You Got a Bad Review, Now What?

You got a negative review! Yikes! You didn't want that customer to be disappointed, but things don't always go as planned. Now you're left wondering what to do next. When your world is dark, the rain is pouring, and that negative review is staring back at you on the screen, now what? For starters, you can use a negative review as an opportunity to improve your business!

At first, a negative review can be hard to swallow. But every entrepreneur knows that to grow your business, you have to learn from your mistakes and improve. So when you look at negative reviews for what they are—opportunities for improvement—it's easy to get past the initial sting and focus on how you can use this information to help your business thrive!

Find out where the review is.

Sitting back and waiting for a negative review to show up may not be the best strategy, but it’s one that many business owners employ. And after all, you might get lucky and not have to deal with any reputation issues at all.

But if your luck runs out, what do you do? And how can you avoid getting into this situation again?

Identify what you could have done better.

Once you know what went wrong, it’s time to identify what you could have done better. Here are a few ways to improve the situation:

• Ask your team members if they know anything about the incident. They might be able to provide some insight about whether or not more information was provided by the customer and you’re just unaware of it.

• Review feedback from customers that wasn’t as positive as you would like. If there are patterns in this feedback, it could help you see where and how things are going wrong with your products/services so that when a new customer comes along with a complaint, you can fix their issue before they even mention it!

• Review feedback from your team members on how to improve processes or other aspects of the business; sometimes even small changes can make all the difference!

Reply to the person who left the review.

We know what you're thinking: "If I ignore the bad review, maybe it'll go away." But it won't. If you don't respond, your customer will just feel ignored, and maybe even more annoyed. Research shows that responding to reviews can have a huge impact on Yelp ratings; some businesses have even seen an uptick in star rating after responding to negative reviews. Customers are also much more likely to return to a business after the owner has responded to the initial negative review. And remember: if your response is constructive and thoughtful, it might be helpful for other potential customers who are considering visiting your business as well.

So what's the best way to respond? First of all, make sure you do so within 24 hours. This way, you show that you take customer feedback seriously and are eager to address any issues they might have had with their visit or purchase. Plus, if you wait too long, your customers may think that you just don't care about their experience—which will only lead them further toward leaving another negative review!

Find out why your customer was unhappy and make it right.

Your negative review is an opportunity to earn your loyal customer’s respect—and the respect of other customers who see this exchange. Here’s how:

• Find out why your customer was unhappy and make it right. In many cases, the writer will indicate why they gave you a negative review: your service was slow, or you didn’t offer item X in stock. Use this information to improve your business and prevent future negative reviews by offering to give him or her the missing product, a discount on future purchases, or faster service next time. Respond quickly to show that you care about resolving issues promptly.

• Keep it positive! Don’t blame your employees for any problems if possible; doing so may reflect poorly on you and make matters worse for them! You can tell customers that you are making changes based on their feedback without pointing fingers at specific people or blaming them for long wait times due to a shortage of staff members during busy hours, etc..

Go over your businesses' policies and procedures for improved processes and customer service.

This is a learning experience. It’s time to get your team together to do a SWOT analysis.

SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. By doing this exercise you’ll get the team together to think about what went wrong, what could be improved and how to get feedback from customers.

It’s also a great opportunity to talk about your business's performance in general, not just the negative review.

While reviewing your businesses' strengths and weaknesses as a team, you can make a list of things you can improve on - it may even help you come up with some ideas that will boost your sales!

Ultimately, everyone has his or her own ways of dealing with bad business reviews. However, the golden rule of doing business is to always keep happy customers happy and to focus on making them happy. Remember that there's a difference between a bad review and a negative review. You can only control how you react to the former; the latter will be the responsibility of everyone involved in your company. That's why it's always good to keep an eye on your reputation and your customers' feedback.