Updated: 17th November, 2023 Customer feedback has become a big part of the online facade of a business. Not long ago, brands were not only concerned about the sales copy and glittery posters across the virtual and real world. The users had very little to no say in the matter at all. With the rise […]
Updated: 17th November, 2023
Customer feedback has become a big part of the online facade of a business. Not long ago, brands were not only concerned about the sales copy and glittery posters across the virtual and real world. The users had very little to no say in the matter at all.
With the rise in social media, the internet has become a constant sea of content with a large chunk produced and posted by users. Much of that is about brands, their name, products, and services. Brands have devised different methods to collect, process, and leverage bad review examples, but it is still a headache for them.
In this blog, we will take a look at negative reviews showing up, the importance of responding to a negative review, and some negative review response templates for your aid.
Keeping negative reviews and their impact in mind, it is hard to debate whether there is any brand that is superb and extremely well-received by its customers. When we take this issue internally, brands often find themselves in the cross-hair to listen to customer feedback and make changes in the products or services or keep doing the way they are already.
Negative feedback from users is always inevitable. It does not matter how great a brand’s services or products are, they are always looking out for malicious actors trying to sabotage their name and brand. Following are some of the reasons why brands receive flak from online users:
In this day and age, brands cannot sit back and let the users, both real and fake, sabotage the integrity they have created over the years or decades. There are always professional ways to counter the negative narrative.
Not too long ago, brands used to ignore negative reviews altogether. They believed that simply not acknowledging the bad feedback will resolve the issue itself. As research and real cases have shown, it is detrimental to a brand at multiple levels. On one hand, human users see and take notice of negative reviews. If they see too many poor comments and reviews on a brand’s profile, they end up leaving the brand for good, resulting in lost revenue from customers.
On the other hand, search engines take leads from onsite and offsite signals. Customer reviews make up a big chunk of those signals. It is interesting to note that only positive reviews do not account for positive signals. Even professional handling and resolution of issues in negative reviews show the search engines and eventually the human users that the brand is indeed trustworthy.
Brands are often baffled by the negative reviews stacking up in their comment sections. There is no denying that they want to see that section populated with glowing 5-star reviews. Yet, they need to deal with these one-star reviews with often no comments.
In this section, we will cover some strategies for good responses to negative rating comments and testimonials.
Show Gratitude Anyways
Being a human who has been publicly thrashed for what he built, brands do not like to show gratitude for negative reviews. But if you look closely, it takes as much time to write a poor review as it is to write a positive one. Instead of pouting for negative sentiment, thank the user for the effort and lead the conversation in a direction that ends up in the resolution of the issue.
Acknowledge & Apologize
There is nothing simple about dealing with reviews, be they positive or negative, especially the latter ones. Still, when showing gratitude is not enough, it is time to acknowledge the users and apologize for the bad taste in their mouths. This is a slippery slope as anything could happen. The best way to move forward is to keep it vague enough so that no element from the brand comes directly under it.
Look Toward Customer Service
Customer service is about receiving complaints or issues from users, processing them internally, and then resolving the issue for the users. When you receive a negative review, it is time to look inward and improve the product, services, delivery channels, and so on. Keep in mind that one-star reviews with no comments could be coming from seriously hurt users. So, it is necessary to probe into the incident and ensure quality customer support.
Move The Conversation To the Private Line
So you have received a poor review in the interactive section and you posted the initial response. There is no point in carrying this conversation forward publicly as it could lead to embarrassment for the brand. The best private lines include phone calls, emails, DM for social media accounts, and so on. Once the issue is resolved, you can request the user to edit the original post or remove it altogether for a positive one.
In this section, we will cover some of the positive review reply examples for negative review responses. This will help brands in getting traction with the aggrieved parties and other users across the board.
Example: 01
Dear Customer, thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. We apologize for the poor experience and be happy to upgrade your package for our premium service as a token of affection. Kindly connect with our customer service to avail of the offer.
Example: 02
We are sorry you did not have the experience with our product that you were looking for. As a gesture of goodwill, we are willing to refund the cost or send you a replacement unit. Kindly connect with our customer service to get further assistance.
Example: 03
We apologize that you had a lackluster experience with our services. It has never happened to us so we want to make things right for you. If you are willing, we want to refund the complete amount for this service. Get in touch with our customer service team to walk through the process.
Example: 04
Thank you so much for informing us about your experience with our services. We are sorry that you did not enjoy the experience but we want to make things right with you. Contact our customer support team to get a full refund or a replacement product, whatever you like.
Example: 05
It is not every day that we receive such one-star reviews from our customers. But if you are not satisfied with the services, we are willing to reimburse the full amount as a token of goodwill. Kindly contact our customer services team as they will help you walk through the steps of the process.
In many cases, one-star reviews are fake and are only there to harm the credibility of the brand. In that case, simply replying politely or professionally to them is not enough. This section is dedicated to helping users and brands report fake reviews on Amazon, Facebook, and Google.
Amazon
There are two ways to report fake one-star rating reviews on Amazon:
Business owners can report fake reviews on Facebook in these simple steps:
If you want to report a negative review on Google as a brand, follow these steps:
Negative reviews are inevitable but they are hard to tackle. In this blog, we have shed ample light on the nature of negative reviews, and how brands can compose custom responses to one-star ratings and reviews from the internet. There is nothing given about these reviews but we have shared a complete strategy with different steps. We hope that brands will find this guide helpful in acing online reviews to curate exceptional social proof.
If you are looking for a dedicated review management tool, TrustAnalytica beats the market with a high margin. You can get notifications in real-time on your dashboard. So, get TrustAnalytica now and stay on top of the developments surrounding your business.
How do you respond to a 1-star review sample?
How do you respond to a negative review without a comment?
How do you respond to a 1-star review?
How do I deal with a 1-star Google review?
Why do people give 1-star reviews?
There is no single reason why customers leave bad reviews such as 1-star reviews. But we know that they are not normal. It means that their experience was so bad with your brand that they gave the lowest possible score out of 5 stars.
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