It's not too bad if customers periodically scold the company. The problem arises at the moment when employees or owners of companies react to criticism incorrectly or leave it unattended.
It is believed that negative feedback is a negative asset of the company, which indicates the problems in the image and reduced customer loyalty to the company.
But in practice, we see that this is one of the points of view, which greatly hinders the objective assessment of the situation and the understanding of the real attitude of the audience to the brand or company. For example, negative reviews are very different in nature and there are special approaches in regards to working with them. We told about it in one of our articles - Protection against unscrupulous competitors.
Today, we will talk about how to work with negative comments and maintain the image of the company or product.
The nature of negative reviews
There is a well-known rule in the field of trade: “If a client likes something, he will enjoy it in silence, and if something goes wrong, then everyone will know about it.”
People always seek to share negative experiences, to find like-minded people and support, and not to be alone with the problem in difficult situations.
It is clear that there are different situations and it is impossible to satisfy 100% of the needs of all customers in work. Therefore, negative feedback is a natural reaction. A person may have heightened expectations from a product or service, delivery of goods may be delayed, the control system of the site may fail, the delivery may be disrupted due to force majeure. All these are natural factors that customers do not like, and you should be prepared for this.
To be ready for the negativity is to have the experience, knowledge, and mechanisms to transform the negativity towards increased loyalty. Even if the client keeps his opinion but replaces anger with a neutral attitude - it will be a success.
Disagreements with customers occur because of the incorrect reaction of employees of companies and potential consumers begin to avoid such a company. You must make it clear to new customers that you always make contact and try to solve any problem.
How to deal with negative reviews?
Before we consider the basic technologies of dealing with negative, we will give one illustrative example:
Gary Vaynerchuk is a famous writer, entrepreneur and Internet person. In 2011, he presented his book “The Thank You Economy” and during the promotion announced that he was ready to answer any questions related to the book, personally.
One of the authors of the popular online publication Techcrunch, decided to call Gary, but could not do it, wrote an emotional post - "Gary Vaynerchuk, Thank You For Ignoring My Calls". This would undoubtedly ruin Gary’s reputation if it were not for his instant response. He recorded a video message in which he apologized, thanked for the interest shown and said that he was at important meetings and could not answer the call. He promised to answer each call in the future whenever possible. And asked for forgiveness again.
He could answer that he is not obliged to answer calls 24/7, or that he has personal affairs and he will not drop them to answer. But no, he confirmed the words of the author of the article but validated them with facts. This evokes emotions in people, which means that Gary's persona has become more interesting for the audience.
Do you understand the message? - Even if you have negative reviews on your site, this is a chance to use it to increase customer loyalty. You should make the conflict situation resolution bring positive emotions to people.
How to do it?
- Do not hide from the problem - try to always respond to the negativity and solve the problem with all available means.
- Communicate personally with clients - Try to contact the author who has left a negative comment and find out the details in person, whenever possible. Wiremo is always on your side and provides a complete set of tools for personal communication with a disgruntled customer.
- Respond to aggression – Wiremo service allows you to edit frankly aggressive reviews with obscene language, insults.
- Understand the problem and try to find a solution - after communicating with a disgruntled customer, do not leave him alone with the problem. Try to resolve the conflict and let him know that the situation has been fixed. Reward your customer with Wiremo Triggers for pointing out your vulnerabilities and helping you become better. Promise that the next order will not cause difficulties.
It is necessary to solve the problem, and not try to please customers. You are unable to please everyone. Do not forget that if you do what the buyers want, it will doom you to failure. Act correctly and do not forget that even negativity can be used to your advantage.
