Spinning Negative Reviews into Business Gold: Navigating the Highs and Lows of Feedback

Remember those sleepless nights after receiving that first negative review? Yeah, I've been there too. Join me, Jacob K Mead, on a journey through the highs and lows of business reviews on the Buy Time podcast. Together, we'll uncover the art of separating feelings from responses, and learn how to turn a potentially damaging feedback into a beacon of improvement. 

Reviews, whether positive or negative, shape the course of your business. They're not just words on a screen, but powerful tools to fine-tune your services and stand out in the crowd. We'll talk about how to actively seek them, and more importantly, how to respond to them. And remember, your response isn't just about defending your business; it's about showing potential customers that you genuinely value their opinions and strive for excellence. So put on your headphones, grab a notebook, and let's spin those reviews into business gold together!

Until next time... Follow on Instagram @buytimepodcast
Follow Jacob K. Mead on all the socials @jacobkmead

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hey everybody, this is Jacob K Mead, and this is the Buy Time podcast, where we discuss everything there is to know about buying back your time. Be sure to like and follow and share with somebody who needs to buy back their time. Enjoy today's episode. Welcome to another episode of the Buy Time podcast. My name is Jacob K Mead, I'm your host and we're going to be talking about everything there is to know today about reviews and why they are so important in your business, how to obtain them, how to reply to those negative reviews and how not to use emotion when you're replying back.

Speaker 1: 0:36

So let's dive in and let's learn about reviews. So it's inevitable. In your business, you're going to get reviews. Some of those reviews that you may get are going to be positive, and then you may end up with some of those negative reviews. Now, if you can think about it, think back to the first time you got a review. You probably felt extremely excited, especially if it was a positive review. You might have felt empowered and saying like, hey, I got this. But then what if it wasn't a positive review? What if it was something that was negative? What if it was something that you could have done differently? Think about how you responded and just give that some thought.

Speaker 1: 1:14

So, have you gotten reviews in your business and have you gotten negative reviews? If you haven't gotten negative reviews yet, there will be a time you get it. And it doesn't mean that you necessarily did anything wrong. But there may be some sense of confusion or their customer doesn't quite understand what they got, or maybe there was an issue with the particular product or service that you did provide. And I want to start there because I think it's so important that we learn kind of how to deal with that and how to manage it, because for me it was great when I was getting those five star reviews. I was constantly getting five star reviews and then I got a one star and I remember it was like a gut punch and I felt as if this person was just out to get me. And I think at that time it's been a while since I got that first negative review, but I just remember I could have hardly sleep because I was so annoyed with getting that one star review, because I looked at my phone and it was like 7.30 at night when I seen it come through and I was just tossing and turning and I just couldn't get a good night's rest because I didn't understand why this customer wasn't happy with our service, and that really got me thinking about a couple things.

Speaker 1: 2:24

Well, I'm the kind of person that always will learn from a mistake and will find every little bit of positivity in something that I might have done wrong. So I will look at it and say, okay, well, where's the positive side of this? I can learn from it? Okay, that's a positive side. And so I did that with the review. I looked at it and I said, okay, you know, this customer has a point, we could have done this better or we could have had a different policy in place.

Speaker 1: 2:51

And before I even respond back to any negative reviews, I always give myself 24 to 48 hours, and I do this because it gives me time to be able to calm down, relax, evaluate the situation and take emotion out of it. Because my business is something I value. It's something that I built from the ground up, and since I built it from the ground up, it's almost like my baby, my child, and when anyone's talking negative about your child, the first thing you want to do is get defensive. And so exactly the same with my business the first thing I want to do is I want to start getting defensive and say that's not how it is or that's not how we are. You can't do that, because if you do, you're not helping yourself and you're not showing potential customers what you can provide, and so I'm here to kind of help guide you with those negative reviews.

Speaker 1: 3:40

So let's talk about a negative review. Let's say a customer wasn't happy with your product or service. They left you a negative review and they stated I'm not happy with this product, it's super low quality. I was sold, I was sold it and the salesperson said it would be the best for me and it isn't. I will never do business with you again.

Speaker 1: 3:59

Sounds like a review that someone might leave if they got something. Maybe they are feeling buyer's remorse, or maybe they aren't happy with the product, or they don't find value in it after they've already purchased it, and so what I would do there is I would first take a step back and I would say what product did I sell them? Look at my product, look at my service and see if any of the claims that they're making are valid. So is it low quality? Is there something that can be improved? If there is, acknowledge that. Don't be defensive. Use it as a way that you can actually learn and grow from it. So acknowledge if there is an area that you can improve in and use that in your review.

Speaker 1: 4:36

So let's say there was something that you could improve in the way I would respond back to this person would be hi, thank you so much for your feedback. You always want to thank them first, no matter if it's a positive or negative. Thank them for their feedback because they took time out of their day to leave you a feedback. So make sure you're thanking them because, remember, you're writing these reviews for other customers, other potential clients to see. So I would say, hey, thank you so much for your feedback. I truly value your feedback and opinion.

Speaker 1: 5:04

After reviewing our product, I can see X, y and Z and state what that is Okay. Can you see that the product is of high standards? Could you see that maybe there was area of improvement in the product and you could state that in that review. Be open and honest with your customer, because when you're open and honest with your customer, other people are going to see this on that review page and they're going to look at it and say, hey, this company. They actually do care about me. Look how they respond to this person. So be open and honest about it. So that's one way that I would respond back, and then I would respond back with how you're going to rectify the situation. I'm deeply sorry that you feel the product doesn't meet your expectations. Please bring the product in and we'll take a look at it and evaluate it further and see what we can do to rectify the situation. Okay, that would be one way.

Speaker 1: 5:54

Oftentimes you always see a lot of business owners doing this. They'll respond back with that's not how it happened. This customer doesn't understand our product or service, or I'll see business owners respond back with a lot of emotion and get very angry and angered towards the person that's leaving the review. You leave all that emotion out. It's strictly business. You're in a business and then they're leaving a review base in your business they're not attacking you personally, so leaving motion out of it and just simply state the facts and state what you might have been able to learn from it.

Speaker 1: 6:28

Now let's talk about those good reviews. Good reviews are awesome to have too. So when you do get those good reviews, share them. Share them like crazy across all your social media platforms and make sure that your customers know that it's coming from someone else too, that you're not just saying you can do a good job. This person over here says that you do a great job. We have Sally that says you're doing a great job. Bob says you're doing a great job. People want to see that you're doing a great job and they want to hear it from other people. They don't just want to hear it from you. So get those reviews from those clients, from those customers that say hey, this is a good product or service. This business does know what they're doing, and I would recommend them even better. Yet, if you can get video reviews, that's really awesome, because you can use those on your social media sites. You can use them on your Facebook pages, you can use them on all of your social media sites. You can use them. But you can also use them on your website and as a review page, and that helps build credibility. So the more positive reviews you have, the more you build that credibility.

Speaker 1: 7:27

You should always ask for a review too. So if you've done a great job, because you are going to do a great job for your customer, you're going to ask for that review, you're going to say hey, so and so I would love it if you could take a moment out of your time and give me a review. It helps me be able to better understand my business and continue to grow. You'll find a lot of customers love giving you reviews when you simply ask, but you need to guide them in that direction of asking and making sure that they're aware that it's even an option, and that's something I do is I will take time and say hey, if I was able to help you in any way today. I really would appreciate it if you just took a moment of your day to leave me a review or send me a video review of how I did, because that's going to make the difference and you're going to start to see an increase of reviews coming through. But then you're also going to feel good about yourself. It's going to add a sense of self worth because you're able to help these people out and you're hearing them Thank you and you're hearing them Thank your business for helping them.

Speaker 1: 8:22

So that's on the good review side and we talked a little bit about on the negative review side. So I would love it if you guys can think of any kind of questions you might have or if there's any negative review that you're struggling on to reply to send me a DM directly. You can actually find me on Instagram and all the social media sites at Jacob K Mead, you'll find me on there. Just go ahead and send me a direct message and say, hey, I have this negative review I got. How would you respond? And I'll give you some free advice. I'll just kind of give you some ideas of how you can actually go and respond to that customer with removing all of that motion. So if you remove all that emotion, give you that free advice, I think you're going to find that it will help other customers see the way that your business handles this negative situation, because the last thing you want to do is start getting in a fight or a big ring back and forth with a customer because it doesn't show that you're professional.

Speaker 1: 9:16

So if you do need help with that, just go on my socials at Jacob K Mead, send me a direct message. I'll reply back and I'll help you out. We'll troubleshoot it together and we'll maybe figure out what might have been the issue or what you can maybe do differently in the business. And that's good too, if you can figure out what you can do differently in the business, that's awesome. It's happened to me. I'm like, hey, yeah, you're going to what You're right and I straight up tell the customer you're right, I could have done that differently and thank you so much for bringing it to my attention.

Speaker 1: 9:45

And get those good reviews, get them in, ask for them. People aren't just going to always give them to you. You have to ask and tell people hey, I really would appreciate you if you did this. Well, that is everything for today's podcast. I'm going to keep it a little bit short today because I want you to keep going out there getting those reviews and doing what you do best, which is running your business and working on your business. I can help in any way at Jacob K Mead on all the socials, and until next time, thanks for listening to today's episode. My name is Jacob K Mead and until next time.