So you've been managing your business for a while now and the unthinkable happens.
A customer left you a negative review on your business page expressing frustrations with your service and you feel a dark pit in your stomach.
You begin writing an emotional response even though that’s not the best way to handle this situation.
What should you do?
By the end of this blog you will learn the best way to manage a negative customer experience, how you can turn it around to make things better for that client and learn how you can potentially prevent it in the future.
One best practice to keep in mind is be proactive with your communication and give the customer a call in an attempt to work things out. Even though talking to an upset customer is not a pleasant experience for you this will go a long way at repairing the relationship compared to a generic or non-personalized email.
Think back to your own experiences when you voice frustrations to a company and you received an auto response email thanking you for the feedback.
Every touch point you have with a customer is an opportunity to personalize that experience whether it’s a positive or negative one.
The first thing you will need to do is accept ownership of the situation even if you feel like the customer is wrong. Part of being an entrepreneur is being able to manage your ego in a professional manner. You will certainly interact with a client who will be unhappy or takes it out on you.
It doesn’t matter if you are right!
If the customer feels like something is wrong it is your responsibility as a small business owner to make things right.
My favorite way to take ownership of a negative customer experience is the following:
“I want to first thank you for taking the time in reaching out about your complaint. This is not the kind of experience we want you to have and i sincerely apologize on behalf of my team.”
Take a moment and acknowledge the frustration the customer is expressing to you.
Sometimes they are having a bad day and decided to take it out on you and sometimes they have a legitimate complaint. Acknowledging your customers pain in the moment is one of the best ways to de-escalate a situation and show that you actually care you.
Now you’ll want to give your client the opportunity to talk about what happened from their point of view. This is definitely the most unpleasant part of the experience but it’s important to let the customer feel like they are being heard.
Refrain from interrupting or responding in an emotional manner and actually listen.
Deep listening is an important skill any entrepreneur should master if they want to be successful in business.
Practice your deep listening skills by sending this article to a friend so we can share this message with as many people as possible:
That you too can scoop your way to financial freedom!
Once the customer is done, express gratitude even if your ego is a little bruised. Thank them for the feedback and explicitly say you are committed to making things right. By giving your client the space and time to voice their issues as well as the commitment to make things right, you are implementing one of the best strategies for turning a negative customer experience around.
Its commitments like this where you may want to implement a business policy or terms of service you request your clients to sign before you first service them. By setting up a clear and defined set of expectations that your customers can have when doing business with you it will minimize how many situations may go off the rails as well as giving you the necessary guard rails on how business is handled with your company.
Whether it comes to your refund policy or offering to provide service a second time for free, you are creating the rules of engagement to ensure a positive customer experience!
Policy or not, your commitment is your chance to repair the experience.
Whatever you decide is between you as the business owner and your customer. Do whatever it takes to make things right and don’t be afraid to put your foot down if a customer is being unreasonable. Your gut instinct will help you when you feel like a customer is only trying to take advantage of you.
It’s okay to say no sometimes especially if it’s against your terms of service or policy.
You are the business owner and that decision will come from you.
Since word of mouth is such an important tool in building a successful business how you decide to repair their experience can determine whether they leave that negative review or not.
Take care of the customer in a reasonable manner and politely ask them if they can change or remove their review. If they have been receptive to your commitments you will be surprised with how often a customer will be willing to change that review.
Since the worst thing they can say is no you have two options:
never ask because of the fear of rejection and have a potential black mark forever
or take a chance and protect the longevity of your business.
Other potential clients will see this negative review and it might influence any future business opportunities.
After you’ve taken care of the customer, identify the part of your business processes that broke down that led to this negative customer experience. If this issue can happen once what action steps do you need to implement in your current workflow to prevent this from happening in the future?
On average there will be far fewer clients who will take the time to voice their complaints compared to the clients who will simply leave and never do business with you again.
Think about how you reacted with a negative experience from a company before and let me know in the comments below what they should have done differently.
This is a great exercise to analyze ways that you can make your business even better!
And what can help elevate your business to the next level?
Clicking the next blog to learn more of my best practices for small business owners.
And i’ll see you on the next scoop!
And as Always, Acknowledge the Now! Bye!
