August 24, 2023 • 10 mins
Remember those sleepless nights after receiving that first negative review? Yeah, I've been there too. Join me, Jacob K Mead, on a journey through the highs and lows of business reviews on the Buy Time podcast. Together, we'll uncover the art of separating feelings from responses, and learn how to turn a potentially damaging feedback into a beacon of improvement.
Reviews, whether positive or negative, shape the course of your business. They're not just words on a screen, but powerful tools to fine-tune your services and stand out in the crowd. We'll talk about how to actively seek them, and more importantly, how to respond to them. And remember, your response isn't just about defending your business; it's about showing potential customers that you genuinely value their opinions and strive for excellence. So put on your headphones, grab a notebook, and let's spin those reviews into business gold together!
Until next time... Follow on Instagram @buytimepodcast
Follow Jacob K. Mead on all the socials @jacobkmead
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey everybody, this is Jacob K Mead, and this is the
Buy Time podcast, where wediscuss everything there is to
know about buying back your time.
Be sure to like and follow andshare with somebody who needs to
buy back their time.
Enjoy today's episode.
Welcome to another episode ofthe Buy Time podcast.
My name is Jacob K Mead, I'myour host and we're going to be
(00:22):
talking about everything thereis to know today about reviews
and why they are so important inyour business, how to obtain
them, how to reply to thosenegative reviews and how not to
use emotion when you're replyingback.
So let's dive in and let's learnabout reviews.
So it's inevitable.
In your business, you're goingto get reviews.
(00:43):
Some of those reviews that youmay get are going to be positive
, and then you may end up withsome of those negative reviews.
Now, if you can think about it,think back to the first time
you got a review.
You probably felt extremelyexcited, especially if it was a
positive review.
You might have felt empoweredand saying like, hey, I got this
.
But then what if it wasn't apositive review?
(01:04):
What if it was something thatwas negative?
What if it was something thatyou could have done differently?
Think about how you respondedand just give that some thought.
So, have you gotten reviews inyour business and have you
gotten negative reviews?
If you haven't gotten negativereviews yet, there will be a
time you get it.
(01:24):
And it doesn't mean that younecessarily did anything wrong.
But there may be some sense ofconfusion or their customer
doesn't quite understand whatthey got, or maybe there was an
issue with the particularproduct or service that you did
provide.
And I want to start therebecause I think it's so
important that we learn kind ofhow to deal with that and how to
manage it, because for me itwas great when I was getting
(01:46):
those five star reviews.
I was constantly getting fivestar reviews and then I got a
one star and I remember it waslike a gut punch and I felt as
if this person was just out toget me.
And I think at that time it'sbeen a while since I got that
first negative review, but Ijust remember I could have
hardly sleep because I was soannoyed with getting that one
(02:07):
star review, because I looked atmy phone and it was like 7.30
at night when I seen it comethrough and I was just tossing
and turning and I just couldn'tget a good night's rest because
I didn't understand why thiscustomer wasn't happy with our
service, and that really got methinking about a couple things.
Well, I'm the kind of personthat always will learn from a
mistake and will find everylittle bit of positivity in
(02:31):
something that I might have donewrong.
So I will look at it and say,okay, well, where's the positive
side of this?
I can learn from it?
Okay, that's a positive side.
And so I did that with thereview.
I looked at it and I said, okay, you know, this customer has a
point, we could have done thisbetter or we could have had a
different policy in place.
(02:51):
And before I even respond backto any negative reviews, I
always give myself 24 to 48hours, and I do this because it
gives me time to be able to calmdown, relax, evaluate the
situation and take emotion outof it.
Because my business issomething I value.
It's something that I builtfrom the ground up, and since I
(03:11):
built it from the ground up,it's almost like my baby, my
child, and when anyone's talkingnegative about your child, the
first thing you want to do isget defensive.
And so exactly the same with mybusiness the first thing I want
to do is I want to startgetting defensive and say that's
not how it is or that's not howwe are.
You can't do that, because ifyou do, you're not helping
(03:32):
yourself and you're not showingpotential customers what you can
provide, and so I'm here tokind of help guide you with
those negative reviews.
So let's talk about a negativereview.
Let's say a customer wasn'thappy with your product or
service.
They left you a negative reviewand they stated I'm not happy
with this product, it's superlow quality.
I was sold, I was sold it andthe salesperson said it would be
(03:54):
the best for me and it isn't.
I will never do business withyou again.
Sounds like a review thatsomeone might leave if they got
something.
Maybe they are feeling buyer'sremorse, or maybe they aren't
happy with the product, or theydon't find value in it after
they've already purchased it,and so what I would do there is
I would first take a step backand I would say what product did
(04:14):
I sell them?
Look at my product, look at myservice and see if any of the
claims that they're making arevalid.
So is it low quality?
Is there something that can beimproved?
If there is, acknowledge that.
Don't be defensive.
Use it as a way that you canactually learn and grow from it.
So acknowledge if there is anarea that you can improve in and
(04:34):
use that in your review.
So let's say there was somethingthat you could improve in the
way I would respond back to thisperson would be hi, thank you
so much for your feedback.
You always want to thank themfirst, no matter if it's a
positive or negative.
Thank them for their feedbackbecause they took time out of
their day to leave you afeedback.
So make sure you're thankingthem because, remember, you're
writing these reviews for othercustomers, other potential
(04:55):
clients to see.
So I would say, hey, thank youso much for your feedback.
I truly value your feedback andopinion.
After reviewing our product, Ican see X, y and Z and state
what that is Okay.
Can you see that the product isof high standards?
Could you see that maybe therewas area of improvement in the
product and you could state thatin that review.
(05:17):
Be open and honest with yourcustomer, because when you're
open and honest with yourcustomer, other people are going
to see this on that review pageand they're going to look at it
and say, hey, this company.
They actually do care about me.
Look how they respond to thisperson.
So be open and honest about it.
So that's one way that I wouldrespond back, and then I would
respond back with how you'regoing to rectify the situation.
(05:38):
I'm deeply sorry that you feelthe product doesn't meet your
expectations.
Please bring the product in andwe'll take a look at it and
evaluate it further and see whatwe can do to rectify the
situation.
Okay, that would be one way.
Oftentimes you always see a lotof business owners doing this.
They'll respond back withthat's not how it happened.
(06:01):
This customer doesn'tunderstand our product or
service, or I'll see businessowners respond back with a lot
of emotion and get very angryand angered towards the person
that's leaving the review.
You leave all that emotion out.
It's strictly business.
You're in a business and thenthey're leaving a review base in
your business they're notattacking you personally, so
(06:21):
leaving motion out of it andjust simply state the facts and
state what you might have beenable to learn from it.
Now let's talk about those goodreviews.
Good reviews are awesome tohave too.
So when you do get those goodreviews, share them.
Share them like crazy acrossall your social media platforms
and make sure that yourcustomers know that it's coming
from someone else too, thatyou're not just saying you can
(06:41):
do a good job.
This person over here says thatyou do a great job.
We have Sally that says you'redoing a great job.
Bob says you're doing a greatjob.
People want to see that you'redoing a great job and they want
to hear it from other people.
They don't just want to hear itfrom you.
So get those reviews from thoseclients, from those customers
that say hey, this is a goodproduct or service.
(07:02):
This business does know whatthey're doing, and I would
recommend them even better.
Yet, if you can get videoreviews, that's really awesome,
because you can use those onyour social media sites.
You can use them on yourFacebook pages, you can use them
on all of your social mediasites.
You can use them.
But you can also use them onyour website and as a review
page, and that helps buildcredibility.
(07:23):
So the more positive reviewsyou have, the more you build
that credibility.
You should always ask for areview too.
So if you've done a great job,because you are going to do a
great job for your customer,you're going to ask for that
review, you're going to say hey,so and so I would love it if
you could take a moment out ofyour time and give me a review.
It helps me be able to betterunderstand my business and
(07:44):
continue to grow.
You'll find a lot of customerslove giving you reviews when you
simply ask, but you need toguide them in that direction of
asking and making sure thatthey're aware that it's even an
option, and that's something Ido is I will take time and say
hey, if I was able to help youin any way today.
I really would appreciate it ifyou just took a moment of your
day to leave me a review or sendme a video review of how I did,
(08:07):
because that's going to makethe difference and you're going
to start to see an increase ofreviews coming through.
But then you're also going tofeel good about yourself.
It's going to add a sense ofself worth because you're able
to help these people out andyou're hearing them Thank you
and you're hearing them Thankyour business for helping them.
So that's on the good reviewside and we talked a little bit
about on the negative reviewside.
So I would love it if you guyscan think of any kind of
(08:30):
questions you might have or ifthere's any negative review that
you're struggling on to replyto send me a DM directly.
You can actually find me onInstagram and all the social
media sites at Jacob K Mead,you'll find me on there.
Just go ahead and send me adirect message and say, hey, I
have this negative review I got.
(08:51):
How would you respond?
And I'll give you some freeadvice.
I'll just kind of give you someideas of how you can actually
go and respond to that customerwith removing all of that motion
.
So if you remove all thatemotion, give you that free
advice, I think you're going tofind that it will help other
customers see the way that yourbusiness handles this negative
situation, because the lastthing you want to do is start
(09:11):
getting in a fight or a big ringback and forth with a customer
because it doesn't show thatyou're professional.
So if you do need help with that, just go on my socials at Jacob
K Mead, send me a directmessage.
I'll reply back and I'll helpyou out.
We'll troubleshoot it togetherand we'll maybe figure out what
might have been the issue orwhat you can maybe do
differently in the business.
(09:31):
And that's good too, if you canfigure out what you can do
differently in the business,that's awesome.
It's happened to me.
I'm like, hey, yeah, you'regoing to what You're right and I
straight up tell the customeryou're right, I could have done
that differently and thank youso much for bringing it to my
attention.
And get those good reviews, getthem in, ask for them.
People aren't just going toalways give them to you.
You have to ask and tell peoplehey, I really would appreciate
(09:54):
you if you did this.
Well, that is everything fortoday's podcast.
I'm going to keep it a littlebit short today because I want
you to keep going out theregetting those reviews and doing
what you do best, which isrunning your business and
working on your business.
I can help in any way at JacobK Mead on all the socials, and
until next time, thanks forlistening to today's episode.
(10:15):
My name is Jacob K Mead anduntil next time.
Hey everybody, this is Jacob K Mead, and this is the
Buy Time podcast, where wediscuss everything there is to
know about buying back your time.
Be sure to like and follow andshare with somebody who needs to
buy back their time.
Enjoy today's episode.
Welcome to another episode ofthe Buy Time podcast.
My name is Jacob K Mead, I'myour host and we're going to be
(00:22):
talking about everything thereis to know today about reviews
and why they are so important inyour business, how to obtain
them, how to reply to thosenegative reviews and how not to
use emotion when you're replyingback.
So let's dive in and let's learnabout reviews.
So it's inevitable.
In your business, you're goingto get reviews.
(00:43):
Some of those reviews that youmay get are going to be positive
, and then you may end up withsome of those negative reviews.
Now, if you can think about it,think back to the first time
you got a review.
You probably felt extremelyexcited, especially if it was a
positive review.
You might have felt empoweredand saying like, hey, I got this
.
But then what if it wasn't apositive review?
(01:04):
What if it was something thatwas negative?
What if it was something thatyou could have done differently?
Think about how you respondedand just give that some thought.
So, have you gotten reviews inyour business and have you
gotten negative reviews?
If you haven't gotten negativereviews yet, there will be a
time you get it.
(01:24):
And it doesn't mean that younecessarily did anything wrong.
But there may be some sense ofconfusion or their customer
doesn't quite understand whatthey got, or maybe there was an
issue with the particularproduct or service that you did
provide.
And I want to start therebecause I think it's so
important that we learn kind ofhow to deal with that and how to
manage it, because for me itwas great when I was getting
(01:46):
those five star reviews.
I was constantly getting fivestar reviews and then I got a
one star and I remember it waslike a gut punch and I felt as
if this person was just out toget me.
And I think at that time it'sbeen a while since I got that
first negative review, but Ijust remember I could have
hardly sleep because I was soannoyed with getting that one
(02:07):
star review, because I looked atmy phone and it was like 7.30
at night when I seen it comethrough and I was just tossing
and turning and I just couldn'tget a good night's rest because
I didn't understand why thiscustomer wasn't happy with our
service, and that really got methinking about a couple things.
Well, I'm the kind of personthat always will learn from a
mistake and will find everylittle bit of positivity in
(02:31):
something that I might have donewrong.
So I will look at it and say,okay, well, where's the positive
side of this?
I can learn from it?
Okay, that's a positive side.
And so I did that with thereview.
I looked at it and I said, okay, you know, this customer has a
point, we could have done thisbetter or we could have had a
different policy in place.
(02:51):
And before I even respond backto any negative reviews, I
always give myself 24 to 48hours, and I do this because it
gives me time to be able to calmdown, relax, evaluate the
situation and take emotion outof it.
Because my business issomething I value.
It's something that I builtfrom the ground up, and since I
(03:11):
built it from the ground up,it's almost like my baby, my
child, and when anyone's talkingnegative about your child, the
first thing you want to do isget defensive.
And so exactly the same with mybusiness the first thing I want
to do is I want to startgetting defensive and say that's
not how it is or that's not howwe are.
You can't do that, because ifyou do, you're not helping
(03:32):
yourself and you're not showingpotential customers what you can
provide, and so I'm here tokind of help guide you with
those negative reviews.
So let's talk about a negativereview.
Let's say a customer wasn'thappy with your product or
service.
They left you a negative reviewand they stated I'm not happy
with this product, it's superlow quality.
I was sold, I was sold it andthe salesperson said it would be
(03:54):
the best for me and it isn't.
I will never do business withyou again.
Sounds like a review thatsomeone might leave if they got
something.
Maybe they are feeling buyer'sremorse, or maybe they aren't
happy with the product, or theydon't find value in it after
they've already purchased it,and so what I would do there is
I would first take a step backand I would say what product did
(04:14):
I sell them?
Look at my product, look at myservice and see if any of the
claims that they're making arevalid.
So is it low quality?
Is there something that can beimproved?
If there is, acknowledge that.
Don't be defensive.
Use it as a way that you canactually learn and grow from it.
So acknowledge if there is anarea that you can improve in and
(04:34):
use that in your review.
So let's say there was somethingthat you could improve in the
way I would respond back to thisperson would be hi, thank you
so much for your feedback.
You always want to thank themfirst, no matter if it's a
positive or negative.
Thank them for their feedbackbecause they took time out of
their day to leave you afeedback.
So make sure you're thankingthem because, remember, you're
writing these reviews for othercustomers, other potential
(04:55):
clients to see.
So I would say, hey, thank youso much for your feedback.
I truly value your feedback andopinion.
After reviewing our product, Ican see X, y and Z and state
what that is Okay.
Can you see that the product isof high standards?
Could you see that maybe therewas area of improvement in the
product and you could state thatin that review.
(05:17):
Be open and honest with yourcustomer, because when you're
open and honest with yourcustomer, other people are going
to see this on that review pageand they're going to look at it
and say, hey, this company.
They actually do care about me.
Look how they respond to thisperson.
So be open and honest about it.
So that's one way that I wouldrespond back, and then I would
respond back with how you'regoing to rectify the situation.
(05:38):
I'm deeply sorry that you feelthe product doesn't meet your
expectations.
Please bring the product in andwe'll take a look at it and
evaluate it further and see whatwe can do to rectify the
situation.
Okay, that would be one way.
Oftentimes you always see a lotof business owners doing this.
They'll respond back withthat's not how it happened.
(06:01):
This customer doesn'tunderstand our product or
service, or I'll see businessowners respond back with a lot
of emotion and get very angryand angered towards the person
that's leaving the review.
You leave all that emotion out.
It's strictly business.
You're in a business and thenthey're leaving a review base in
your business they're notattacking you personally, so
(06:21):
leaving motion out of it andjust simply state the facts and
state what you might have beenable to learn from it.
Now let's talk about those goodreviews.
Good reviews are awesome tohave too.
So when you do get those goodreviews, share them.
Share them like crazy acrossall your social media platforms
and make sure that yourcustomers know that it's coming
from someone else too, thatyou're not just saying you can
(06:41):
do a good job.
This person over here says thatyou do a great job.
We have Sally that says you'redoing a great job.
Bob says you're doing a greatjob.
People want to see that you'redoing a great job and they want
to hear it from other people.
They don't just want to hear itfrom you.
So get those reviews from thoseclients, from those customers
that say hey, this is a goodproduct or service.
(07:02):
This business does know whatthey're doing, and I would
recommend them even better.
Yet, if you can get videoreviews, that's really awesome,
because you can use those onyour social media sites.
You can use them on yourFacebook pages, you can use them
on all of your social mediasites.
You can use them.
But you can also use them onyour website and as a review
page, and that helps buildcredibility.
(07:23):
So the more positive reviewsyou have, the more you build
that credibility.
You should always ask for areview too.
So if you've done a great job,because you are going to do a
great job for your customer,you're going to ask for that
review, you're going to say hey,so and so I would love it if
you could take a moment out ofyour time and give me a review.
It helps me be able to betterunderstand my business and
(07:44):
continue to grow.
You'll find a lot of customerslove giving you reviews when you
simply ask, but you need toguide them in that direction of
asking and making sure thatthey're aware that it's even an
option, and that's something Ido is I will take time and say
hey, if I was able to help youin any way today.
I really would appreciate it ifyou just took a moment of your
day to leave me a review or sendme a video review of how I did,
(08:07):
because that's going to makethe difference and you're going
to start to see an increase ofreviews coming through.
But then you're also going tofeel good about yourself.
It's going to add a sense ofself worth because you're able
to help these people out andyou're hearing them Thank you
and you're hearing them Thankyour business for helping them.
So that's on the good reviewside and we talked a little bit
about on the negative reviewside.
So I would love it if you guyscan think of any kind of
(08:30):
questions you might have or ifthere's any negative review that
you're struggling on to replyto send me a DM directly.
You can actually find me onInstagram and all the social
media sites at Jacob K Mead,you'll find me on there.
Just go ahead and send me adirect message and say, hey, I
have this negative review I got.
(08:51):
How would you respond?
And I'll give you some freeadvice.
I'll just kind of give you someideas of how you can actually
go and respond to that customerwith removing all of that motion
.
So if you remove all thatemotion, give you that free
advice, I think you're going tofind that it will help other
customers see the way that yourbusiness handles this negative
situation, because the lastthing you want to do is start
(09:11):
getting in a fight or a big ringback and forth with a customer
because it doesn't show thatyou're professional.
So if you do need help with that, just go on my socials at Jacob
K Mead, send me a directmessage.
I'll reply back and I'll helpyou out.
We'll troubleshoot it togetherand we'll maybe figure out what
might have been the issue orwhat you can maybe do
differently in the business.
(09:31):
And that's good too, if you canfigure out what you can do
differently in the business,that's awesome.
It's happened to me.
I'm like, hey, yeah, you'regoing to what You're right and I
straight up tell the customeryou're right, I could have done
that differently and thank youso much for bringing it to my
attention.
And get those good reviews, getthem in, ask for them.
People aren't just going toalways give them to you.
You have to ask and tell peoplehey, I really would appreciate
(09:54):
you if you did this.
Well, that is everything fortoday's podcast.
I'm going to keep it a littlebit short today because I want
you to keep going out theregetting those reviews and doing
what you do best, which isrunning your business and
working on your business.
I can help in any way at JacobK Mead on all the socials, and
until next time, thanks forlistening to today's episode.
(10:15):
My name is Jacob K Mead anduntil next time.
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