider their experience. “Gracious behavior” can disarm the most-stubborn person in the room. It increases the chances of you converting angry customers into loyal ones.
Gracious responses to negative reviews will have an immediate impact on your brand. You don’t need to wait for several months!
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Closing Thoughts
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Finally, you should step into the shoes of honesty. A negative review may not be the customer’s experience or mistake all the time. It could be because of your product or service too. If a customer is unsatisfied, you have gone wrong somewhere. In such situations, bring more clarity to the incident. You don’t have to be edgy with anyone. If it was your mistake, go ahead and be honest!
Honesty can attract more customers to your brand. More customers will start paying close attention to who you are.
If possible, touch honesty with some of the world’s best-personalized apologies. This is a must-have skill for tackling stingy reviews.