Why you shouldn't be afraid of bad feedback and how to handle it!

Let’s imagine that each of your stores, each of your products will be flooded with customer comments and reviews. Moreover, most of them are positive feedbacks and compliments of customers when they purchase and experience with your store. From there new potential customers will trust your store more and your sales will be boosted. To the customer service industry, I'm pretty sure it will be the greatest thing in your day, isn't it?

But wait, things in life don't always go smoothly. Besides positive reviews, there will be a lot of bad feedback every day that you have to deal with. What will happen when your online store receives bad reviews? No one wants that to happen, right? I know some of us are afraid of dealing with those things, someone even chooses to avoid them.

Don’t worry, everything has its solutions. In this post, we will explain the impact of negative customer reviews and give you some ways how to handle them.

What role do reviews play in the customer journey?

What do you think about the question above? I believe that you will agree with me: reviews play a key role in customers' decisions.

Let's think about your own experiences. Before we make a decision to buy something, especially online shopping, the first thing we do is consult our friends we know have used that product to hear their opinions or we can read some reviews from customers who have purchased is also a great idea. If most of them are positive feedback, we will have more trust and most will buy that item.

So how about negative reviews? What will you do if your friends tell you that item is not worth buying? You read so much bad feedback from others like: "The dress doesn't look like the photo", “I was so annoyed when I had to wait around 10 days to receive it”, “Disappointed, the hat’s color is totally different".

How do you decide now? Skip that product? Even if I will do the same, we can't waste our money on something that most people give bad reviews.

You see, reviews play a huge role in your business because they have a big impact on your potential consumers' purchasing decisions. It contributes to the development of trust and confidence in your company and its products. If you want to learn more about the power of customer feedback, read our previous article: 7 reasons why customer reviews are essential for your business.

How negative reviews affect the customer purchasing decision

As I’ve just briefly mentioned above, you can see a part of the effect of negative customer reviews. Now I’m ready to show you more details about those negative influences.

• In our modern life, online shopping is becoming more and more popular because it brings a variety of conveniences to consumers. Besides, it also brings many risks to both the buyer and seller. That’s the reason why customers often search for various reviews, feedback, etc. about an item that they want to buy from other people before purchasing, especially if the item is expensive.

• The higher ratings of a product, the more trust of customers you can get. That’s the truth, one of my friends used to tell me something like this: customers always choose to trust each other than the pictures of products you show them. That’s the power of positive reviews, which you can’t obtain on your own, you must rely on your own clients.

• How about bad customer reviews? They may lead to product page abandonment or shopping cart abandonment. When you really like something, you add it to your cart and are going to pay for it, but suddenly you look at other feedbacks and realized most of them are bad reviews. Done! You stop and skip the product even though you used to love it.

In fact, customers pay more attention to negative reviews than positive ones

• Nearly as many customers who trust favorable recommendations also read negative reviews before making a purchase. They just want to compare and have their own thought to make a decision.

• There are some reasons why customers look at both positive and negative reviews: As I’ve said above, they simply want to compare, to find any features that might not be suitable for them, how other customers encountered an error, unexpected cases, etc.

• Nothing is perfect, when you see a product that is too good and everyone gives it a great review with all 5-star ratings, you will inevitably have doubts. As a result, some of the evaluations aren't particularly positive resulting in an average rating of 4.2 to 4.5 stars, which is more effective and realistic than a flawless 5. Therefore, some negative reviews are not really bad.

How to handle negative customer reviews?

Difficult things sometimes happen in life, and so do the negative reviews of customers coming to your products. That's why we need to be strong, live with them, and learn how to handle them.

• Firstly, investigate customer problems thoroughly

In order to respond and solve an issue, you must first find out why customers are not satisfied and then leave a bad review. You can only understand and fix a problem if you know exactly what it is.

You might send a courteous and polite message or email to the customers to ask them for more details and show them that you care about them and want to solve their problems in the best way you can. Surely any customer, no matter how unsatisfied, will feel better.

• Secondly, listen to your customers

The fastest way to soothe a customer's emotions is to listen to them. Everyone needs to be listened to, especially customers who have a bad experience of purchasing with your store. Sometimes you have no way to help them solve the problem or even they don't need you to do it, all they need is your listening.

• Thirdly, respond to the customer as quickly as possible.

Nobody likes to be kept waiting, so get back to your consumers as soon as possible. When receiving a bad review, you should find a way to stop it in case other customers will leave more negative feedback or agree with the first bad review, it will bring bad effects to your company and decrease sales.

• Fourthly, learn from it.

Negative reviews are not always bad. Thanks to it, we can see our mistakes and improve better. Bad feedback, on the other hand, can often propel your company to new heights if you treat them as learning opportunities rather than hurdles. Those who dare to face difficulties are successful

• Last but not least: Don't let negative feedback affect your life

Negative customer feedback affects and depresses a large number of people. The best way is to learn how to handle and live with them at work and leave them at the company when you go home. When the bad reviews make you sad, let’s think about positive reviews for more motivation. Making friends with some customers is also a great idea, you can also learn a lot from them.

How you reply to bad reviews is equally as important as how you respond to favorable reviews; your actions establish reliability and reveal areas where your product or service may be improved. Hope my post is useful for you!