Good morning, and welcome to the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. I'm Esther.
And I'm Melanie.
And today we're talking about bad reviews. We've all had them, haven't we?
Yes. Although in fairness, a lot of the time when people do get feedback, it tends to be by a phone call, sometimes maybe by an email. But if somebody's especially upset, then it goes on their socials.
Yeah. Facebook now has taken away the reviews. Is that a good thing? Bad thing. What do you think?
Well, you can still do a recommendation.
Yeah, but that will only give them good reviews because we're recommending someone, then you're saying to people that, yes, this is a good thing.
But I've also seen people fudge that and put up a recommendation that then says that they're really bad. So people are still kind of treating that element of Facebook as a review part.
Yeah. But I think in a lot of cases, people will now look at the star rating on Google, for example, and go into your Google business profile. Isn't that the name of it now and give you a review there or a TripAdvisor is another fun one that they like to do. But how can we come out from shining on the other side of a bad review?
It can be quite difficult, actually. It really does depend on A, the type of business that's getting the review and B, the way that the review has been put across. Now, I've not actually seen any of these personally, but can you imagine if somebody did a video review and put it up as a post on the page? Can you imagine that? Now, obviously, when you're the page owner or the editor of a social media page, you normally have the power to delete posts. Okay. But we would recommend that you don't. What is more important personally is to feedback with the information. I'm really sorry to hear about this bad experience you've had publicly. Could you send us details of your contact telephone number or the email address that was connected with that order or that connected so that we can tie your experience and then we'll talk to you there? And as long as that's seen publicly and quickly, you don't want to be responding to that like a week later because kind of the damage is done by then. Yeah, I think that helps. And more to the point, if you can ask them when the issue has been resolved, to actually say something on the original post or to respond in the comments after the original post that it has been resolved, that's difficult to get people to do. You have to do something pretty damn good to make them respond like that.
Definitely. And obviously, there will be some people who maybe get the page wrong and end up complaining about your business when it was somebody with a similar name that's happened. They're just out for blood. There are people that maybe have never even bought from a business and give it a bad review just because maybe somebody else had a bad experience, or just because they have nothing more to do. But in that instance, I would say don't feed the trolls.
There's less of those these days. Years and years ago when we were both starting out online, you could have keyboard worries and people could hide behind avatars and funny names and silly images. But because especially the likes of Facebook who really encourage you to have a genuine name, genuine profile, it's less likely to happen. But again, it does depend on the type of complaint and the person complaining. If it was an influencer who made a complaint and it was on your page, you'd obviously feel a little bit more obliged to go slightly further than you would normally than for somebody who isn't an influencer.
But at the end of the day, everyone's opinions can influence someone else.
Exactly. They can make or break your business.
Definitely, definitely. And obviously we're all in business to provide a service that is good or a product that is good and that people enjoy and like. So taking negative feedback on board can also help improve your business because you can see then where things are going wrong. Maybe it could be a publication that offended someone that is totally legitimate as well. Maybe someone just didn't like how something was portrayed or how something was said. Whether it's the way it was written or what it was written about, those things can also affect your marketing to improve it to then not mention XYZ. Again, obviously there are a lot of ecofriendly people out there now, and if your business isn't eco friendly, I don't think you should be announcing that it's not. So be sensitive to what people are looking for as well online and avoid.
I think it needs to go too far with that, though. Don't you agree there's the woke police these days.
Yeah.
And you've also got to know when to stop.
Yes. I mean, don't go out of your way to provoke people into giving you bad reviews. No, we've seen some businesses do that. I mean, some really established that they're just out for the controversy.
In each country now going, God, I know who they're talking about. I know exactly who they're talking about. I'm not going to mention them here, but there's a business here in Ireland who loves controversy, but they don't go to the point of normally making it so bad that they get bad reviews normally.
I mean, sometimes they do normally. But I mean, like you say, there are people who are just looking to be offended, people who are just going to read between the lines. You cannot please everyone. This is the other thing in business. You're not selling to everyone. That is the first problem that people come across whenever they open their business. Like, oh, everyone can buy from me. No, they can't. Okay, we've talked about customer avatars. We're not going down that line again. But just know that there will be people who don't appreciate all the hard work that you've put into your business and that don't appreciate what you're trying to sell. But that at the end of the day, it doesn't matter because you are helping other people. And one bad review should not affect who you are and what you do and how you sell.
But it does, doesn't it?
It can get under your skin.
And you know what it's meant to that is the whole point of the review. But we were only discussing this in messenger chat a couple of days ago, weren't we? Yeah. Every day is a school day.
Yeah.
And sometimes you're not able to fix it to the levels that they want it to be fixed for whatever reason it could be you don't have the budget to fix it. There's too many time constraints. You can't get it fixed in time, but treat it as a school day and think, okay, this is actually quite serious. Maybe I could put this in my terms and conditions to, first of all, help my customer have better expectations of what I can do. And secondly, to remind me of what I can do. It's not just there for them, it's there for you terms and conditions. So treat a bad review quickly, as effectively as you can, and treat it as a school day.
Definitely, definitely. You are always learning in business. Always. From the day you open to the day you close, your not going to be standing at the same point. You're always going to be learning and growing and expanding and improving. So, yeah, use it as a learning tool. Use it as a way to grow personally as well as professionally, but know how to move on as well.
Yeah.
Don't let it get to you so badly that you don't want to reopen your shop or you don't want to go into work the next day or don't give them that power.
No, don't give your power to somebody else. I say that to my kids a lot, actually. Don't give your power to somebody else. Remember, when these people make complaints, they're talking from their perspective, from their point of view, which is important. Okay. But they're not thinking this is your baby, this is your livelihood. They're just thinking you're just a business and you're probably just somebody who works there. They may not even think it's your business. So they don't think you're as invested as you potentially could be. So they're not trying to be personal. Sometimes they are, but most of the time they're not trying to be personal. So don't take it personally. It's just business.
Yeah, but I do think that, well, I think people are more inclined to give bad reviews to small businesses rather than the large established corporations. Maybe that's just my perspective, but I do sort of think that reviewers think they can get away with it more and that their voice will be heard by a small business rather than a large Corporation. So they don't bother so much complaining to the large guys.
I see that.
Yeah, but like I said, don't give your part of somebody else. Think about it. Don't dwell on it. Learn from it. Improve and move on. And I'm that note, we're moving on to another episode. Thanks very much for listening today, guys. Have a good one. And if you do get any negative reviews, take a deep breath.
Yes.
Thanks for listening. Bye bye.
Bye, guys.