Are you tired of those 1 stars and negative reviews that some people post about you?
Well, not all customers were made the same!
When you started off your business and got some good reviews, you must have been on cloud nine at that time. We know, nothing feels better than a bunch of satisfied customers posting good stories about you. But one day you had a bad or a 1-star review from someone, then it happened again and before you knew, the numbers went even higher – suddenly, the world felt like falling apart and you didn’t know what to do.
Did that happen with you?
Well, we want to tell you that you don’t have to worry about that anymore. Yes, we know 1-star reviews do not look so good on your profile but what we are going to tell you, is gonna make you think otherwise.
Having an all 5-star rated brand can be a problem
Most of the businesses out there with 5 Star badges on them, now look suspicious to the customers. As many people now believe that if a business only has 5 stars or positive reviews on them, there’s something fishy about that. People trust brands with both positive and negative feedback on them, as they look more natural. For example, there’s a brand that has 20 reviews in total and surprisingly all of them are rated 5 stars, on the other hand, there’s a brand that has 20 reviews with ten 5 stars, five 4 stars and five 2/3 stars on them. People would trust the brand with diverse ratings more than the all 5-star brand. The reason behind that is, people now understand that no business can be so perfect that not even a single person criticized them for any mistake. Also, it has become widely known that some companies pay huge sums to get fake ratings and reviews.
Replying to a 1-star review can create conformity
Giving them an answer for your mistake can create an honest reputation for your brand. As, when you reply to a person who has rated you with 1 star because of something – you’re not only replying to him/her but to all those who will see that comment or rating in the future. So, in this way you are defending your brand out of that poor experience, someone had and giving all the viewers a sensible explanation as to why should they not think the same way. Also, if you successfully give a reasonable reply to the person who had a bad experience, he/she may follow the reason and then tables could be turned for good.
Try to instill some marketing into the response for that review
Whenever you respond to a bad customer review, do that with full concentration and with strategy. Start off with an apology and acknowledge their concerns, doesn’t matter if they are right or wrong – just tell them, you’re sorry that they had to feel like this. Then, try to tell them about a good experience that some other person had with you and relate it to the reviewer’s problem with a good explanation. Try to tell them that it is not very usual to happen. If things seem to be a little rough, try to have contact with them offline where you can settle things down in a much better way. In the end, just keep in mind that your answer must be precise and polite, don’t even think of using any harsh words or foul language.
Remember, 1-star reviewers are also our customers and our goal should be to make them our 5-star reviewers. A lot of the times our customers worry about negative reviews they got. In our experience from collecting millions of reviews, we actually have seen that negative reviews aren’t necessarily bad.
Ryan Bonnici from G2 Crowd recently published an article on Entrepreneur.com which we totally agree with. Read it here.