Even the best companies in the world get bad reviews now and then.
No company hits the mark 100% of the time. But what sets the customer service greats apart from some companies we could mention is how they respond when they do get negative feedback.
You see, a well-worded reply can turn even the most scathing review into a shining advert for your company – and our latest update to the Bark website is designed to let you do exactly that.
You can now report abuse, remove duplicate reviews and respond directly to any feedback you receive using the ‘Reviews’ tab in your Bark dashboard.
Today, we’d like to show you how this brand new feature works – and run you through our top tips for using it to handle negative customer reviews should the need ever arise.
Why bad reviews aren’t so bad
According to customer support experts Zendesk, a full 88% of customers make their buying decisions based on reviews. That’s why getting positive reviews on sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor and Bark is so important.
But there is a school of thought in marketing that says a bad review can actually be a good thing.
For one thing, it makes people checking your reviews feel like they’ve “done their homework”, taking them one step closer to deciding whether to pay for your services.
It also helps to legitimise all your good reviews. After all, if you were going to fake them, why would you bother making up a bad one?
Most importantly, it gives you a chance to respond to the feedback and show people how great your company really is.
Remember, when responding to any review your prospects are your real audience. Show them that you care about your customers and they may decide you’re the right pro for them after all.
Here’s how to use our new interactive reviews feature to do just that:
How to effectively combat negative
reviews in three simple steps
Contrary to what many people think, negative reviews actually have the potential to increase the number of sales you make.
It’s all about how you respond to them – and thanks to our latest site upgrade, now you can! Simply log into your Bark account and click the ‘Reviews’ tab to the left of your screen to manage your reviews.
There, you can quickly ask your previous customers to leave you a review, report any abusive ones that come in, and reply to all the feedback you receive directly:
We’ll happily remove any review that’s abusive, or from someone you’ve never actually done business with. But please note that we’ll never remove a review simply because it’s bad.
Of course, we hope you only ever hear from your many satisfied customers. But, if you ever do need to deal with someone who was less than happy with your services, here’s how we recommend you handle it:
- Acknowledge the issue and own it – your first objective when responding to any complaint is to communicate that you’re paying attention to the issue. Show anyone who reads the review that when someone has a problem, you listen.
- Show that future customers won’t have this issue – next, you should communicate that something has changed and anyone reading this review needn’t worry about the same thing happening to them.
- Offer to fix the issue, if possible. Even if you feel like the reviewer is way off the mark, and the problem is with them not you: don’t write that you feel that way. Stay polite and friendly, and suggest that the customer might like to email you directly to resolve the issue.
The important thing is to show anyone who reads this very public conversation that you care about your customers, and are doing everything you can to ensure they receive a superior service.
It’s easy to take negative feedback personally. So perhaps the most important advice we can give is to never send your response in the heat of the moment. Draft your reply, then take a little while to cool off. Come back to it later on with a fresh pair of eyes and make sure you don’t sound too defensive before you click ‘send’.
Of course, the best way to balance out bad reviews is to make sure your happy customers post about their experiences on your Bark profile.
But sticking to these simple guidelines should help you transform any negative feedback you get into glowing adverts for your future customers – which is exactly why we launched our new reviews feature in the first place.
We hope you find this new addition to our site useful! Let us know what you think of it by emailing team@bark.com, or leaving a comment below.
thank you for sharing this great poste, big up
Great post. Mistakes happen, how you deal with it is the most important aspect for customers. I like how Bark always looks at improving their site. Thanks.