How do you handle negative or lukewarm customer reviews?

1. Stay calm and objective. Take it personally not emotionally. 2. Show empathy and understanding. Their experience is 100% correct. 3. Respond promptly. Lukewarm reviewers are typically not on edge waiting for a solution, but the sooner you respond the more they feel like they matter. 4. Thank the client for their feedback. By letting the client know that the time they took to actually review your solution. 5. I asked them what they would like you to do to rectify mediocrity. 6. To the best of your ability, try to make that happen. If you can’t, you need to offer a solution that is equal to their expectation. 7. Follow up with the client after resolution. 8. Learn from the feedback for improvement both for that customer and others.

A testimonial is a small ask, but you want to make it as easy as possible. With a compliment or end of project, ask for a testimonial related to something they have mentioned already. Just a couple of sentences will do. LinkedIn recommendations are a great place to collect these because people will look you up here before doing business with you. Ask for them during projects: when publishing a book, redoing a website, doing an event, presentation, or recording. Having a deadline helps. Give them as much time as you can. Encourage posting and ask for screenshots. Use tools like VideoAsk.com or Bonjoro.com to ask for and receive video testimonials too. Declare and document how the testimonials will be used and collect permissions.

This is a great use of LinkedIn recommendations. If a client says,” this was an awesome experience. Thank you for serving us“ you know it’s the right time to ask for a testimonial. Often, I will state, “thank you so much for your kind words. Recently, I’ve been building up my LinkedIn presence and was wondering if you would be open to sharing your experience in a LinkedIn recommendation for me?“ When they say yes, offer to write it for them to make it easier. Now visit their profile click on the more button and click recommend. Write a quick note great talking today and I appreciate your willingness to write a recommendation on LinkedIn per our conversation below is a paragraph that you’re welcome to use if it’s easier for you.

Set up Google Alerts for your name, your company's name and products so you can catch these negative comments early. There are also monitoring services you can engage, such as Reputation.com. Make actions a priority, not only to resolve this, but also to surprise and delight this customer. Assign one person to follow the ticket to the end. Go the extra mile to speed up remediation. Your goal is to earn that glowing review after an unfortunate situation. Document resolution, follow up, and review internally for any suggested changes.

Typically, when we’re just ready to close the deal is when a customer will say “I’d love to talk with a few other people you’ve worked with simply for due diligence.” This could take days or even weeks which can cause a deal to go cold. At this point in the sale, I will often say, “feel free to look through my LinkedIn recommendations, and if there’s anyone specific that you’d like to talk with, I can try to make that happen.” This will help speed up the sales process, because if you have quite a few recommendations from credible buyers, simply reading these recommendations might be enough. Social proof is a significant step in social selling.

Ask. Ask at the right time. Ask when they tell you how great you are. Ask at the end of a deliverable. Ask when you know you brought significant value. Ask.

A negative review is a golden opportunity It chance to gain a customer/client for life and turn them into a raving super fan. When I first started in business, I used to tell my staff "rule #1 the customer is always right, rule#2 if the customer is wrong see rule #1" As the years went on I no longer saw it that way. I needed to validate my staff and acknowledge the customer was not always right. BUT... It is our job to make the customer happy with the least amount of inconvenience to them. If something goes wrong you must take ownership. Not only do you make it right, but you go above and beyond to WOW them with service. Whatever it takes. Sometimes you take a hit but when done right, you have an advocate for your brand for life!

Some of the strongest relationships I have developed with customers were the results of a retention call or visit. Things will go wrong, products will miss expectations and services will come up short. You have an opportunity to approach these instances with kindness, empathy and fairness. Too many people walk away from these tough situations. I urge you to approach them heads on. If managed correctly, you can walk away with a stronger partnership that you started with.