March 5, 2024 • 14 mins
Ever faced the sting of a negative review on your e-commerce platform? Negative reviews are inevitable for even the most successful companies. In this episode, we’ll explore how online business owners can effectively handle negative reviews and turn them into positive outcomes.
From replying in a timely manner to approaching unhappy customers with empathy, we will show you how to reply to negative reviews in a professional manner that showcases your commitment to consumer satisfaction. Tune in, apply these insights, and watch as those stars climb – because every review, good or bad, is a golden opportunity to elevate your e-commerce game.
Join entrepreneurs and online business owners just like you in my Free Facebook Group “Website & Tech Tips for Online Business Owners”
Where we help break down the tech and hurdles Online Business Owners encounter!
Simply to go ecommercemadeeasypodcast.com/facebook/ and answer the membership questions so we know you are a real, warm-hearted, online business owner.
Be sure to subscribe to our podcast where ever you are listening!
You can find our show notes at:
https://www.ecommercemadeeasypodcast.com
Find more of our resources and newsletter subscription here:
https://linktr.ee/bcsengineering
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carrie (00:01):
You read something a customer posted and your heart
sinks.
It's a negative review, eventhough you put your heart and
soul into your business.
So now, what Negative reviewscan be a heart breaking?
They can evoke feelings ofanger, rejection and hurt, as
well as many others.
Unfortunately, no matter howmuch you put your heart and soul
(00:22):
into your business, you cannotmake everyone happy.
You can, however, turn anegative review into a positive
for your business.
In this episode, we'll explorehow online business owners can
effectively handle negativereviews and turn them into
positive outcomes.
Welcome to the eCommerce MadeEasy podcast.
(00:43):
I'm your host, Saunders.
When we started this business,all I had was a couch, a laptop
and a nine month old my maingoal To help others.
Now, with over 20 years in theeCommerce building industry and
even more than that in webdevelopment, I have seen a lot.
I love breaking down the hardtech and to easily
understandable bits to helpothers be successful in their
online business.
(01:03):
Whether you're a seasonedeCommerce veteran or just
starting out, you've come to theright place.
So sit back, relax and let'sdive into the world of eCommerce
together.
Welcome back to this week'sepisode of the eCommerce Made
Easy podcast.
Today, we're talking about ahard subject negative business
reviews.
It's, unfortunately, aninevitable part of doing
(01:25):
business, no matter how hard youtry to please and be the ideal
company for your customers.
However, most of the time,negative reviews can be turned
into a positive and a greatbooster for your business if you
approach it correctly.
So first let's take an exampleof a review of a company.
(01:45):
This is a review I found on acompany's website that I
actually purchased from, and Ifound the company's response to
this negative review to be verypositive and uplifting and
honestly, I felt like it was areally great response.
I'm going to paraphrase, though, the consumers negative review
(02:06):
because I feel like a lot of thedetails in it, for one, don't
help us analyze the situationand two, to just kind of try to
keep everything a little bitanonymous here.
So hopefully you still get thegist of it, but I so I do want
to paraphrase it some, so let medo that right now for you.
So when I read what Iparaphrase from this review.
(02:27):
So the person said I purchasedtwo pairs of your fitness shoes
and received those last Friday.
On Sunday, I went to the gym towork out.
I did an hour on the treadmilland did weights Well.
The other important thing toknow is I have a specific health
condition and, yes, I was inpain with my legs and feet as I
did have blisters on both legs.
(02:47):
Now I like the concept anddesign of the shoes.
Mind you, I will say that formy health condition in general,
to for those that have it,basically to really think and do
your research on these shoesbefore purchasing.
And then the consumer basicallyhad a few more concerns and
details that they added to theirreview and, like I said, I
(03:08):
didn't feel like all the detailswere necessary for analyzing it
.
So let's listen to themerchants response.
This is a little bitparaphrased to try to keep them
on the anonymous part of this,but I wanted to leave in enough
of it so you can get a gist anda good feeling for how the
company responded.
So here's what they said in inmy own words Hello, sorry to
(03:29):
hear about your experience withour shoes.
As we can't speak to whetherour shoes will be beneficial or
detrimental to someone with thehealth issue you have, we can
say that wearing them at the gymfor one hour and then lifting
weights might have been a bit,might been moving a bit quickly.
In regards to transitioningtime from regular shoes or
(03:50):
sneakers to our shoes, we reallyrecommend starting very slow
your first few times.
A use basically just wearingthem about in the house of the
yard for a few minutes at thebeginning is ideal to someone
transitioning from sneakers toour shoes.
This is somewhat of a guess asto why you're experiencing foot
pain, but we've seen severalcases that speak directly to
(04:11):
this type of issue.
That being said, we haveprocessed your refund for both
orders and hope you do, in fact,give us another shot, but take
our advice with starting muchslower the next time around.
We hope this helps.
Thank you very much for yourfeedback and take care.
Okay, so that was basically thegist of the company's response
(04:32):
to this negative review.
So what did the company doright when they responded to
this review?
So, first off, they were quickto respond, so that's very
important to do.
Staying on top of yourconsumer's feedback is a very,
very key and, secondly, theywere empathetic to the person's
situation.
You can tell that theyunderstood it and they tried to
(04:55):
offer solutions.
If you just turn a noise,that's a cat in the office doing
something silly.
Okay, let's get back to what wewere talking about Might as
well.
Leave that blooper in.
It's kind of funny, all right.
So secondly, they wereempathetic to the person's
situation and they offeredsolutions if the person decided
(05:15):
to try the shoes again withouthaving a ton of accusation in
their tone of not following therecommendations of these shoes.
So I felt like they worded itreally well.
That was very kind and, like Isaid, not accusatory to the
consumer and kind of blaming theconsumer.
They took the feedback verygraciously and they're also very
(05:35):
kind in their tone and gave arefund for their shoes and
wished the person well.
So what this does is balancethe negative review with a
positive from the company.
This helps other consumersreading the review to judge for
themselves if they would sidewith a consumer or the company
in this situation.
It also shows how the companywas very kind and responsive to
(05:58):
the concerns of the consumer,building reputation and trust.
I know whenever I read negativereviews on websites which I do
look at reviews every singletime I want to shop for
something new that I've nevertried before.
I look at the positive reviewsand I look at the negative
reviews.
I look at them to see howconstructive the consumer was in
(06:21):
their review.
I also look for any responsesfrom that manufacturer or the
person you know running thecompany even if it's like a
services to all look at theirresponses from the owner to and
I want to make sure that I get agood vibe from the consumer as
(06:41):
to or sorry, to the company.
I'm going to get a good vibewith the company from responses
to reviews.
It really is very telling whenyou see nice, calm, objective
responses from companies andthis what this example we did in
this podcast episode with theshoe company is very I feel like
(07:04):
a very good example of that.
It also negative reviews alsoare going to help you, the
company, evaluate yourself.
So, for example, in the shoecompany, maybe the company
didn't provide recommendedtransitions to their special
shoes, or maybe they did, butit's not as obvious.
It's easy to get lost in thepackaging and it wasn't
(07:27):
something that was easy to findfor the consumer.
So this could help themunderstand that they need to
improve their communication withhow to transition to their
special shoes.
So you can really use thesenegative reviews, too to have a
different view of your productand your services.
So you can really see.
(07:48):
You know, am I missingsomething?
Is there a gap here that I canfix or that I can fill, it can
really open your eyes,especially if you look at it
objectively.
Now I will tell you that it'svery natural as a business owner
to read that Nagi review andget really self-defensive and
really internalize thecriticisms.
(08:10):
One of the first things youneed to do before you actually
respond to a negative reviewthat's not always out there in
documentation, but it's kind ofsomething we all probably know,
but sometimes we need to hearagain is we need to take a step
back until we can be objectiveand really read this negative
review from a place ofneutrality so that we're not
(08:35):
being biased as being thebusiness owner and feeling
offended or things like that.
So we need to really step backand become before we respond to
any negative reviews, even ifyou know we aren't like angry
but maybe we're hurt.
You know, maybe the reviewstruck a chord with us and made
us feel hurt, like we talkedabout in the beginning.
(08:57):
It totally can evoke feelingsof anger, hurt, judgment, you
know all those things and that'svery natural to do.
But we need to step back andget out of that place of emotion
before we do these responsesand that's what I feel like this
company really did when theyresponded to this review.
(09:20):
There was no perception from myperspective and hopefully you
see a similar thing is I didn'tget a perspective that they were
hurt and that they were on thedefense when they wrote the
response.
Their response to me came fromthe heart, it came from trying
to be hopeful and it just wasvery objective, in my opinion,
(09:41):
is the way I felt, like I readit.
So let's summarize up, thoughwhat can we do when we receive a
negative review?
So first, like I said, let's beobjective and really take a
break, if you need to, andremove yourself from the
situation as far as like whenyou first read the review.
Sometimes take a day or two.
You don't want to take too long, because one of the top things
(10:03):
is we want to respond in atimely manner.
But that timely manner doesn'tmean to be within the hour
necessarily, because many timesthat's when our emotions are
still high, when we've readsomething that to us, might be
hurtful.
So take some time and then butwe do respond in a timely manner
Be very professional andempathetic.
(10:24):
So I feel like this company dida very good job of being
professional and empathetic,also acknowledge and address
specific concerns that are inthe review.
You don't want the consumer tofeel ignored, so you want to
make sure you're addressingtheir concerns and you want to
address it not in a defensiveway but in more of an objective
way and in more of a helpful wayof trying to help them either
(10:48):
maybe understand how to use theproduct differently or, you know
, just really in a way that'snot, you know, offensive in your
being Defensive, in your beingdefensive, basically, and then
also look at the review with aneutral heart, like we've talked
about, to see if you really doneed to improve something.
Sometimes these are littleclues to what you might need to
(11:10):
fix.
I found in over 20 years ofbusiness that you're going to
get either review some peoplewho absolutely love your work or
love your products, and thenyou're going to get reviews from
people who hate it.
So you're not going togenerally get the spectrum in
the middle, like those peoplethat love it, but maybe you
think it's good but not great.
(11:31):
You're mostly going to get theoutliers, the ones that really
love it or the ones that reallyhate it.
So you really got to take thatin mind when you do read your
reviews, especially the negativereviews.
You're just they're going to bemore harsh, I feel like, in
general, just because that'sjust the two types of reviews
you generally find, I feel like,for small businesses especially
(11:53):
.
So keep that in mind when you'rereading your reviews and make
sure you go through these stepsthat we talked about.
First off, make sure you have acalm heart, respond in a timely
manner, be professional andempathetic and acknowledge and
address specific concerns andlook at the review with a
neutral heart to see if you doneed to improve something.
(12:13):
Maybe there's a communicationissue or an expectation issue,
like we talk about a lot incustomer trust, the customer
trust, a series that we've doneOkay.
So I want to know have you evergotten a negative review?
How did you deal with that?
Drop us an email at podcast atbcsengineeringcom and let us
(12:34):
know your story.
So that's it for this week'sepisode.
If you're listening on YouTube,be sure to hit that subscribe
button, and if you're listeningon the podcast, be sure to
subscribe so you don't miss outon their new releases as they
come out each week.
As always, we appreciate yourfeedback and ideas, and drop us
an email to podcast atbcsengineeringcom, as we would
(12:55):
love to hear from you, and wewill see you next week.
You read something a customer posted and your heart
sinks.
It's a negative review, eventhough you put your heart and
soul into your business.
So now, what Negative reviewscan be a heart breaking?
They can evoke feelings ofanger, rejection and hurt, as
well as many others.
Unfortunately, no matter howmuch you put your heart and soul
(00:22):
into your business, you cannotmake everyone happy.
You can, however, turn anegative review into a positive
for your business.
In this episode, we'll explorehow online business owners can
effectively handle negativereviews and turn them into
positive outcomes.
Welcome to the eCommerce MadeEasy podcast.
(00:43):
I'm your host, Saunders.
When we started this business,all I had was a couch, a laptop
and a nine month old my maingoal To help others.
Now, with over 20 years in theeCommerce building industry and
even more than that in webdevelopment, I have seen a lot.
I love breaking down the hardtech and to easily
understandable bits to helpothers be successful in their
online business.
(01:03):
Whether you're a seasonedeCommerce veteran or just
starting out, you've come to theright place.
So sit back, relax and let'sdive into the world of eCommerce
together.
Welcome back to this week'sepisode of the eCommerce Made
Easy podcast.
Today, we're talking about ahard subject negative business
reviews.
It's, unfortunately, aninevitable part of doing
(01:25):
business, no matter how hard youtry to please and be the ideal
company for your customers.
However, most of the time,negative reviews can be turned
into a positive and a greatbooster for your business if you
approach it correctly.
So first let's take an exampleof a review of a company.
(01:45):
This is a review I found on acompany's website that I
actually purchased from, and Ifound the company's response to
this negative review to be verypositive and uplifting and
honestly, I felt like it was areally great response.
I'm going to paraphrase, though, the consumers negative review
(02:06):
because I feel like a lot of thedetails in it, for one, don't
help us analyze the situationand two, to just kind of try to
keep everything a little bitanonymous here.
So hopefully you still get thegist of it, but I so I do want
to paraphrase it some, so let medo that right now for you.
So when I read what Iparaphrase from this review.
(02:27):
So the person said I purchasedtwo pairs of your fitness shoes
and received those last Friday.
On Sunday, I went to the gym towork out.
I did an hour on the treadmilland did weights Well.
The other important thing toknow is I have a specific health
condition and, yes, I was inpain with my legs and feet as I
did have blisters on both legs.
(02:47):
Now I like the concept anddesign of the shoes.
Mind you, I will say that formy health condition in general,
to for those that have it,basically to really think and do
your research on these shoesbefore purchasing.
And then the consumer basicallyhad a few more concerns and
details that they added to theirreview and, like I said, I
(03:08):
didn't feel like all the detailswere necessary for analyzing it
.
So let's listen to themerchants response.
This is a little bitparaphrased to try to keep them
on the anonymous part of this,but I wanted to leave in enough
of it so you can get a gist anda good feeling for how the
company responded.
So here's what they said in inmy own words Hello, sorry to
(03:29):
hear about your experience withour shoes.
As we can't speak to whetherour shoes will be beneficial or
detrimental to someone with thehealth issue you have, we can
say that wearing them at the gymfor one hour and then lifting
weights might have been a bit,might been moving a bit quickly.
In regards to transitioningtime from regular shoes or
(03:50):
sneakers to our shoes, we reallyrecommend starting very slow
your first few times.
A use basically just wearingthem about in the house of the
yard for a few minutes at thebeginning is ideal to someone
transitioning from sneakers toour shoes.
This is somewhat of a guess asto why you're experiencing foot
pain, but we've seen severalcases that speak directly to
(04:11):
this type of issue.
That being said, we haveprocessed your refund for both
orders and hope you do, in fact,give us another shot, but take
our advice with starting muchslower the next time around.
We hope this helps.
Thank you very much for yourfeedback and take care.
Okay, so that was basically thegist of the company's response
(04:32):
to this negative review.
So what did the company doright when they responded to
this review?
So, first off, they were quickto respond, so that's very
important to do.
Staying on top of yourconsumer's feedback is a very,
very key and, secondly, theywere empathetic to the person's
situation.
You can tell that theyunderstood it and they tried to
(04:55):
offer solutions.
If you just turn a noise,that's a cat in the office doing
something silly.
Okay, let's get back to what wewere talking about Might as
well.
Leave that blooper in.
It's kind of funny, all right.
So secondly, they wereempathetic to the person's
situation and they offeredsolutions if the person decided
(05:15):
to try the shoes again withouthaving a ton of accusation in
their tone of not following therecommendations of these shoes.
So I felt like they worded itreally well.
That was very kind and, like Isaid, not accusatory to the
consumer and kind of blaming theconsumer.
They took the feedback verygraciously and they're also very
(05:35):
kind in their tone and gave arefund for their shoes and
wished the person well.
So what this does is balancethe negative review with a
positive from the company.
This helps other consumersreading the review to judge for
themselves if they would sidewith a consumer or the company
in this situation.
It also shows how the companywas very kind and responsive to
(05:58):
the concerns of the consumer,building reputation and trust.
I know whenever I read negativereviews on websites which I do
look at reviews every singletime I want to shop for
something new that I've nevertried before.
I look at the positive reviewsand I look at the negative
reviews.
I look at them to see howconstructive the consumer was in
(06:21):
their review.
I also look for any responsesfrom that manufacturer or the
person you know running thecompany even if it's like a
services to all look at theirresponses from the owner to and
I want to make sure that I get agood vibe from the consumer as
(06:41):
to or sorry, to the company.
I'm going to get a good vibewith the company from responses
to reviews.
It really is very telling whenyou see nice, calm, objective
responses from companies andthis what this example we did in
this podcast episode with theshoe company is very I feel like
(07:04):
a very good example of that.
It also negative reviews alsoare going to help you, the
company, evaluate yourself.
So, for example, in the shoecompany, maybe the company
didn't provide recommendedtransitions to their special
shoes, or maybe they did, butit's not as obvious.
It's easy to get lost in thepackaging and it wasn't
(07:27):
something that was easy to findfor the consumer.
So this could help themunderstand that they need to
improve their communication withhow to transition to their
special shoes.
So you can really use thesenegative reviews, too to have a
different view of your productand your services.
So you can really see.
(07:48):
You know, am I missingsomething?
Is there a gap here that I canfix or that I can fill, it can
really open your eyes,especially if you look at it
objectively.
Now I will tell you that it'svery natural as a business owner
to read that Nagi review andget really self-defensive and
really internalize thecriticisms.
(08:10):
One of the first things youneed to do before you actually
respond to a negative reviewthat's not always out there in
documentation, but it's kind ofsomething we all probably know,
but sometimes we need to hearagain is we need to take a step
back until we can be objectiveand really read this negative
review from a place ofneutrality so that we're not
(08:35):
being biased as being thebusiness owner and feeling
offended or things like that.
So we need to really step backand become before we respond to
any negative reviews, even ifyou know we aren't like angry
but maybe we're hurt.
You know, maybe the reviewstruck a chord with us and made
us feel hurt, like we talkedabout in the beginning.
(08:57):
It totally can evoke feelingsof anger, hurt, judgment, you
know all those things and that'svery natural to do.
But we need to step back andget out of that place of emotion
before we do these responsesand that's what I feel like this
company really did when theyresponded to this review.
(09:20):
There was no perception from myperspective and hopefully you
see a similar thing is I didn'tget a perspective that they were
hurt and that they were on thedefense when they wrote the
response.
Their response to me came fromthe heart, it came from trying
to be hopeful and it just wasvery objective, in my opinion,
(09:41):
is the way I felt, like I readit.
So let's summarize up, thoughwhat can we do when we receive a
negative review?
So first, like I said, let's beobjective and really take a
break, if you need to, andremove yourself from the
situation as far as like whenyou first read the review.
Sometimes take a day or two.
You don't want to take too long, because one of the top things
(10:03):
is we want to respond in atimely manner.
But that timely manner doesn'tmean to be within the hour
necessarily, because many timesthat's when our emotions are
still high, when we've readsomething that to us, might be
hurtful.
So take some time and then butwe do respond in a timely manner
Be very professional andempathetic.
(10:24):
So I feel like this company dida very good job of being
professional and empathetic,also acknowledge and address
specific concerns that are inthe review.
You don't want the consumer tofeel ignored, so you want to
make sure you're addressingtheir concerns and you want to
address it not in a defensiveway but in more of an objective
way and in more of a helpful wayof trying to help them either
(10:48):
maybe understand how to use theproduct differently or, you know
, just really in a way that'snot, you know, offensive in your
being Defensive, in your beingdefensive, basically, and then
also look at the review with aneutral heart, like we've talked
about, to see if you really doneed to improve something.
Sometimes these are littleclues to what you might need to
(11:10):
fix.
I found in over 20 years ofbusiness that you're going to
get either review some peoplewho absolutely love your work or
love your products, and thenyou're going to get reviews from
people who hate it.
So you're not going togenerally get the spectrum in
the middle, like those peoplethat love it, but maybe you
think it's good but not great.
(11:31):
You're mostly going to get theoutliers, the ones that really
love it or the ones that reallyhate it.
So you really got to take thatin mind when you do read your
reviews, especially the negativereviews.
You're just they're going to bemore harsh, I feel like, in
general, just because that'sjust the two types of reviews
you generally find, I feel like,for small businesses especially
(11:53):
.
So keep that in mind when you'rereading your reviews and make
sure you go through these stepsthat we talked about.
First off, make sure you have acalm heart, respond in a timely
manner, be professional andempathetic and acknowledge and
address specific concerns andlook at the review with a
neutral heart to see if you doneed to improve something.
(12:13):
Maybe there's a communicationissue or an expectation issue,
like we talk about a lot incustomer trust, the customer
trust, a series that we've doneOkay.
So I want to know have you evergotten a negative review?
How did you deal with that?
Drop us an email at podcast atbcsengineeringcom and let us
(12:34):
know your story.
So that's it for this week'sepisode.
If you're listening on YouTube,be sure to hit that subscribe
button, and if you're listeningon the podcast, be sure to
subscribe so you don't miss outon their new releases as they
come out each week.
As always, we appreciate yourfeedback and ideas, and drop us
an email to podcast atbcsengineeringcom, as we would
(12:55):
love to hear from you, and wewill see you next week.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.