No matter how hard you work on your business, getting negative feedback, whether right or wrong, will eventually happen. So, you may be wondering how to handle negative feedback about your business. The way that you respond to the feedback can make a big difference in how it will impact the reputation of your business and the attraction and retention of customers. Often, potential customers look up reviews before deciding to work with a business, so it’s important to make the best impression possible. In this article, we go over techniques for responding to negative comments in order to help you maintain a strong presence for your company.

How to Handle Negative Feedback about Your Business

Respond Quickly

Responding quickly to a negative comment shows that you care about your customer’s problems and want to resolve them as soon as possible. But when you first see a negative comment, you may start to feel defensive. In these cases, give yourself some time to calm down before you write a comment. This way, you will respond with an objective mindset, rather than reacting with emotion and taking the situation personally.

Listen to Your Customers

You can help to prevent negative complaints, to begin with, by actively listening to the needs of your customers. Use surveys on a regular basis in which you ask customers what they liked about your products or services and what they think could be improved. You can also monitor online comments about your company.

Show Sincerity

Knowing how to handle negative feedback about your business includes showing sincerity when you are dealing with a customer who has a complaint. First, acknowledge the problem in your response. This validates the issue and makes the customer feel that they have been heard. For example, if a customer ordered a product and received the wrong item, you might say “I’m very sorry that the wrong item was delivered.” This is a more satisfying response than simply posting a general comment such as “We received your message and will reply shortly.”

Own the Problem

Part of showing sincerity in your response is owning the problem that occurred rather than making excuses for it. It can be tempting to offer an excuse such as saying that a machine had broken down or that you were short-staffed, but these were your internal problems, which do not concern your customers. They are concerned with the results of their own experience. So instead of trying to make excuses, let the customer know what you will do to rectify the situation.

Solve the Problem

Resolving problems in a way that is fair and satisfies customers is important for maintaining a good reputation for your brand. Monitor your reviews for patterns of customer complaints to see what you can improve in your business.

Once you have posted a comment responding to a customer complaint, resolve the issue in private so that you can get more details about the problem and get identification from the customer. To do this, ask the customer to contact you. Depending on the situation, some of the ways that you can resolve a problem include giving a refund, allowing a product to be returned, or offering store credit.

A coach can help you to improve the customer satisfaction in your business. Get in touch today!