Do you look forward to receiving reviews about your business? Reviews, whether negative or positive, can have a significant impact on your business. For instance, negative reviews can be seen by hundreds of customers, hurting your business reputation. With the increased number of social media users and review websites, businesses should be more concerned than ever about what customers are saying about them.
Fortunately, negative reviews do not have to rest to loss of business. Instead, negative reviews can help you attract more clients to your business. Most clients trust a company that has a few negative reviews that the one that has no negative reviews. Hence negative reviews are vital for building your home care agencies credibility and trustworthiness.
However, you need to handle negative reviews professionally if you don’t want them to hurt your reputation.
How to Handle Negative Business Reviews
Below are the best tips to deal with negative reviews:
Respond Quickly
The online world operates 24/7, and people expect prompt responses. Therefore, letting a negative review sit for hours without replying to it can paint a negative picture about your business in the eyes of potential customers who come across the negative feedback. You need to show your customers you care about their opinion, even if it’s negative. In addition, avoid giving general responses. Ensure your response is specific to the clients’ problem and personalized. Responding to reviews quickly and politely will increase your chances of converting your heckler clients into promoters.
Take the Conversation Offline
After receiving the complaint, request the client to handle the matter offline. Provide your email address or contact information so that you can discuss and resolve the problem. Reaching out to the customer offline provides a higher chance of resolving the issue and avoid escalating the situation with the online presence.Once you have resolved the problem, you can go back to their online review and leave a comment for the public to know the matter has been solved and thank the client for making your home care agency a better place.
Accept Your Mistakes
After receiving a negative review, do not delete it or try to hide it and leave a pre-recorded response. Accept your mistakes and find a solution to the matter. Do your best to make the critic customer feel loved and valued by your business. Try to make it right instead of trying to bury the negative review. Owning your mistakes and finding solutions will make clients trust your business more.
Be Polite
The best way to deal with unsatisfied clients is to listen to their concerns keenly and politely. Do not make excuses for any negative review from an unsatisfied client even if you know you are not at fault. Let the customer know you appreciate their feedback, and you are willing to improve their experience. Then try your best to ensure everything is resolved, and clients are happy.The best thing is to ensure you fix the problem permanently. Take proactive steps to solve the base cause of the problem. Make customers feel your business values them, and you are ready to solve their complaints. Clients respond better to a humble business and where they feel loved.
See the Positive In the Negative
While most people believe all positive reviews for their business are the best, the reality is a mixture of positive and negative reviews makes your business look more believable to those searching your home care agency. When clients see only positive reviews on your website, they might doubt your business and think the positive reviews are unreal and bought.A bad review provides you with an opportunity to deal with faultfinder clients and show the potential clients you can solve issues. In addition, negative reviews help you learn from your mistakes and help you know what your clients want from your business.
Conclusion
Negative reviews can contribute to building your business’s credibility rather than destroying it. Responding to the bad comments promptly and politely will show your customers you care about them and value their opinion. Always seen negative comments as an opportunity to improve your business and solve them within the shortest time possible
This blog was written by FirstVisit in conjunction with Briones Consulting Group. This group was established by Julio Briones who’s dedicated his professional life to helping and training home care agency owners. He uses his experience as a Director of Business Development for a national home company, corporate trainer and franchise consultant to create business success and growth for private duty agencies across the US.
