How to Respond to a Negative Review and Improve the Experience

You have a couple of unpleasant comments from your users and now you are thinking, How to respond to a negative review? Do not be alarmed, clients know that not everything in a business can be perfect or handled 100% well.

Not having a single negative comment creates the opposite effect. If the customer sees only positive comments, they will seriously believe that something is wrong and you are hiding it. So if you have a negative comment or review, what will transform this situation is your attitude towards it.

In this article we mention some psychological aspects, strategies and suggestions to be able to get away with a negative rating and increase the credibility of your business.

Table of Contents

Psychological aspects to take into account before answering a negative review

That you have asked yourself the question How to respond to a negative review? It implies that you have taken the pause not to go on impulse and answer whatever comes to mind.

To change the emotional state of a client you must start with yourself and your work team.

We describe some highly relevant psychological aspects to reduce the anger of a dissatisfied customers and retain them for a couple of years.

1. Serenity

If you are the type of leader who is overwhelmed by any criticism, it is best to let go of these types of comments and have your customer service team. This team will be a springboard for your company and it is the one that will be in charge of solving doubts and concerns 24 hours a day. This will give your users a better concept of your company.

Your team of professionals must be psychologically adapted to be calm, and thus be able to genuinely transmit this state of mind. Only in this way in the midst of annoyance or annoyance on the part of the user, he will be able to gain insight (or awareness) of his behavior and retract his attitude.

In addition to this, it is essential that you show concern for the questions of your community and develop a space for frequently asked questions.

2. Objectivity

It is essential to learn to separate the emotions that you have based on your business from the real problems or failures of the company. Thus, when a client makes a complaint, you will know if he is completely right or not.

Otherwise, you will end up immersed in a series of emotions that will cloud your judgment about the actions you should take to improve the experience of your business.

In order not to lose the attention focus of your company, it is important to continuously study its strengths and weaknesses. In this way, neither the emotional states of your employees, nor the criticisms of your customers will confuse you.

How can you develop objectivity?

Leave your client’s complaints in writing, if they mobilize you at that time, take some time to rest to read carefully.
If your authorized personnel are immersed in some emotions, stop to think if they are also losing objectivity.
Choose your authorized personnel through an Organizational Psychologist.
Practice mindfulness (mindfulness exercises) and meditation.

3. Responsibility

Sometimes just an “apology” is not enough. A study published in the ScienceDaily indicates that apologizing counts, but if other elements are immersed.

Basically, the chain works as follows: Apologies> expressions of regret> responsibility for the action> reinforcer.

An indicator that says you are taking responsibility for what happened is sending your client a letter of apology. This letter should have a pleasant and empathetic communication tone that indicates how sorry you are. In addition to this, it offers a reward for what happened: a discount on your next purchase, free shipping, a sample among others.

Note: You should not reinforce wrong behaviors in your clients just to save a “negative review”. Apologize when you have really made a mistake.

Although if you are one of those leaders whose motto is “the customer is always right”, you can give a brief explanation about their dissatisfaction.

4. Balance

Perhaps you are solely and exclusively observing the negative review. (Which is where you lose objectivity) . We illustrate you with an example:

“The product I have received meets all its characteristics but I thought it would be a little bigger.”

How to respond to a negative review? Simple:

“Mr. (Name of customer) we are deeply pleased that the product has exactly complied with the characteristics mentioned, we have taken into account your observation regarding the size and will evaluate if by enlarging it could lose any of its potential characteristics. Thanks for the recommended suggestions. “

From this point of view, does it seem entirely a negative comment?

5. Velocity

The time in which you take action on these apologies or responding to a negative review also has great relevance. A late apology may not elicit any positive reaction from an angry customer. And a very fast response can seem automatic and in some cases even false to the user.

Take the time to evaluate the reasonable time to submit a response with your marketing team. Also, take into consideration promoting all the psychological aspects already mentioned so that your negative review loses impact.

How to avoid negative reviews and why your clients have the answer

When a web design is made, interactions, a lead magnet, a contact box are included. All of these are processes that your client will experience. Who better than him to tell you how he feels?

The better you know their needs, the less negative comments will exist in relation to your business. Let him know that he is part of your progress and that his opinion is valid.

For this reason, if you have included new software for example, send him an email asking him how his user experience has been.

In addition to this, it executes other actions such as:

1. Is willing to change

There is no use in continually apologizing if you do not take action on constructive criticism in relation to your business. If you do not take an action plan, the negative comments will not disappear, but will increase.

What actions can you change to improve your customer experience? Don’t worry, take care.

2. Manage complaints

It is important that you group the complaints objectively starting from the most relevant to the least relevant. It is also necessary to outline the complaints by:

Region.
Country.
Purchase frequency.
Magnitude of the complaint.
Comment issuance time.

This will largely make you manage your speed at a pace where you can eliminate the annoyance and create satisfaction. There are millions of free and paid software that can help you in this job of handling complaints.

Create a follow-up

Once you have outlined all the complaints by product, service, region, frequency of customer purchases and have taken action on the negative evaluation, it is time to follow up.

Very few clients expect that after having responded to a negative review you will ask them again how their situation continues. A follow-up can turn a negative review into a recommendation.

And hopefully, your client will share this experience through their social networks, thus increasing potential clients.

Evaluate complaints statistically

The numbers are an objective way to measure the progress of your business. So don’t group complaints by numbers but by percentage. So if, for example, you have 20% complaints and 80% negative comments, you will not lose the progress that your business has.

If you only quantify them by numbers you could be overwhelmed and believe that your strategies are giving the wrong results. This is an effective way to not be so hard on yourself and your business progress.

And this will not only help to have real monitoring of the comments, but also the score that your website has. Since if it is scored less than 2 points, this can have other collateral damage in other marketing strategies, such as advertising spaces.

If your score goes between 2 and 3 stars, the quality of your advertising spaces will decrease considerably. The dynamics of advertising impressions and consequently their cost will change.

3. Create real expectations of what your customer service is

If you cannot be aware of your clients 24 hours a day, be sincere about it. Because if you announce to be and your client agrees to call at any time, their anger will only increase.

Take care of explaining how your customer service mechanics are so that they will have more realistic expectations of your service.

Leave a call to action with your business WhatsApp account.
Use a newsletter where you attach the email address.
Leave your Skype address for a real-time video call.

Describing the mechanics of your business is describing the real expectations of your business and what your customers face if they decide to purchase your product or service.

4. Be upfront with the return theme

You have been in charge of promoting the characteristics, advantages and benefits of your product or service and yet it still fails to meet the expectations of your client when they obtain it.

What are the policies that cover your return?

By use.
Due to factory defects
For not meeting customer expectations.

It is necessary that this point is sufficiently explained so that the customer knows what he is facing after the purchase. Try to be honest but not alarmist, because you could interrupt the intuitive buying process.

5. Respect the stipulated times

In addition to the guarantee, something that must be explicitly valued from customers and this is their time. If, for example, on your website, it indicates that the arrival deadline to your destination is fifteen days, this must be the specific deadline.

Even if you receive it a while before you will feel satisfaction. But if you don’t keep your word, you will have a dissatisfied customer and you will easily have a negative review. Therefore, you must be fully responsible with the information you provide to your customers in the purchase process.

Advertisements must be persuasive, not misleading.
Quickly specify when a product is not available, or few are left in stock.
If the shipment will take a little longer than agreed, send an email to your client specifying the reasons for the late shipment.

6. Use social media to broaden the perspective that has been created of your business

If the customer after making a purchase in your company felt unpleasant and left a negative comment, you need to expand the idea they have in relation to your business. Once you have taken the relevant actions, interact with him through social networks.

Expanding the perspective of your business through Twitter, Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram can transform the life of your business.

If you have received a negative evaluation and you transform it, that may be well seen in the eyes of Google. So you have taken a positive event out of a bad situation.

7. Skip having automatic ratings

Companies can become obsessed with the idea of having positive reviews, with some making the decision to buy a few. The user is increasingly intuitive and intelligent, so having a number of positive reviews from “anonymous” users will only lead to mistrust.

Better to have a few positive but real customer ratings who can relate their experience with the service.

If the assessment is inappropriate or rude, notify Google: The client must also comply with a series of policies and regulations in Google. If you have come across a comment that is not only negative but offensive, report it so that the user also receives penalties.

The idea is to have a prudential balance. Only when you meditate in advance that the qualification is offensive and that it violates some rules.

Final tips to get positive ratings and reduce the question How to respond to a negative review?

We know that sometimes a negative rating can spell chaos for your business. For this reason, you must go one step ahead of your buyer and choose suitable moments or rituals to request a positive evaluation. According to buffer data, 70% of customers leave a review if the company asks for it.

What are the most suitable moments? We mention some below:

At the end of the purchase process. Wait a couple of hours and send him an invitation through the channel where the purchase was made. This will make you confirm if your purchase process is really satisfactory or there are some aspects to improve.
After having received a label of the garment, product or service on social networks. If the consumer has labeled you, it is because they are satisfied with the product.
If you see on your heat map that they spend time browsing. he has made purchases and continues to visit your website, send him an email with an invitation to create a review.
By referrals. Word of mouth marketing is foolproof. If a new potential client has arrived on the recommendation of an already loyal one, it is time for you to ask them for an assessment about what they think of your business.
When you notice euphoria or happiness . How do you identify this moment? After the intuitive purchase process, the client will praise you in relation to the purchase. You can take advantage of this small space to request an assessment.