How to Deal with Negative Reviews Online (In 6 Easy Steps!)

 Whether you’re running a small business or the owner of a large company, getting negative reviews online can feel like it’s the worst thing that ever happened. Seeing a lonely one-star review on your page can urge you to fight for your business through replying. 

Sometimes, when you get customer bad reviews, it’s best to leave them alone, knowing that you’re already aware of the issue and doing something about it. 

Other times, responding to negative reviews online is your only choice to show that your business hears the customer’s concerns, is understanding, and fair. Here’s how you can deal with negative reviews online in six easy steps! 

Responding to negative reviews online: 

• Take a deep breath before responding to negative reviews. 

Meditate. Say a little prayer. Write down in your journal. Do whatever you need to do to remain calm and not go beyond your emotions. Negative reviews online may seem like a personal attack but don’t let them get to you! Handle the situation professionally. 

Most customers leave negative reviews online due to the following reasons: 

• They experienced trouble and wants to a form of compensation. 
• They reach out to you to save you some trouble and correct errors. 
• They want to help other customers do the same mistakes. 

Now, how to respond to a negative review online? You hear them out. A negative review actually means suggestions to develop your business strategies better. It’ll help you in the long run! 

• Develop a game plan on negative reviews. 

So we’ve already learned that we should give our customers a chance to discuss their experience. But how do we do that? Start by developing a game plan. 

Global Presence suggests moving the discussion in private messaging, rather than in the eyes of the public. It’s like solving a personal problem between you and your wife. You don’t want the world to know your issues. You can ask them to send you an email via chat support, especially if the customer seems hotheaded. 

Another suggestion that we can give is to draft response templates so you’re quick to address similar issues. It’ll shorten down response time and provide efficient responses to customers and clients. But your response template shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all. Make sure that there’s a touch of personalization! 

Customers learn how to give a bad review online for us to do better. 

• Draft your reply. 

Start drafting your reply. Be clear in your point and direct to your response. 

When drafting a reply, keep in mind to be polite. Greet the customer, acknowledge their experiences and troubles, and whether your business is not on the right track. You can use some of the examples below: 

• “Hi, Jack! I understand that you experienced some unpleasant issues regarding our product.” 
• “Hello, Jacob. At your last appointment with us, we noticed that we failed to serve you on the level of standards that we promised.” 
• “Hello, Patrick. We saw that we didn’t fulfill your expectations. We want to make it up to you!” 

GPM tip: Customer gives bad reviews for a reason. Never attempt to undermine their insights with a copout response. Before you build a business, you should fully accept that you’re inevitable to criticisms. 

• Stop making excuses. 

If you have acknowledged loopholes in your services, avoid making excuses. Whether you’re at fault or not, reasoning out will show that you’re not fully owning up to your mistakes. 

If you’re using these languages, then you’re making excuses:

• “We’re totally sorry but..”
• “While we recognize our mistakes…”
• “We typically don’t experience this issue but…” 

Responding to a negative reviews online should express your 100% remorse over a fault committed. 

• Form the rest of your reply. 

When structuring your response, keep it simple and short. Try not to be too wordy and aim for five short sentences with clear and understandable language. For the perfect response template, you can use the following: 

• Greet the customer using their name
• Acknowledge the company’s faults
• Apologize for errors committed 
• Offer to make up for the lacking or assure a promise that you’ll provide better service 
• Try to make it right. 

Most successful companies offer a remedy when their business commits mistakes. Try to make it right! 

Offer a freebie or something like a refund. It should be accessible and easy to redeem. For example, provide a voucher for a free pizza that they’ll have to redeem on their next visit. 

Take control of the negative reviews online 

Any online review that your company receives is positive in a perfect world. This isn't realistic, unfortunately. While it may appear unfair, admission of negative reviews and preparation for them is important.

Learning how to deal with negative reviews online is part of every business. If you want to take control of your business’ reviews, you should consider social pages or online listings, which we offer. Reviews are most likely to pop up in these areas so it’s essential to have one. 

Reviews are important in any business aspect to track the sales performances of the product and service. Whether it’s good or negative reviews, both negative reviews and positive ones, see what the people are saying! 

If you still lack social pages or online listings, we have the right team and services to help. 

About Global Presence Marketing 

Global Presence Marketing is serving the business and marketing needs of international clients and partners. We are conveniently located at 10031 Pines Blvd #220, Pembroke Pines, FL 33024. For help, call (305) 501-4280 or send us a message through our Support Portal.

If you want to be proactive and have a simple solution to keep negative feedback offline, contact us to find out more.