April 15, 2025 • 26 mins
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As a digital product creator, I know the heart-racing moment when a customer feedback notification pops up. If it’s positive, great! If it’s negative, well, it might be just enough to send you into an all-day spiral. But guess what? Negative reviews aren’t the business-killer you might think they are! Over the years, I’ve learned that customer reviews aren’t something to fear, but an opportunity for growth.
In this episode, I want to help you rethink everything you know about customer feedback. From mindset shifts that can save your sanity to practical tips for turning criticism into opportunity, I’ll break down the art of handling reviews like a pro. You’ll learn how to protect your mental space, respond strategically, and use feedback as a powerful tool for business growth.
If you’re an online entrepreneur tired of letting customer reviews amp up your anxiety, this episode will be a game-changer. I hope it helps to transform your relationship with feedback, showing that every review - good or bad - is just another stepping stone on your path to success. Get ready to change how you see customer feedback forever!
01:57 - Three mindset shifts that will totally change how you look at customer reviews
06:03 - Practical ways to keep negative feedback from ruining your whole day (or week!)
13:59 - How to respond to feedback effectively, and when you shouldn’t respond at all
19:59 - Tips for turning customer feedback into a great business asset
Links & Resources:
- Episode 137, 5 Reasons Your Digital Products Aren’t Selling (And How to Fix Them)
- Episode 64, TPT Feedback: The Good, the Bad, and the…Constructive?
- Episode 7, Boost Your Sales with Featured Testimonials on TPT
- Follow me on Instagram @kristendoyle.co
- Check out my Everything Page: a one-stop shop for savvy selling!
- The Savvy Seller Collective
- Join my private Facebook community: Savvy Teacher Sellers
- More resources for growing your TPT business
- Rate & review The Savvy Teacher Seller on Apple Podcasts
Show Notes: https://kristendoyle.co/episode143
Feeling overwhelmed by all the things you think you need to do to grow your digital product business? Take the Savvy Seller Quiz and find out exactly what to focus on right now to actually move your business forward.
➡️ Take the quiz at savvyquiz.com
Check out my Everything Page at https://kristendoyle.co/everything
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kristen Doyle (00:01):
Have you ever felt that pang of anxiety in
your chest when you see a newnotification pop up about
customer feedback, whether it'sa review in your store or a
comment on social media or areply to their receipt email?
That moment of uncertainty canbe nerve wracking for all of us,
(00:21):
but it's something that everysingle online entrepreneur has
to learn to deal with.
I mean, do you really even own abusiness if you haven't ever
thought, oh crap, a review, whatif they're mad? Well, today
we're talking about it. Thegood, the bad and the sometimes
downright confusing, customerfeedback. Just like any other
(00:45):
part of your business, feedbackcan put us on a whole roller
coaster of emotions, but it's animportant part of growing your
business.
So today, we're going to talkabout how to handle it without
losing your mind, from acceptingthat negative feedback is a
normal part of business tostrategies for handling it in a
healthy way, and even how toturn that cranky review into
(01:06):
something valuable for yourbusiness. So put your big girl
pants on or guy, and let's talkabout dealing with customer
feedback.
Are you a digital product orcourse creator, selling on
platforms like teachers payteachers, Etsy or your own
website? Ready to grow yourbusiness, but not into the kind
(01:26):
of constant hustle that leadsstraight to burnout? Then you're
in the right place.
Welcome to The Savvy Seller. I'mKristen Doyle, and I'm here to
give you no fluff, tools andstrategies that move the needle
for your business withoutburning you out in the process.
Things like SEO, no stressmarketing, email list building,
(01:47):
automation, and so much more.
Let's get started y'all.
First off, let's get real aboutfeedback and how it actually
works in the online businessworld. I want to share three
mindset shifts that totallychanged how I look at reviews,
and they might help you, too.
The first mindset shift is thatnegative feedback is totally
(02:10):
normal, and you really shouldjust come to expect it in your
business. Average ratings onAmazon range between 3.4 and 4.2
stars, and that's out of five.
Etsy recently changed their starseller criteria from getting 95%
five star ratings to 95% 4.8 orhigher. Both of those tell you
(02:36):
that we really just should notexpect perfection. In fact,
customers are actually naturallysuspicious of products with only
perfect reviews, because theywill assume that you're either
deleting all the negative ones,even if your platform doesn't
allow that, or they'll assumemaybe you've hired people to
(02:56):
write perfect reviews for you.
The truth is, even the mostsuccessful sellers get negative
feedback, and it is just part ofbusiness. So shift your mindset
around that from I don't everwant negative feedback to this
is just part of being a businessowner. Mindset shift number two
(03:18):
is that perfection is actuallyan enemy of growth in a lot of
ways.
First of all, putting thatpressure on yourself to expect
perfect reviews creates a ton ofunnecessary stress, and it can
actually even cause you to missout on sales from what would be
happy customers, because you aremaybe hesitating to post a
(03:41):
product because you're not sureit's going to get great reviews
yet, or because you've pulled aproduct down because it got a
negative review and now no onecan buy it.
Like I said earlier,imperfection in your product
reviews actually can make yourbusiness seem more trustworthy
and make you more relatable. Thereality is, your product is not
(04:04):
right for everyone, and that isabsolutely okay. One or two
negative reviews here and thereare not going to make the
majority of people not buy yourproduct. In my own store, my
very best selling product of alltime has almost 13,000 reviews
right now, and it still to thisday, gets a couple of one or two
(04:27):
star reviews every single year.
Now most of those are buyerissues, and I have done
everything I can to solve them,from editing the product to
creating multiple versions fordifferent software to creating
video tutorials, but it stillhappens. I just get a couple of
negative reviews here and thereevery single year from this
(04:48):
product. Which leads me tomindset shift number three, you
have to learn to separate yourpersonal worth from product
feedback. I know it is supereasy to take feedback
personally, especially when wehave poured ourselves into the
products we create. They feellike a part of us in a lot of
(05:10):
ways.
But it is really important whenyou're looking at feedback to
distance yourself from thatproduct feedback emotionally and
know that that person's feedbackon your product doesn't
necessarily have anything to dowith how they feel about you. It
doesn't define your product'svalue because other people feel
(05:31):
completely differently fromthem, and it certainly doesn't
define your value as a person.
Feedback is subjective. Everyonehas different opinions,
different things that they wereexpecting to see or they were
hoping to see when they got yourproduct, and it's also dependent
on the context that they're in.
Maybe it just didn't work forthem because of something super
(05:52):
specific that you never wouldhave been able to address. So
try to make sure to separateyourself from the product
feedback that you're getting.
All right. So those are somemindset shifts I want you to try
and adopt. Now let's talk aboutsome of the actual day to day
stuff you can do to keep thatfeedback from ruining your whole
(06:14):
day or your week. The firststrategy is to take control of
how and when you receivefeedback. Right now, pause this
podcast if you need to go toyour apps for wherever you sell
and turn off real timenotifications for feedback. The
(06:34):
truth is you do not need to beavailable. 24/7 and you
shouldn't be available 24/7.
When feedback is rolling inconstantly, it will grab your
attention, take you off trackfrom whatever else you were
doing, whether it was productcreation or marketing for your
business, or maybe you were justtrying to step away from your
business and do somethingpersonal. That feedback alert on
(06:57):
your phone is going to grab Yourattention and take you off
track. And if it's greatfeedback, then yay. But if it
happens not to be, it'll derailyou for the entire day
sometimes.
So go in your apps, turn off thereal time notifications for
feedback, and then schedule inspecific times in your week to
go in and review feedback. Oncea week really should be more
(07:21):
than enough. This kind of takeson a format of batching where
you spend one batch of timeevery week or every month to go
in look at your feedback anddeal with anything that needs
to. This helps you to still beable to serve any customers who
need help but protect yourmental space and your peace
(07:42):
throughout the rest of the week.
I would really recommend youcreate some strict boundaries
around when you do your feedbackreview. Don't do it on the
weekend. Don't do it rightbefore bed. Definitely don't do
it right before you're ready toget into product creation mode
and you need to be feelingconfident and good about things,
because you just never know whatyou're gonna find. So schedule
(08:04):
some time for it that you knowyou'll have something good to do
after it, to pull you out of aslump, just in case you get
negative feedback.
Reviewing feedback is actuallyalso one of the first things
that I would suggest you handoff to a VA if you have one, or
you're ready to hire one. My VAgoes in and reads all of my
feedback once a week. She sendsme any really great ones, so I
(08:28):
get those feel good moments, butshe also lets me know if there
are any issues that I actuallyneed to address. But I never
have to see those baselesscomplaints or the issues that
she can solve for me because shetakes care of that stuff without
me having to see it. It reallyhelps keep me focused on the
things I need to be doing in mybusiness and not worried about
(08:51):
people who just didn't like myproduct.
The second strategy is you needto give yourself a support
system, especially for when youget difficult feedback. Pick a
business friend or a mastermindwhere you can trust these people
and you can vent about difficultfeedback that you're getting in
(09:11):
a safe place so that you can getit off your chest and then move
on. Sometimes you might evenvent to someone who doesn't
understand your business at all.
In fact, one of my closest reallife friends doesn't do anything
related to online business, butshe's a close friend. We go on
walks a lot, and I have ventedto her about feedback more times
(09:35):
than I can even count. In fact,we are still to this day every
now and then referring back to acustomer who bought a
downloadable PDF product from meand left feedback that they were
really upset that this productdidn't come laminated.
Now I was annoyed because I gota one star review for something
(09:56):
that's not remotely my fault,not even a possibility. Yeah.
Right? I can't make your digitaldownload become laminated for
you. I don't live at your house,but when I shared this story and
my frustration with her, sheimmediately came back with, what
do they want you to do? Make itcome laminated out of their
printer? Send them a selflaminating printer? What are you
(10:17):
supposed to do about that? Andwe had a good laugh about it,
and we're kind of still laughingabout it now.
So sometimes getting perspectivefrom someone else who is totally
outside the situation can reallyhelp you see a little humor in
some of those negative reviewsthat you might get, and it can
help you just to deal with thatfrustration. So share both the
(10:37):
frustrations and thecelebrations with someone around
you.
The third strategy is to have aplan in place. As a teacher, I
was encouraged by a mentor tostart creating what she called a
smile file. If you're a teacher,you probably know exactly what
I'm talking about. It's whereyou take those little notes that
students or their parents writeyou, and you put them in a box
(11:01):
or a binder or something, sothat you can pull them out on
the really hard days andremember that you're making a
difference and you're doing goodthings. And yes, people do like
me!So I would create a smile file
of those positive comments youget from buyers and the really
good testimonials. Screenshotthem, drop them into a folder on
your computer. And hey, maybebefore you review your new
feedback on your batching day,open that up, look at a couple
(11:24):
of good ones, and remindyourself that people are really
happy with your productsoverall, and that whatever comes
up in negative feedback today,most people really like your
stuff.
The other piece of my plan fordealing with feedback is I have
a list in my notion basedatabase dashboard. I'm not even
(11:48):
sure what we call them in notionI have too many apps, you guys.
I have a list in notion of todo's and notes. It's just one
spot where I jot down quickthings that I want to do, and
one of the tabs in there iscalled my one day list.
And so as you're looking atfeedback, and you're seeing
things that maybe you can do toimprove something, I'm not
(12:09):
talking about those urgent fixeswhere there's typos or
something's pages are missing orsomething like that, but those
one day ideas, jot those down ina one day list somewhere, like I
do in notion.
Alright, the fourth strategy,and this one is probably the
most important one, is to makesure that you are paying
attention and recognizing whenthe feedback is not about you.
(12:31):
Keep in mind that we have lotsof factors that affect how we
feel about the products that webuy, and your buyers are the
exact same way. Sometimesfeedback clearly reflects their
problem, not yours.
In fact, I have gotten feedbackthat was five star feedback that
says, This is really great. Ilove it. I hope I can use it
(12:53):
next year. But it totally didnot work for this year's
students. See, that's an exampleof a time when the customer
really loved my product, it justdidn't work for her class right
then. And things like that canhappen. Honestly, getting a five
star review that looks like thatis pretty rare. Most of the time
you're gonna get knocked offsome stars because they weren't
(13:14):
able to use the product.
But I share that five star oneto remind you that people can be
truly happy with your product,and it still doesn't quite work
for their situation right now.
So make sure that you're payingattention to those sorts of
keywords and phrases in thosereviews that let you know that
this is really about them, notabout me. At the same time, some
feedback is constructive. Someis not constructive.
(13:38):
I've gotten feedback that saidreally just didn't like it.
Well, okay, what am I supposedto do with that? Right? There's
not much I can do to make aproduct better or to get any
useful information, if that'sall they say. But when the
feedback has anythingconstructive, pay attention to
that so that you can use it. Andwe'll talk about how in just a
minute.
(13:59):
All right, so those are somestrategies for handling the
feedback internally in yourmind. But what about actually
responding to these people? Doyou reply or not? What do you
say? Let's talk about how torespond without making things
worse, or without spending yourwhole entire day mentally
drafting that perfect reply.
First of all, some feedback doesnot need a response. That person
(14:23):
who just said, I just didn'tlike it, they don't need a
reply. What are you going to sayto them anyway? Every negative
feedback does not have to have aresponse. People are smart
enough to look at feedback andknow when someone said something
that doesn't need a response.
When it comes to negativefeedback that does deserve a
response. I would say feedbackthat deserves a response is when
(14:45):
they identify a problem becauseyou want the next person reading
your feedback to see that yousolved this problem or that you
pointed them to a resource tohelp solve their problem.
Likewise, when it comes topositive feedback, very early,
very new products, you mightwant to respond a little bit,
but there's typically no need toreply thank you to every single
(15:09):
review that you get, becausemost of the time, the person who
left the review doesn't getnotified anyway, and all that
does is push those reviews downthe page so that people are
seeing a whole lot of you sayingthank you, and not a whole lot
of buyers who are happy withyour products.
So I typically don't respond topositive feedback unless it's
really exceptional, and I havesomething special I want to say
(15:29):
something beyond just sayingthank you. For negative
feedback, I respond anytime thatthere's something for me to
answer. If there's not, then Idon't respond. Sometimes no
response is the best response,because when you reply, that
review now gets longer on thepage, because now it's the
review plus your reply, and thatdraws more attention to it.
(15:52):
So if there's nothing positiveyou can say, maybe no response
is a better response. In thatcase, ultimately, responding to
feedback is about how the personviewing your product, deciding
to purchase it or not, is goingto see that feedback, not about
replying to the person who hasthe problem. Now, when it comes
to replying, keep that fact inmind and create your responses
(16:15):
focused on how a future customeris going to see it, because,
like I said, most of thosereplies are actually going to be
seen by future customers, notthe original person who left the
review anyway.
So think about how you can solvetheir problem with something
like a sandwich method, wherethe first thing you say is nice
and then you give an answer, andthen you close with something
(16:37):
nice again. Keep it factual.
Keep it solution oriented. Don'tshow a bunch of emotion. Don't
tell them how disappointed andupset you are that they were
upset with you. Because, like Isaid, it's all about how a
future customer will see this.
Think about starting thatresponse with a thank you so
(16:57):
much for pointing out thisissue, and then move into how
you have solved it, or howyou're going to solve it, or how
they can solve it if it's reallya problem on their end, and then
close with I hope this helps.
Feel free to reach out if youhave any other questions,
something like that. So you'restarting and ending your
feedback on a very positivenote.
(17:19):
Now, one big tip for you when itcomes to those responses, that
feedback that causes youremotions to run really high, is
I would really recommend thatyou read it and wait 24 hours
before you respond. Anotherthing you can do is you can pull
out your favorite AI tool, andyou can tell it what you really
(17:42):
think. Tell chatGPT or Claudewhat you really want to say, and
ask it to help you be nice.
Because AI tools, as frustratingas they can be in some parts of
our lives, they are reallyhelpful for helping us rewrite
something and make it morepolite than we would make it on
our own.
And if you're not sure that thereply you've written is a good
(18:04):
one, you can always do what Idid when I was teaching and send
that email you want to send tothe parent, to a friend, to
another entrepreneur, to yourspouse, whoever, to look over it
and make sure that it reallydoes sound polite and
professional and positive. Keepin mind that your response to
(18:25):
their feedback says a whole lotmore about you than their
feedback says about them, atleast in the eyes of a potential
Now, when it comes to addressingfeedback, I know sometimes we
buyer.
can spend a lot of our timerehashing the feedback, thinking
about how to respond, justdigging into it over and over,
going back and forth. Feedbackreally should not consume your
(18:48):
work day. It is not the mostproductive use of your time, so
when you get ready to addressfeedback in those little
batching blocks of time, giveyourself a time limit.
And I would recommend a twotouch rule, don't go back and
forth on what you're going tosay more than twice. Look at it,
write something, maybe pause,send it to someone, whatever.
(19:09):
Revisit it that one time, editand send it and be done.
All right, so that is how todeal with feedback when it comes
in. But there is a silver liningeven to negative feedback, so we
can actually use all of ourfeedback to make our business
and our products even better.
And that's the whole point,right, to have better products
so that you get more of thegreat feedback and less of the
(19:33):
bad ones. So when it comes toturning feedback into a good
business asset, the biggestthing to do is to look for
valuable insights whether thefeedback was positive or
negative.
I would be looking for patternsin feedback. So do you keep
hearing the same thing over andover, whether it's positive or
(19:56):
negative? One example in my ownbusiness, back to that same
product. I told you about mybest seller with all the
reviews, there was a little facewhere I was getting a lot of
negative feedback on it, andthere was a pattern in what the
negative feedback said. It wasall very similar.
So I took that as anopportunity. Instead of just
saying, well, that's yourproblem, I took that as an
(20:17):
opportunity to find a way tomake this product better and
easier for more people to use,and that has reduced the amount
of negative feedback I'mgetting. Is it all gone? No, of
course, not, like I said, it'sgonna happen, but I am down to
very minimal negative feedbacknow because I've improved the
product. So look for patterns inwhat you're doing well that you
(20:39):
can apply to other products, butalso look for patterns in what
people complain about so thatyou can find something to fix.
And it might be that thefeedback actually helps you to
identify a gap in your productlines. Maybe it's something you
should add to this product, butmaybe it's an opportunity to
create something new. There'salso a difference between one
(20:59):
off issues and things that arehappening over and over. So that
is where really looking at thosepatterns comes in. Because if
you're seeing something over andover, chances are it's something
you need to address.
When it comes to the positivefeedback that you're getting.
Make sure that you're showing itoff in some strategic places.
Show positive testimonials onyour website homepage, on sales
(21:22):
pages, add them into yourproduct listings, if you can use
screenshots instead of typing itout. But even typing it out will
be helpful for people who maybedon't scroll far enough to see
the testimonials, or you havesome really great older
testimonials that they may nevermake it to if they're just
looking at what's displayed onyour page.
(21:43):
You can also create carousels oftestimonials to post on your
social media, share them inemails about your products, so
make sure that you are takingthat positive feedback and using
it to grow your business.
All right, I know this mightseem like a lot, but you really
don't have to do everything allat once. Let me give you three
(22:04):
super simple things that you canactually do this week to start
getting a handle on the feedbacksituation. Number one, review
your notification settings.
Check all the platforms whereyou get feedback and adjust your
settings so that you are notbeing notified in real time
about every single feedback thatyou get.
Maybe there is a way to batchyour notifications or to have it
(22:28):
only send them at certain times,or you can just turn it off
completely. When it comes tothose emails that you get about
customer feedback, you caneither create an automation to
send them all to a certainfolder in your email so that you
can just review them all at onetime when you're ready, or you
can turn those notifications offin your sales platforms as well.
(22:49):
Number two is to set up a systemand a plan. So create that smile
file with some of your bestreviews. Start a one day list in
whatever tool you're using tomanage all of your tasks -
Notion, Trello, ClickUp,whatever you like, and go ahead
and draft out some templatedresponses for common feedback
that you get. Check and see ifyour platform allows you to save
(23:13):
those replies. I know TeachersPay Teachers is allowing that
now you can even save replies inInstagram DMs so that you don't
have to rewrite things over andover.
And then your third action stepfor today is to pick one piece
of feedback from somethingrecent that you've gotten that
you're actually going toimplement. Pick something small,
a tiny improvement you can makethis week to make one of your
(23:35):
products better, and then letyour customers know that you've
improved your product.
All right, that's it for today.
I hope that this episode hasgiven you a new perspective on
even the negative feedback, sothat you're starting to see it
as something you can use to helpmake your business better, and
that you've learned somestrategies for how to deal with
it mentally and emotionally aswell.
(23:56):
And you know what? I bet youhave another friend who
struggles with feedback too. Weall do, so screenshot this
episode and share it with them.
Sometimes, just knowing we'renot alone can make a huge
difference. Tag me if you shareit on social @kristendoyle.co
and let me know what action stepyou're taking this week. Talk to
you soon!
Have you ever felt that pang of anxiety in
your chest when you see a newnotification pop up about
customer feedback, whether it'sa review in your store or a
comment on social media or areply to their receipt email?
That moment of uncertainty canbe nerve wracking for all of us,
(00:21):
but it's something that everysingle online entrepreneur has
to learn to deal with.
I mean, do you really even own abusiness if you haven't ever
thought, oh crap, a review, whatif they're mad? Well, today
we're talking about it. Thegood, the bad and the sometimes
downright confusing, customerfeedback. Just like any other
(00:45):
part of your business, feedbackcan put us on a whole roller
coaster of emotions, but it's animportant part of growing your
business.
So today, we're going to talkabout how to handle it without
losing your mind, from acceptingthat negative feedback is a
normal part of business tostrategies for handling it in a
healthy way, and even how toturn that cranky review into
(01:06):
something valuable for yourbusiness. So put your big girl
pants on or guy, and let's talkabout dealing with customer
feedback.
Are you a digital product orcourse creator, selling on
platforms like teachers payteachers, Etsy or your own
website? Ready to grow yourbusiness, but not into the kind
(01:26):
of constant hustle that leadsstraight to burnout? Then you're
in the right place.
Welcome to The Savvy Seller. I'mKristen Doyle, and I'm here to
give you no fluff, tools andstrategies that move the needle
for your business withoutburning you out in the process.
Things like SEO, no stressmarketing, email list building,
(01:47):
automation, and so much more.
Let's get started y'all.
First off, let's get real aboutfeedback and how it actually
works in the online businessworld. I want to share three
mindset shifts that totallychanged how I look at reviews,
and they might help you, too.
The first mindset shift is thatnegative feedback is totally
(02:10):
normal, and you really shouldjust come to expect it in your
business. Average ratings onAmazon range between 3.4 and 4.2
stars, and that's out of five.
Etsy recently changed their starseller criteria from getting 95%
five star ratings to 95% 4.8 orhigher. Both of those tell you
(02:36):
that we really just should notexpect perfection. In fact,
customers are actually naturallysuspicious of products with only
perfect reviews, because theywill assume that you're either
deleting all the negative ones,even if your platform doesn't
allow that, or they'll assumemaybe you've hired people to
(02:56):
write perfect reviews for you.
The truth is, even the mostsuccessful sellers get negative
feedback, and it is just part ofbusiness. So shift your mindset
around that from I don't everwant negative feedback to this
is just part of being a businessowner. Mindset shift number two
(03:18):
is that perfection is actuallyan enemy of growth in a lot of
ways.
First of all, putting thatpressure on yourself to expect
perfect reviews creates a ton ofunnecessary stress, and it can
actually even cause you to missout on sales from what would be
happy customers, because you aremaybe hesitating to post a
(03:41):
product because you're not sureit's going to get great reviews
yet, or because you've pulled aproduct down because it got a
negative review and now no onecan buy it.
Like I said earlier,imperfection in your product
reviews actually can make yourbusiness seem more trustworthy
and make you more relatable. Thereality is, your product is not
(04:04):
right for everyone, and that isabsolutely okay. One or two
negative reviews here and thereare not going to make the
majority of people not buy yourproduct. In my own store, my
very best selling product of alltime has almost 13,000 reviews
right now, and it still to thisday, gets a couple of one or two
(04:27):
star reviews every single year.
Now most of those are buyerissues, and I have done
everything I can to solve them,from editing the product to
creating multiple versions fordifferent software to creating
video tutorials, but it stillhappens. I just get a couple of
negative reviews here and thereevery single year from this
(04:48):
product. Which leads me tomindset shift number three, you
have to learn to separate yourpersonal worth from product
feedback. I know it is supereasy to take feedback
personally, especially when wehave poured ourselves into the
products we create. They feellike a part of us in a lot of
(05:10):
ways.
But it is really important whenyou're looking at feedback to
distance yourself from thatproduct feedback emotionally and
know that that person's feedbackon your product doesn't
necessarily have anything to dowith how they feel about you. It
doesn't define your product'svalue because other people feel
(05:31):
completely differently fromthem, and it certainly doesn't
define your value as a person.
Feedback is subjective. Everyonehas different opinions,
different things that they wereexpecting to see or they were
hoping to see when they got yourproduct, and it's also dependent
on the context that they're in.
Maybe it just didn't work forthem because of something super
(05:52):
specific that you never wouldhave been able to address. So
try to make sure to separateyourself from the product
feedback that you're getting.
All right. So those are somemindset shifts I want you to try
and adopt. Now let's talk aboutsome of the actual day to day
stuff you can do to keep thatfeedback from ruining your whole
(06:14):
day or your week. The firststrategy is to take control of
how and when you receivefeedback. Right now, pause this
podcast if you need to go toyour apps for wherever you sell
and turn off real timenotifications for feedback. The
(06:34):
truth is you do not need to beavailable. 24/7 and you
shouldn't be available 24/7.
When feedback is rolling inconstantly, it will grab your
attention, take you off trackfrom whatever else you were
doing, whether it was productcreation or marketing for your
business, or maybe you were justtrying to step away from your
business and do somethingpersonal. That feedback alert on
(06:57):
your phone is going to grab Yourattention and take you off
track. And if it's greatfeedback, then yay. But if it
happens not to be, it'll derailyou for the entire day
sometimes.
So go in your apps, turn off thereal time notifications for
feedback, and then schedule inspecific times in your week to
go in and review feedback. Oncea week really should be more
(07:21):
than enough. This kind of takeson a format of batching where
you spend one batch of timeevery week or every month to go
in look at your feedback anddeal with anything that needs
to. This helps you to still beable to serve any customers who
need help but protect yourmental space and your peace
(07:42):
throughout the rest of the week.
I would really recommend youcreate some strict boundaries
around when you do your feedbackreview. Don't do it on the
weekend. Don't do it rightbefore bed. Definitely don't do
it right before you're ready toget into product creation mode
and you need to be feelingconfident and good about things,
because you just never know whatyou're gonna find. So schedule
(08:04):
some time for it that you knowyou'll have something good to do
after it, to pull you out of aslump, just in case you get
negative feedback.
Reviewing feedback is actuallyalso one of the first things
that I would suggest you handoff to a VA if you have one, or
you're ready to hire one. My VAgoes in and reads all of my
feedback once a week. She sendsme any really great ones, so I
(08:28):
get those feel good moments, butshe also lets me know if there
are any issues that I actuallyneed to address. But I never
have to see those baselesscomplaints or the issues that
she can solve for me because shetakes care of that stuff without
me having to see it. It reallyhelps keep me focused on the
things I need to be doing in mybusiness and not worried about
(08:51):
people who just didn't like myproduct.
The second strategy is you needto give yourself a support
system, especially for when youget difficult feedback. Pick a
business friend or a mastermindwhere you can trust these people
and you can vent about difficultfeedback that you're getting in
(09:11):
a safe place so that you can getit off your chest and then move
on. Sometimes you might evenvent to someone who doesn't
understand your business at all.
In fact, one of my closest reallife friends doesn't do anything
related to online business, butshe's a close friend. We go on
walks a lot, and I have ventedto her about feedback more times
(09:35):
than I can even count. In fact,we are still to this day every
now and then referring back to acustomer who bought a
downloadable PDF product from meand left feedback that they were
really upset that this productdidn't come laminated.
Now I was annoyed because I gota one star review for something
(09:56):
that's not remotely my fault,not even a possibility. Yeah.
Right? I can't make your digitaldownload become laminated for
you. I don't live at your house,but when I shared this story and
my frustration with her, sheimmediately came back with, what
do they want you to do? Make itcome laminated out of their
printer? Send them a selflaminating printer? What are you
(10:17):
supposed to do about that? Andwe had a good laugh about it,
and we're kind of still laughingabout it now.
So sometimes getting perspectivefrom someone else who is totally
outside the situation can reallyhelp you see a little humor in
some of those negative reviewsthat you might get, and it can
help you just to deal with thatfrustration. So share both the
(10:37):
frustrations and thecelebrations with someone around
you.
The third strategy is to have aplan in place. As a teacher, I
was encouraged by a mentor tostart creating what she called a
smile file. If you're a teacher,you probably know exactly what
I'm talking about. It's whereyou take those little notes that
students or their parents writeyou, and you put them in a box
(11:01):
or a binder or something, sothat you can pull them out on
the really hard days andremember that you're making a
difference and you're doing goodthings. And yes, people do like
me!So I would create a smile file
of those positive comments youget from buyers and the really
good testimonials. Screenshotthem, drop them into a folder on
your computer. And hey, maybebefore you review your new
feedback on your batching day,open that up, look at a couple
(11:24):
of good ones, and remindyourself that people are really
happy with your productsoverall, and that whatever comes
up in negative feedback today,most people really like your
stuff.
The other piece of my plan fordealing with feedback is I have
a list in my notion basedatabase dashboard. I'm not even
(11:48):
sure what we call them in notionI have too many apps, you guys.
I have a list in notion of todo's and notes. It's just one
spot where I jot down quickthings that I want to do, and
one of the tabs in there iscalled my one day list.
And so as you're looking atfeedback, and you're seeing
things that maybe you can do toimprove something, I'm not
(12:09):
talking about those urgent fixeswhere there's typos or
something's pages are missing orsomething like that, but those
one day ideas, jot those down ina one day list somewhere, like I
do in notion.
Alright, the fourth strategy,and this one is probably the
most important one, is to makesure that you are paying
attention and recognizing whenthe feedback is not about you.
(12:31):
Keep in mind that we have lotsof factors that affect how we
feel about the products that webuy, and your buyers are the
exact same way. Sometimesfeedback clearly reflects their
problem, not yours.
In fact, I have gotten feedbackthat was five star feedback that
says, This is really great. Ilove it. I hope I can use it
(12:53):
next year. But it totally didnot work for this year's
students. See, that's an exampleof a time when the customer
really loved my product, it justdidn't work for her class right
then. And things like that canhappen. Honestly, getting a five
star review that looks like thatis pretty rare. Most of the time
you're gonna get knocked offsome stars because they weren't
(13:14):
able to use the product.
But I share that five star oneto remind you that people can be
truly happy with your product,and it still doesn't quite work
for their situation right now.
So make sure that you're payingattention to those sorts of
keywords and phrases in thosereviews that let you know that
this is really about them, notabout me. At the same time, some
feedback is constructive. Someis not constructive.
(13:38):
I've gotten feedback that saidreally just didn't like it.
Well, okay, what am I supposedto do with that? Right? There's
not much I can do to make aproduct better or to get any
useful information, if that'sall they say. But when the
feedback has anythingconstructive, pay attention to
that so that you can use it. Andwe'll talk about how in just a
minute.
(13:59):
All right, so those are somestrategies for handling the
feedback internally in yourmind. But what about actually
responding to these people? Doyou reply or not? What do you
say? Let's talk about how torespond without making things
worse, or without spending yourwhole entire day mentally
drafting that perfect reply.
First of all, some feedback doesnot need a response. That person
(14:23):
who just said, I just didn'tlike it, they don't need a
reply. What are you going to sayto them anyway? Every negative
feedback does not have to have aresponse. People are smart
enough to look at feedback andknow when someone said something
that doesn't need a response.
When it comes to negativefeedback that does deserve a
response. I would say feedbackthat deserves a response is when
(14:45):
they identify a problem becauseyou want the next person reading
your feedback to see that yousolved this problem or that you
pointed them to a resource tohelp solve their problem.
Likewise, when it comes topositive feedback, very early,
very new products, you mightwant to respond a little bit,
but there's typically no need toreply thank you to every single
(15:09):
review that you get, becausemost of the time, the person who
left the review doesn't getnotified anyway, and all that
does is push those reviews downthe page so that people are
seeing a whole lot of you sayingthank you, and not a whole lot
of buyers who are happy withyour products.
So I typically don't respond topositive feedback unless it's
really exceptional, and I havesomething special I want to say
(15:29):
something beyond just sayingthank you. For negative
feedback, I respond anytime thatthere's something for me to
answer. If there's not, then Idon't respond. Sometimes no
response is the best response,because when you reply, that
review now gets longer on thepage, because now it's the
review plus your reply, and thatdraws more attention to it.
(15:52):
So if there's nothing positiveyou can say, maybe no response
is a better response. In thatcase, ultimately, responding to
feedback is about how the personviewing your product, deciding
to purchase it or not, is goingto see that feedback, not about
replying to the person who hasthe problem. Now, when it comes
to replying, keep that fact inmind and create your responses
(16:15):
focused on how a future customeris going to see it, because,
like I said, most of thosereplies are actually going to be
seen by future customers, notthe original person who left the
review anyway.
So think about how you can solvetheir problem with something
like a sandwich method, wherethe first thing you say is nice
and then you give an answer, andthen you close with something
(16:37):
nice again. Keep it factual.
Keep it solution oriented. Don'tshow a bunch of emotion. Don't
tell them how disappointed andupset you are that they were
upset with you. Because, like Isaid, it's all about how a
future customer will see this.
Think about starting thatresponse with a thank you so
(16:57):
much for pointing out thisissue, and then move into how
you have solved it, or howyou're going to solve it, or how
they can solve it if it's reallya problem on their end, and then
close with I hope this helps.
Feel free to reach out if youhave any other questions,
something like that. So you'restarting and ending your
feedback on a very positivenote.
(17:19):
Now, one big tip for you when itcomes to those responses, that
feedback that causes youremotions to run really high, is
I would really recommend thatyou read it and wait 24 hours
before you respond. Anotherthing you can do is you can pull
out your favorite AI tool, andyou can tell it what you really
(17:42):
think. Tell chatGPT or Claudewhat you really want to say, and
ask it to help you be nice.
Because AI tools, as frustratingas they can be in some parts of
our lives, they are reallyhelpful for helping us rewrite
something and make it morepolite than we would make it on
our own.
And if you're not sure that thereply you've written is a good
(18:04):
one, you can always do what Idid when I was teaching and send
that email you want to send tothe parent, to a friend, to
another entrepreneur, to yourspouse, whoever, to look over it
and make sure that it reallydoes sound polite and
professional and positive. Keepin mind that your response to
(18:25):
their feedback says a whole lotmore about you than their
feedback says about them, atleast in the eyes of a potential
Now, when it comes to addressingfeedback, I know sometimes we
buyer.
can spend a lot of our timerehashing the feedback, thinking
about how to respond, justdigging into it over and over,
going back and forth. Feedbackreally should not consume your
(18:48):
work day. It is not the mostproductive use of your time, so
when you get ready to addressfeedback in those little
batching blocks of time, giveyourself a time limit.
And I would recommend a twotouch rule, don't go back and
forth on what you're going tosay more than twice. Look at it,
write something, maybe pause,send it to someone, whatever.
(19:09):
Revisit it that one time, editand send it and be done.
All right, so that is how todeal with feedback when it comes
in. But there is a silver liningeven to negative feedback, so we
can actually use all of ourfeedback to make our business
and our products even better.
And that's the whole point,right, to have better products
so that you get more of thegreat feedback and less of the
(19:33):
bad ones. So when it comes toturning feedback into a good
business asset, the biggestthing to do is to look for
valuable insights whether thefeedback was positive or
negative.
I would be looking for patternsin feedback. So do you keep
hearing the same thing over andover, whether it's positive or
(19:56):
negative? One example in my ownbusiness, back to that same
product. I told you about mybest seller with all the
reviews, there was a little facewhere I was getting a lot of
negative feedback on it, andthere was a pattern in what the
negative feedback said. It wasall very similar.
So I took that as anopportunity. Instead of just
saying, well, that's yourproblem, I took that as an
(20:17):
opportunity to find a way tomake this product better and
easier for more people to use,and that has reduced the amount
of negative feedback I'mgetting. Is it all gone? No, of
course, not, like I said, it'sgonna happen, but I am down to
very minimal negative feedbacknow because I've improved the
product. So look for patterns inwhat you're doing well that you
(20:39):
can apply to other products, butalso look for patterns in what
people complain about so thatyou can find something to fix.
And it might be that thefeedback actually helps you to
identify a gap in your productlines. Maybe it's something you
should add to this product, butmaybe it's an opportunity to
create something new. There'salso a difference between one
(20:59):
off issues and things that arehappening over and over. So that
is where really looking at thosepatterns comes in. Because if
you're seeing something over andover, chances are it's something
you need to address.
When it comes to the positivefeedback that you're getting.
Make sure that you're showing itoff in some strategic places.
Show positive testimonials onyour website homepage, on sales
(21:22):
pages, add them into yourproduct listings, if you can use
screenshots instead of typing itout. But even typing it out will
be helpful for people who maybedon't scroll far enough to see
the testimonials, or you havesome really great older
testimonials that they may nevermake it to if they're just
looking at what's displayed onyour page.
(21:43):
You can also create carousels oftestimonials to post on your
social media, share them inemails about your products, so
make sure that you are takingthat positive feedback and using
it to grow your business.
All right, I know this mightseem like a lot, but you really
don't have to do everything allat once. Let me give you three
(22:04):
super simple things that you canactually do this week to start
getting a handle on the feedbacksituation. Number one, review
your notification settings.
Check all the platforms whereyou get feedback and adjust your
settings so that you are notbeing notified in real time
about every single feedback thatyou get.
Maybe there is a way to batchyour notifications or to have it
(22:28):
only send them at certain times,or you can just turn it off
completely. When it comes tothose emails that you get about
customer feedback, you caneither create an automation to
send them all to a certainfolder in your email so that you
can just review them all at onetime when you're ready, or you
can turn those notifications offin your sales platforms as well.
(22:49):
Number two is to set up a systemand a plan. So create that smile
file with some of your bestreviews. Start a one day list in
whatever tool you're using tomanage all of your tasks -
Notion, Trello, ClickUp,whatever you like, and go ahead
and draft out some templatedresponses for common feedback
that you get. Check and see ifyour platform allows you to save
(23:13):
those replies. I know TeachersPay Teachers is allowing that
now you can even save replies inInstagram DMs so that you don't
have to rewrite things over andover.
And then your third action stepfor today is to pick one piece
of feedback from somethingrecent that you've gotten that
you're actually going toimplement. Pick something small,
a tiny improvement you can makethis week to make one of your
(23:35):
products better, and then letyour customers know that you've
improved your product.
All right, that's it for today.
I hope that this episode hasgiven you a new perspective on
even the negative feedback, sothat you're starting to see it
as something you can use to helpmake your business better, and
that you've learned somestrategies for how to deal with
it mentally and emotionally aswell.
(23:56):
And you know what? I bet youhave another friend who
struggles with feedback too. Weall do, so screenshot this
episode and share it with them.
Sometimes, just knowing we'renot alone can make a huge
difference. Tag me if you shareit on social @kristendoyle.co
and let me know what action stepyou're taking this week. Talk to
you soon!
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