How to handle negative customer reviews?

Negative comments and reviews are almost inevitable no matter how hard a business may try to offer    best products and services. It is near impossible to make everyone happy, and mistakes can happen even with the most diligent businesses.  A dissatisfied customer can have an adverse impact on your brand reputation and sale potential. That is because prospects prefer to look for social validation before making a purchase nowadays. Negative reviews will turn them away from your brand.

As brands can’t be perfect always, addressing negative reviews when they crop up is the best way to maintain a sound reputation online. If they remain unaddressed, you will keep losing valuable customers to competitors. Instead of hiding them, you must try to address issues of disgruntled consumers to deliver a better experience.

Now, the most important question is how to deal with negative reviews? If you are struggling to deal with negative reviews of customers, here are 5 important tips to handle them professionally:

1. Respond to bad reviews fast and don’t hide

Respond to negative reviews fast and in public views. It is natural to have negative feedback from dissatisfied customers and it is not the end of the road for your business. They have placed their dissatisfaction so that their issues are resolved immediately. Respond to these reviews fast and show a willingness to resolve their issues. Quick responses would be helpful in reducing damage caused by bad comments to your brand. Moreover, this may help in getting a more favourable and modified review after resolution of their problems.

Further, addressing a bad review publicly helps to show your concern about improving customer experience. This would create a positive impact on potential customers and avoid losing them.

2. Keep an eye on negative reviews

Customers use a variety of channels and platforms to write online reviews for a brand. The platforms where customers may leave their comments are Google, Facebook, Yelp and others. As consumers use a variety of channels to give feedback, it is easy to miss negative reviews. If the problem remains unaddressed, your brand is more likely to lose valuable customers. Thus, keeping an eye on reviews is important to offer a quick resolution.

Social media platforms are largely used to discuss brands, services, and products. These are also potential sites where feedback is given by consumers. To keep track of the negative comments, social media monitoring tools are helpful. After finding the negative remarks, you can respond to customers for immediate resolution of their issues.

3. Write a personalized message to customers

Brand loyalty of customers is built on trust and great prices. Trust comes to consumers when a brand cares about customer service to resolve issues and concerns.

In dealing with negative reviews of customers, it is important to show your concern to win the trust of consumers. That will reflect your commitment to improving customer experience by writing a personalized message to dissatisfied customers. Of course, customers may have valid reasons to be upset with the service, such as broken product, delay, and other issues. Getting a personalized message with an unconditional apology will show your readiness to offer a resolution in a professional manner.

4. Show positives without ignoring negatives

Negative reviews are not that bad that many brands think. The best customer care team thinks as an opportunity to engage with real customers and improve their key customer care metrics. The negative feedback shows improvement areas that your brand needs to work upon.

Set a lighter tone while replying to customer’s feedback to shift focus. But, it doesn’t mean that you should ignore the complaint of consumers. Ignoring the complaints can aggravate the frustration of customers and they can avoid making any future purchase. So, show the positive side of your brand while addressing the issues of the customer properly.

Conclusion

Dealing with negative reviews of customers can be frustrating and bewildering for brands. But, that doesn’t mean they are not important and can be ignored. Respond to the negative reviews of customers to address their concerns and issues fast. The reply should be light, personalized, and resolution-focused to prevent consumers from turning away from your brand. In this way, you can turn negative feedback into positive ones, and improve your brand reputation online.

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