bad reviews Archives - Mediastreet

By Matt Doyle,

Bad reviews can hurt, but every one of them can tell you a little about how to do better.

Bad reviews are a serious matter for any business. They could be dangerous to your reputation, even when they are only passed through word-of-mouth. These days, they can live forever online.

I build homes as a business, so when a single customer relationship falls apart, it can affect my team for an entire season– or even longer. It is worth it for me to do a deep dive on every bad review that happens. In doing so, I’ve learned that they can be highly informative.

In this short guide, I’m going to cover three significant insights that you can pull out of bad reviews.

1. They Can Help You Identify Communication Breakdowns

Sometimes, you’ll be aware that a bad review is coming. It may be because you dropped the ball or because the customer simply didn’t understand the service. The reviews that really hurt, though, are the ones that come out of nowhere.

When these bad reviews happen, it’s often because the customer was left stranded. They may not have received an email reply to an important question they asked. They may have tried to call you, only to get a busy signal over and over.

Communication is essential to resolving any problem before it escalates, so you should act immediately if you ever receive a bad review because a customer couldn’t reach you. Review your policies, train your staff, update your contact information — whatever you need to do to make sure every customer can reach someone.

2. They Can Help You Craft Better Messages About Your Services

Bad reviews can happen because the customer didn’t understand the service and, as a result, had unrealistic expectations about what was possible.

In my home building industry, tension can happen when a client doesn’t understand the limits of building codes and zoning restrictions. It’s simply not possible for me to give them everything they want without violating safety standards or the law. Even if a client is angry about something that resulted from a misunderstanding, it can be an opportunity for you.

Use these reviews as a guide to improve how you describe your services. You can’t assume that every client is going to be aware of the limits in your industry. Bad reviews like this can tell you where knowledge gaps exist so that you can explain your services better.

3. They Can Help You Direct Your Training Resources

Sometimes, bad reviews happen because a client is angry about the treatment they received from one of your team members. If you have team members who are ever abusive to clients, a bad review may help you identify them. However, sometimes your team members are just limited by inexperience and inflexible guidelines.

You can use these bad reviews to learn where your training may be failing everyone. One common source of interaction complaints is clients who have to hear the hated phrase: “Hold on, let me transfer you.”

This can happen when your team members don’t have the information they need to answer important questions. They may also not have the authority to make requested adjustments. Consider carefully how you can train your employees to provide more direct service in the future. Sometimes, it just takes trusting them more.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By Matt Doyle,

VP and Co-Founder of Excel Builders, a custom home builder.

By Young Entrepreneur Council@yec

Sourced from Inc.

By Mediastreet staff

People who run companies need to check out what their customers are saying about them online. In the long run this could stop a problem from becoming a total and utter crisis. Here is a perfect example: U.S. bank Wells Fargo.

Last year, the bank was fined a whopping $185 million in fines for bad business practices. However if they had started looking at what customers were saying about them long before the excrement hit the fan, they would have avoided the fines and kept their rather okay reputation.

Here’s how the New York Times reported what was happening at the bank over a number of years:

“For years, Wells Fargo employees secretly issued credit cards without a customer’s consent. They created fake email accounts to sign up customers for online banking services. They set up sham accounts that customers learned about only after they started accumulating fees. These illegal banking practices cost Wells Fargo $185 million in fines, including a $1oo million penalty from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the largest such penalty the agency has issued. Federal banking regulators said the practices, which date back to 2011, reflected serious flaws in the internal culture and oversight at Wells Fargo, one of the nation’s largest banks. The bank has fired at least 5,300 employees who were involved.

In all, Wells Fargo employees opened roughly 1.5 million bank accounts and applied for 565,000 credit cards that may not have been authorized by customers, the regulators said in a news conference. The bank has 4o million retail customers.”

According to an analysis completed by customer feedback company ReviewTrackers, customers of Wells Fargo were writing negative reviews about the opening of fake accounts prior to the breaking news in September 2016.

Reviews hinting at these illegal practices were posted as far back as August of 2015 – more than a year before the news broke in the media. This analysis only extends back until August of 2015, however; with further research, it is possible that the reviews might reveal that the fraud was happening for even longer.

The research shows reviews containing negative sentiment from separate dates in August 2015 to December 2016. The following were negative phrases found in the reviews:

– 08/17/15: “wrong fees”

– 08/31/15: “unethical sales tactics”

– 04/09/16: “illogical fees”

– 08/17/16: “hidden fees”

– 09/08/16: “phony customer accounts”

– 09/30/16: “bogus fees”

Reviews from Citibank, Bank of America and Chase were included as well. However; these same negative phrases listed above were not found in any of the competitor reviews.

In addition to negative sentiment, the average star rating of Wells Fargo decreased month after month, with a 19.9 percent decrease from August to September 2016.

By looking at their online reviews they could have seen the negative feedback about the fees and used that as an opportunity to immediately correct the situation and save $185 million in fines.

We live during a time dubbed “The Age of the Customer.” Customers are more informed, connected and empowered than ever. For the first time, they are taking the power seat and utilising their voice through online reviews to talk about their experiences. It is a time when brands must acknowledge this shift and use online reviews as an opportunity to connect with their customers. And, in the case of Wells Fargo, to mitigate a large-scale business disaster.

You can hire a company to “listen” for you, like ReviewTrackers. They sell customer feedback software that collects review data from 85+ review sites to surface customer insights that enable brands to listen, comprehend and make data-driven decisions about what their customers truly need or want.

But you don’t necessarily have to hire a company to “listen” for you. But you need to do some listening yourself. Stay on top of feedback and you may stop a small problem from becoming all-out bedlam.