Reviews are necessary in assessing provided services for any company in this social media era, where your products and services can be reviewed from any place in the world. We all love when we get good reviews because they encourage us and make us feel good about our products and services, but the truth is, bad reviews are just as important as good reviews. In this article, we’re going to see why negative reviews aren’t so bad.
Satisfying Unhappy Customers Encourages Loyalty
Answering negative reviews from customers is compulsory if you hope to improve your business. More importantly, solving your consumers’ problems should be your aim. Instead of vague responses without empathy, such as apologizing for inconveniences, make your response to your customers personal, genuine, and empathetic. Vague responses can be very annoying to customers as they are not helpful in any way, which could lead them to never purchasing your products or engaging with your services. Being quick in your responses to your customers is also necessary for helping them as soon as possible. Fast customer care gives your brand more chances to keep your customers and make them trust your brand.
Bad Reviews Improve Your Conversion Rates
Consumers might find it hard to believe your reviews are legitimate if they are only positive. Although not all consumers will question, more cautious consumers are more likely to question if they’re just hype reviews or genuine reviews.
In the social media era we live in where there are so many paid fake reviews and many social media influencers, it can be really hard for consumers to trust many positive reviews.
On the other hand, if you have both positive and negative reviews, this will be more convincing to your consumers as they can genuinely know the quality of your products and services hence building their trust in your business.
Research has shown consumers are more likely to engage with a business with reviews compared to a business or product with no reviews. When consumers see too many good reviews, most will assume your product or business is too good to be true. An honest review is certain to increase the conversation around your business or product. Lack of reviews can drive customers away.
No product or business is perfect and that’s why consumers rely heavily on genuine reviews, both negative and positive to find an authentic product or business. Negative reviews assure customers the reviews are true.
Negative Reviews Show Your Human Side
Negative reviews are necessary to both you and your customer. To the customer because your response shows them there are real people behind the scenes of the business who tend to the consumer’s needs. When you respond accordingly to your customers and solve their problems, this proves you are running a quality business hence building trust between you and them.
Quality customer care is about solving problems for the consumer from the moment they purchase your product to after their purchase. Make sure they don’t experience the same issues again.
When you respond to negative comments, your regular consumers will keep coming back for your product or service. It’s advisable to respond to all the reviews, both good and bad.
The negative comments are meant to bring out the empathetic side of your business so that consumers can feel you value their input and customer care. On the other hand, responding to positive reviews will help you show appreciation for your happy customers, whose reviews matter most in the long run.
Negative Feedback is an Opportunity to Improve
In this modern era where a consumer is one click away from sabotaging your business, satisfying your customer should be your priority.
Almost 50% of startups in every industry fail. Having a good strategy of keeping your customers coming back will increase the chances of your business succeeding. How you handle your reviews plays a big role here.
You should be grateful for each review and use it as a chance to improve your business.
Many businesses do surveys annually to know how their business is doing. Only consumers can make you know if your business is doing well.
Invest heavily in customer care and knowing your customers’ thoughts on your business as major brands do, no matter how unnecessary it may seem.
Conclusion
Negative reviews aren’t so bad. We all hate them because we hope our products and services are perfect, but as we’ve seen, that can’t always be the case. Instead of hating the negative comments, you should instead use them to improve your service or product. Most importantly, don’t get emotional when you get negative comments.
Thanks for indulging in this article. If you have any other reasons why negative reviews aren’t so bad, be sure to leave a comment below.
Christine James believes that every customer has a voice. She is the Community Manager at HissingKitty.com (a customer complaints website) and loves talking to customers on social media about their challenges with Fortune 500 companies. Her work has been published on Huffington Post, Inc., SocialMediaToday, and Thought Catalog. Follow her on Twitter @hissingkittycom.
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