How to deal with negative reviews

Receiving negative feedback is always going to happen at some point, no matter what industry you are in. I remember when I first started off working online; I had set up a page selling my artwork at 15 and I wasn’t too sure how to market my products properly. Back then, digital marketing was still so new and I don’t think anybody expected it to take off as much as it has. However, I was thoroughly enjoying my first little business – until I received my first negative review.

According to website Statista, “Only 6% of consumers don’t trust customer reviews at all” so when I received my first bad review, I knew it mattered and needed addressing.

Fast forward years later and I’ve learned to expect the occasional negative review; I’ve had various side businesses since my first art page from blogging to makeup artistry and like I said, it’s unreasonable to expect that everyone will be happy with your work. It isn’t the nicest feeling at first, however, I have collated my top tips on dealing with negative reviews online and not letting it impact your business…

People REALLY trust reviews, so respond quickly to the bad ones

Did you know that “91% of millennials trust online reviews as much as friends and family”? (Source: Brightlocal) So it is important when you get a bad review to deal with it quickly.

Responding in a timely manner to any review is important as it shows that you genuinely care about the comments you are being left. Before you do though, make sure the review is genuine and you are not being “trolled”. Feeding trolls by replying to their negative comments is a dangerous path to go down.

Responding quickly is about making sure no-one is thinking that you’re refusing to acknowledge reviews and showing that you care.

Don’t get angry; be professional

While you may want to send back a sarcastic, and what you may think is witty, response, this isn’t going to present your business (or yourself!) in a professional manner.

Therefore, when dealing with negative reviews, ensure that you respond in an appropriate way and view the negative review as constructive criticism.

Can you fix the problem?

If the negative review is about something that is genuinely wrong with your products or website that you perhaps hadn’t picked up on before, you will want to make changes so it doesn’t happen again. Chances are that if one person has noticed it, multiple people probably have too.

It’s best to take action rather than sitting and waiting for more negative reviews to come in.

Reviews are just one way to add credibility to your business…

Founder Dan did a video way back in 2015 about how to add credibility to your business. These tricks still work today and reviews are just one of the ways. Check it out here.

If you need help setting up Google My Business to collect reviews for your organisation, let us help. Contact us here.


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