Regardless of how much hard work you put in, you’ll never make every customer happy. With the popularity of online reviewing platforms like Yelp, a dissatisfied client can lead to a tarnished reputation and future problems. According to a study we conducted, 85% of consumers use Yelp, Angie’s List, or Google Places to find local businesses. This same study concluded that 43% of online complaints lead to lost business. Hence, it is vital for your business to have a system in place to respond to dissatisfied customers so that you can move on from the experience stronger than before.
So, how should you respond to a dissatisfied client?
Step 1: Keep Calm and Reach Out To The Client
Receiving criticism is never easy. But receiving criticism online can be especially painful. Behind the comfort of their screen, people can feel empowered to use colorful language to describe their dissatisfaction. If you receive a negative review, it’s important for you to remain calm and level-headed. Before writing your response, take a minute to write out answer these questions:
What are the dissatisfied customer’s specific qualms?
What aspect of your business is the customer upset about (customer service, products, overall performance)?
How are you going to apologize?
After you’ve written the list, craft a thorough and thoughtful and measured response to the customer. If they’ve posted a Yelp review, you should respond publicly to their post to make sure that potential clients are aware that you’re handling the problem.
Step 2: Come Up With A Game Plan To Prevent Future Negative Reviews
Now that you’ve responded to the customer, you will have to do the hard part: examine your business. This dissatisfied customer could very well be an isolated instance. But if there are two or more negative reviews, chances are some part of your business needs to change. Fortunately, there are a ton of tools and platforms out there to help you make those changes.
Breezeworks is designed to help your company get organized and improve your customer’s experience. With Breezeworks, you can oversee your team’s schedule, manage dispatch and communicate if any issues arise. Our Team Map feature allows you to track your employees’ locations so you can make sure your team members are where they are supposed to be, making your company more accountable and efficient. Sometimes errors occur because your employees don’t have access to pertinent information about your customer. Breezeworks’ CRM feature can help you get instant access to notes on customers, invoices, and job history. With these tools, you can move forward after a negative review and hopefully make sure that the same problem doesn’t happen again.
Step 3: Follow Up With The Client
Unless the customer was irate, you shouldn’t give up on them. After you’ve taken the appropriate steps to improve your business, send your customer a personal email to let them know that you are grateful for their feedback and describe the positive changes you’re making to address their concerns. You never know, your customer may be willing to give you a second chance and update their review.
Finding out you have an unhappy client can be a worrisome and frustrating experience, but with the right tools and the right attitude, it could actually lead to your business changing for the better.
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