How to Deal with Negative Reviews
We’ve talked in the past about how reviews can be incredibly helpful for your plumbing, heating or HVAC business. Getting your customers to review your work or business shows that your company is reputable and responsible. But every now and then, some reviews can fall through the cracks. Unfortunately it is human nature when sometimes things are not always perfect, and sometimes that one unsatisfied customer will leave a review. Because the entire world can see how other people review your business, one disgruntled customer can really leave a review that can hurt your company’s reputation. Below we have constructed a list of ways to deal with those pesky negative reviews:
Promptly Respond
Responding right away will show the customer that you extremely care about the situation they experienced with your plumbing, heating or HVAC business. The internet is a fast paced world so consumers expect a rectified situation almost immediately.
Don’t Take it Personally
Although sometimes people really try to make their reviews hit home, it’s extremely important to respond professionally. Make sure your response is thoughtful, polite and professional.
Deal with Issues Privately
It’s very common to ask the customer who left the review to reach out to a different email address, for example, the manager or owner’s email address. That way the issues can be resolved privately, and not online with back and forth comments. This shows your business finds it important to rectify unhappy customers and also in a professional, polite and personal manner.
Do Not Ignore Reviews
Disregarding any of your plumbing, heating or HVAC businesses reviews is never a good idea. This will suggest to old and new customers that you have no interest in upholding a solid reputation with clients. Especially if there is no response, all the reviews will look very one sided, which would lead future customers to thinking they are true.
Requesting Misleading Reviews to be Removed/ Reporting Fake Reviews
Sometimes reviews can be left to damage a businesses reputation for no apparent reason. This is becoming more and more popular today when competitor businesses try to trash each other online. If you think a review is not only unfair, but completely unwarranted, or has nothing to do with your business at all. It is okay to report those certain reviews as fake so it does not hurt your business.
Encourage Positive Reviews
Sometimes people have a bad experience, or a bad day, that is unfortunately something that can sometimes be hard to control. There are many ways to find a solution like offering a gift card, a free service, an apology etc. Most businesses these days will receive a bad review at some point, and receiving good reviews is one of the most important things for small businesses to show they are reputable. The best thing to allow your business to keep growing is to encourage the people who have had great experiences to leave reviews for your business!
