How to Use Negative Reviews to Your Advantage
Getting negative reviews can suck, but they don’t have to necessarily be a bad thing. When you first get a bad review on Google or Amazon or somewhere else, then your first reaction might be to feel sad or disappointed or upset.
With a mindset shift and reframing the review, even negative reviews can be beneficial to your brand or business.
At the end of the day, you cannot be everything to everyone. There are going to be individuals who your product or service is perfect for and those who your product or service is going to be terrible for. It is a basic fact of life.
So these negative reviews can actually help you better clarify who your brand is for and who it isn’t. If you pay attention, then they can help way more than they hurt.
How can negative reviews help?
They will help you define who the right customers are.
If someone leaves a bad review and clarifies that the product or service was great…but it didn’t do what they hoped, then that actually helps you know how to better position your marketing.
If someone is looking for a book that is a thriller with a strong female lead…and your book has a male lead but you have only marketed your book as a thriller…
…well now you have a great reason to segment your marketing to not include people interested in books with female leads!
Thank them for their review and move on being all the better for it.
Second, negative reviews can help your customers decide if you are the right brand for them!
Let’s use the same negative review example about the thriller book…now, everyone who starts to look for their next great thriller can see that they shouldn’t buy this book if they are hoping for a strong female lead.
No harm, no foul.
You weren’t their particular flavor of the month and that’s fine! They do know you can handle yourself with grace in the face of rejection and have plenty of positive reviews for when they are looking to pick up a next thriller, though.
One final example is from the Stacked Marketer. They had a bad review when someone unsubscribed and it actually helped them know they have the right service and are honed in on their marketing…it just isn’t for everyone.
The review? “The content is great but is creating FOMO in me.”
Sounds like a great service to me!!
How to respond to poor reviews
Here is going to be a key factor in turning negative reviews into positive experiences for your business: how you respond to those reviews.
There are brands and businesses who pride themselves on responding to each negative review and try to persuade the customer back by offering X, Y, or Z.
The problem, though, is that this makes a brand seem desperate if not carefully worded. Big yikes!
Other brands just try to get bad reviews taken down…which is…a strategy.
Just not a helpful one…
A better way to respond, though, is to acknowledge what deserves to be acknowledged. If you goofed, own it. If it was out of your control, then be okay with that and just say something like, “sorry this wasn’t right for you.”
Either way, thank them for taking the time to review and encourage them to reach back out if you can help in the future. It’s simple and easy.
If you feel like taking it another step, turn that negative review into a FAQ, address the issue in an email, write a blog post about how you can do better. Take the opportunity to improve for your customers!
Ready to get wrecked??
By negative reviews…not by me.
Maybe it’s controversial, but I do hope you get a bad review here and there! And I hope you learn from them.
I’ve gotten one or two and I have tried to learn from them!
But…if you like what you have read here and ever think to yourself, “hey, I need someone to write content like this for me!” Then I have some great news: you can hire me!
Just reach out and fill out this form to get the ball rolling. If you want to ask a question or clarify something (or call me a lunatic–I can take it!), then you can email me directly. Otherwise, check out some of the other posts on my blog to see if anything piques your interest!
I appreciate you, friend!
