Like a sixth finger, negative reviews stick out from the pack and cause embarrassment for the recipients. In the online world where brands have only their reputation to cash, poor reviews can be the real damage. Yet, we have seen that no matter how great a brand’s standing is among its customers and users or […]
Like a sixth finger, negative reviews stick out from the pack and cause embarrassment for the recipients. In the online world where brands have only their reputation to cash, poor reviews can be the real damage.
Yet, we have seen that no matter how great a brand’s standing is among its customers and users or how exceptional its products or services are, it will always find itself at the bitter end of the deal – now and then.
Again, brands often have a hard time dealing with bad feedback. The best way to deal with it, however, is to find the best responses to bad reviews and settle the issue for the rest of them.
In this blog, we will take a look at negative review response examples and discuss 5 steps of the process of replying to negative reviews.
In the early days, brands were not very keen on responding to negative reviews. They would ignore them altogether, thinking that it would prompt other users to do the same. However, these things do not get out of the spotlight easily.
Today, even the most naive brand knows that there is no way around receiving and ignoring poor reviews. They are open to all and can cause irreparable damage to the brand’s name and its standing. Still, there is a thin red line that they fear to tread where handling a poor review could lead to a full-on crisis.
We understand the caution and come up with this blog where we will cover some negative review response templates along with the strategy to cope with situations like these.
Reviews are not there to get attention from users and prospects. It is about connecting with them and start communicating on different elements. The importance of responding to negative reviews can be made clear from the fact that now there are dedicated teams to deal with the reviews, ratings, and all sorts of feedback.
Let us take a look at the importance of responding to a negative review with a simple case.
Say you receive a poor review from a user. There are two plausible ways of moving further in this direction. Either you ignore the review or you reply to it and take the matter further. In the former case, it will remain there for all the users to see and they will think that the brand does not care about the customers and clients. In the second case, the issue will get resolved and everyone will see that you indeed are a people’s brand.
In addition to this, even search engines take cues from these interactions. When the crawlers see that a brand is proactive in responding to negative reviews, they will prompt the search engine to improve the rankings and indexing of the brand’s online assets.
So, it is a win-win for brands, at both human and online levels.
Since we understand how intimidating the process can be, we have shared some of the complaints and their plausible responses in this section. If you are looking for the best review management tool for your online business, TrustAnalytica takes the cake with a great margin. Learn more about the excellent solutions from the company today!
I received my low-cal salad last night. It was stale and smelled foul. I had to throw it away and curse the fact that I ordered from your restaurant.
We are sorry your experience was not the ideal one for you. As per your feedback, we have also opened an internal inquiry to ensure quality standards. We would like to compliment your next order with a free dessert, as a token of our apology. Let us know if you want to add more to your review and we will resolve the matter for you!
Your staff was very rude. I was trying to reserve a room two weeks in advance but they were not providing complete information. It was the worst experience I have ever endured in my life.
Thank you for your candid review. We apologize that our staff’s behavior seemed unprofessional to you. As for the reservation, we humbly ask you to go through our terms and conditions page for updated information. As a token of our gratitude, we would like to offer you a meal on your next stay at our hotel. Thank you very much!
We love your food. We believe that it is the best Indian place in NYC. Still, the vibes there were off. We were sitting there on a Monday night and the music was so loud we could barely speak to one another. It was a big letdown.
It was shocking to see such unprofessional behavior from our staff. We are a fun-friendly place where people can enjoy Indian food with their loved ones. Much of the experience of our place is about vibes. We will look into the matter and resolve it for good. We hope that you forgive this one discretion and continue to visit your favorite joint in NYC.
Horrible is not even the right word to explain how bad your front desk service was. We waited hours before we got called into the office and yet we had to wait two more hours. Worst possible experience and the discounts could not cut it for the frustration.
We are sorry to hear that you had to wait for a long time in our offices. We strive to streamline the process of wait time and then attending to our clients. Still, as a token of gratitude, we would like to offer you the first slot of the day on your next visit. We hope this will settle the unpleasantness you endured on your last visit.
There is no point in having good reviews if you are going to spoil them for nothing. I was confident but the staff was rude. They charged me extra for services that I did not even use. The biggest letdown for users like me.
We thank you for providing an honest picture of the services that you received. It is embarrassing for us to let down a customer like you. Kindly contact our customer support team and we will make sure that all the matters are settled in the best and swiftest possible way. We assure you that it will not happen again.
Now that we have covered the response templates and complaints from bad reviews, let us go through the simple steps that can lead to winning the hearts and minds of the users.
Sometimes, a bad review can lead to frustration and anger. This is normal but it is best to mask the real emotions and save the brand from further embarrassment. The best way to remain calm in these situations is to thank the user for taking the time to post the response.
The next step is to post a full response to their reviews. Instead of relying on a negative review response template, you should compose a custom response that highlights the problem and suggests plausible solutions. Many bad review examples become worst when the users see generic responses from the brands.
As mentioned in the previous section, it takes time to post a review, whether good or bad. Even if the contents of the review were not the ideal ones, you can show gratitude and ensure that the users are now in line with the thinking of the brand.
Behind the best responses and templates, there could be a real serious problem with your customer. Instead of running away from it, address the issue and suggest a line of action for the user. If they are willing to walk that line, it will help your brand further improve its online reputation.
It is not enough to simply apologize and show gratitude. If you do not demand another round, they will go to your competitors and might take others with them. So, ask for the next chance and improve things on your end. This will turn disgruntled users into the most loyal ones.
When it comes to reviewing management and monitoring, it is best to have a dedicated tool that can do all the heavy lifting on your behalf. Even though we have shared a complete guide and templates for negative review responses, you need to have a watch guard to keep online chatter surrounding your brand in mind.
TrustAnalytica does not need any introduction when it comes to the best review management and monitoring tools. It comes with multiple locations, a dedicated dashboard, and a notifications panel. So, what are you waiting for? Integrate it with your business site today and stay on top of the developments in the online world.
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