When do you respond to Haters?

[Pesso]

Hey Square Readers,

Who’s ready to read?

We hope you picked up a copy of our third book, Hug your Haters by Jay Baer, and are excited to dive in!

The book is all about your “haters,” the people who complain about your business, publicly and privately. It goes into the benefits of responding to them with kindness, and their research into how "hugging" them can turn these folks into some of your biggest fans and advocates. 

We’d love to hear your answers in the comments:

• When do you respond to bad reviews and comments right now, if at all? Why?
• If you don't, would you be open to responding to them in the future? Why?

Feel free to share any other thoughts you have about this book. We can’t wait to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

View and Subscribe to all of this book’s threads. 

Happy reading,

Pesso

[batreride]

I am kind of curious about this as well. I have a consignment shop and I frequently payout way more than I bring in. I am only human and sometimes I forget or what have you. I just am at the point where I am quiet and then snap... then of course once I snap, THAT is all over the place. Darned if you do, darned if you don't.

[CareyJo]

I think sometimes you're right - darned if you do and darned if you don't.  I think your comment sounds like an opportunity to work on your business acumen and improve your operating skills so that you don't have these issues.  

What are you forgetting?  What are you struggling with?  What could a business mentor help with?  What preventative action can you take to remove these frustrations so that you're not snapping at customers?

I've been self-employed over 35 years.  I've owned nine businesses.  Hit me up if I can help.

[Pesso]

Thanks for sharing, @batreride --

It can definitely be hard to keep your cool when faced with complaints from customers. It's hard to respond and not just react, especially when its your business that you've worked on and have such a personal connection to -- it's hard to not take complaints personally. I've worked a lot on emotional regulation strategies which can definitely help.

Rooting for you and hope things go well!

[PartyManiaMD]

On Google we're 4.4 stars and 47 reviews. 

On Yelp we're 4.5 stars with 32 reviews.

We've been in business for 13 years and have had millions of transactions over those years. Reviews positive or negative are an extremely tiny indication of success or loyalty. Granted as a new business you should absolutely take reviews to heart because they'll generally tell you if you're going in the right direction, a bunch of negative reviews right out of the gate is worrisome and needs to lead to immediate reevaluation of your product, pricing, or service standards.

Now if I get a negative or positive review I'll respond depending on how serious it is, I used to have to respond to every social media review like it's the end of the world when I was managing for a corporation and it was a joke because it would just lead to more complaints on social media for the same issues because they'd know they'd get a gift card or a guest recovery card in exchange.

Maybe restaurants are different because people just don't review retail stores to any significant degree or we're just lucky given our industry that most people are coming in with a good mood. (not that there are many brick and mortars left that aren't corporate!) 

Give great service and no one will ever talk about you and you just keep on doing what you do well, drop the ball even once and you'll hear about it but the other 1,000 times no one says anything!

[CareyJo]

I totally agree with you.  I think it's absolutely vital to determine how much those reviews mean to your business.  Not every business is the same.  For example, we are a rural, small town, Montana business.  In MT culture, you would be amazed at HOW LITTLE reviews play a part in which businesses customers select.  We're the 4th largest state in the country.  We do not have the luxury of having dozens of purchasing options or even all of the options that a big city would consider standard.  We MUST travel in MT to find things we need.  Although we have major cities in MT, the vast majority of our state is rural.  This not only effects our buying options but the reviews.

In six years of being in our current business, we've only had three negative reviews and those were intentional by the people to be harmful.  Legal counsel was sought in all three cases and all three people have disappeared.  I'm very bothered by the fact that in this book he talks about all the reviews "we don't know about" being so detrimentally important.  I'm of the mindset that if they're not taking the time to inform us that something is wrong, then it's not my problem.  Over 90% of our business is word of mouth.  We don't advertise.  Not joking.  I have far too many happy customers to be worrying about who's not telling me that they're not happy.  Not to mention, our services are so unique that our customers are loyal.  They will wait weeks for us to fit them in and the handful of people who've only had simple service from us and don't want to wait - I have no problem letting them know they are free to call another company if our schedule doesn't meet their needs.  That may seem negative, but I'm of course very polite about it and the reality is, that in our area they won't find another company that will charge them fairly and actually fix their problem.  They will almost always call me back after wasting money and wait.  So we know that what we're doing is right.

I think that this book is good is for very large corporate companies who depend on their brand exposure to always be positive and any new businesses who are looking to solidify themselves in their community.  This is our second HVAC business, we are seasoned business owners.  I'm still not convinced that this book is so right on the money.

[Pesso]

Thanks for the insights, @CareyJo !

So interesting to see how much of an impact reviews have there. That's pretty incredible that you've had so few negative reviews -- that really says a lot about how much care you put into your business and your customer interactions. Amazing!

Definitely nothing wrong with firing bad customers! 

I think the book can definitely be a little proscriptive and might not work for every business, and does seemed to be more geared towards larger ones -- but I think smaller ones still have something to gain from it, at least I got a lot from it. 

Thanks again! Always appreciate your perspective and ideas!

[Pesso]

Thanks for sharing, @PartyManiaMD !

Those scores are fantastic, congrats!

That's a really good point and distinction, that reviews have the potential of being insightful and can be big clues to help guide strategy and practice.

I've definitely seen that trend of responding to one can lead to a deluge of even more complaints, whether or not they're looking for something free, they just now know they have an audience and use it as an excuse to vent and rant. It can be tough to handle.

It sounds like you have a solid balance now that works for you!

[VeganKolache]

Every. Daing. Day. 
lol, being vegan small business owner is like a master class in learning how to deal with trolls. 

[Pesso]

Oh man, @VeganKolache , I can't even imagine.

How does your business type attract more trolls?

How do you handle it and respond?

[VeganKolache]

There are more anti-vegan people out there than vegan people. So, naturally, many of them are "haters" of anything vegan, especially food. So, it's their disposition that makes them want to harass vegan businesses. 

[Pesso]

That's so disappointing and sounds so frustrating, @VeganKolache . I don't get why people have the need to harass when it has zero affect on them. I'm sorry you have to deal with that, and I hope things get better.

[DiscCrazy]

It's important to not respond when you are agitated.  We have had a few - moved into a store, and didn't have our sign up, so the "local guide" who gave Arby's a 5 star review, gave us a one star with "what is it, there's no sign" - which went up the next day.  You can't win with these types.  Our policy is just "correct any misinformation in the post" and move on.  And again - no emotion, no argument, just correction.  We had another guy who didn't like the politics of a pro player whose product we carried and screamed that we should take his product off the shelves at all stores - we didn't argue, and gave this guy a lost disc we had called him to get back, and just let it go.  He goes on our Google page every year now for 4 years, creates a new identity and gives us a 1 star review - just to keep our rating in that store at 4.9 vs. 5.0.  We are just glad we don't have to talk to him.  Google won't help either.  So, just let it go and focus on the roses vs. the thorns.  🙂

[Pesso]

This is such a good point, thank you @DiscCrazy !

Responding calmly is key, and you definitely can't please everyone and it's a shame that some folks hold vendettas like that. But you did the right thing to try to help and then letting go and ignoring when it went too far. You got this!

[notarizerllc]

My business is still relatively small, so I have the bandwidth to respond to all reviews and comments - whether positive or negative. 

I like to respond to the negative to engage the customer. If my team or I did something wrong or could have handled something in a different way, I want to learn from it. 

I do not, by any means, believe that the customer is always right. If a customer was rude and abusive to my team or myself and then leaves a scathing review - I respond to that as well. I usually start it off with, "When we met with you, it seems you were having a bad day and perhaps acting out of character. We're sorry that we didn't meet your standards. I encourage you to find another company that can better meet your needs. We wish you all the best!"

[Pesso]

Thanks for sharing, @notarizerllc -

That's great that you have the bandwidth and do respond to all of them. Wonderful that you see these as insightful and learning & improvement opportunities!

For sure -- having a zero tolerance policy for abuse is so important, and I'm glad you follow that.

How to folks typically respond when you answer that way?

[Doran]

I respond right away.  The customer needs to feel seen and heard.  If they just seem to want to complain I listen and try to help them.  I want to know if I can improve or if their complaint can help me grow.  But, if they are just being mean I say thank you and release them back into the giant bubble of other salons in the area.  I can't be the perfect fit for everyone and I have no problem saying that. 

[Pesso]

I love, thanks for sharing @Doran !

You're absolutely right, you can only do so much, and some folks won't be happy with you no matter what. It's wonderful that you're acknowledging, making them feel heard, helping & learning when you can, and leaving the rest.

Rooting for ya!