We got a bad review…
Last week I received an email from a member of my team with the following words: “We got a bad review on Google”.
Turns out, it was even worse than I thought. Much worse.
It was the one and only review our company had on Google (we never had any reviews at all) giving us a rating of 1 not-so-shiny star (out of 5). Additionally, the review went on and on (over 1000 words), listing some of my employees by full name alleging every imaginable wrong committed.
Obviously, this was something we had to correct from every angle. We immediately tried reaching out to the upset client to see how we can make things right but he refused to take our call.
(After taking my head out of the oven) I sat down to do some research on how to best mitigate the damage. After all, 86% of people will hesitate to purchase from a business that has negative reviews online.
The first and most important step is to respond to the review online. Here is what we posted:
Dear XYZ,
We are deeply sorry to hear about the issues you’ve experienced. Nothing pains us more, than even one unhappy client. Please reach out to me directly and I will do my utmost to right the wrong.
Sincerely,
Shoshi Miller
Client Relations Manager
855.323.8300 Ext. 2155
The next thing we did was advise our customer service team to ask the clients they were working with to leave us a positive review. Hopefully we would outweigh the one negative review with many positive ones.
This story has an happy ending, but one that is totally unpredictable. That evening an old friend (and current client) knocked on my door. He lives about 100 miles away but was in the area and stopped in to say Hello. After a bit of catching up I shared with him the above story. We chatted a bit more and he left.
The next day I get a voice note from my friend saying “I just finished a 2 hour lunch with Mr. XYZ at his house and the review will be removed shortly”. I was completely floored! My friend had looked up and tracked down the negative reviewer, drove an hour out of his way, bought lunch, and spent over 2 hours hearing out the client and communicating another side of the story. This was a whole new definition of the word SELFLESS!!!
So now the review is gone but the lessons learned are everlasting:
- Make sure the customer has a platform to voice their grievances.
- There are selfless people in this world!
- (Most Important!) Do not wait for the bad review to start getting good reviews.
On that note, I turn to you dear reader with a personal request: If you are satisfied with our company, please go to Google.com leave a positive review for us.
@Michael Greenfield = SELFLESS May you be blessed!
Happy Tuesday & Happy Selling!
Kevin