Small business owners have a lot to deal with, from making sure they have enough funding to improving the quality of their products or services. 

A recent study found that 84% of consumers trust reviews, both positive and negative, and use them to inform their own shopping decisions. So what do you do if someone does leave you a negative Facebook review?

Knowing how to respond to a negative review on Facebook will make a huge difference. Appropriate responses can actually spin that negative review into a positive thing for your business!

Read on to find out exactly what to do.

Address the Problem

No matter what, you should always respond to negative reviews. Ignoring them will send the message to potential customers that you don’t care that a previous customer had a bad experience. It could even make it look like this bad experience is the norm, rather than an anomaly. 

An easy way to address the problem and put your customers’ minds at ease is to say, “Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention.” This signals that you care about the problem and that you were unaware of it before. It also signals that you have a desire to fix the problem.

Be Apologetic (and Even Empathetic)

Apologize for the problem! You shouldn’t grovel or beg for their forgiveness, but you should at least say, “We’re very sorry that this has occurred.” 

If you’ve gone for a style of branding that is more personal and “human,” throw in a comment or two that shows that you empathize. For example, say that your product was delivered broken or with missing parts. You could add something like, “We can imagine that was a big disappointment!” or, “That’s never what you want to see!”

Don’t Make Excuses

It’s logical to provide an explanation if there is a decent one. However, don’t spend too much time explaining yourself and don’t grasp at straws for excuses. This comes across as defensive and will make your reviewer (and potential customers) feel like you’re now trying to get an apology from them for not being more understanding.

A valid explanation would be something like, “Our computers went down which delayed our ability to process new orders.” A bad excuse would be more along the lines of, “We got more orders than we expected and couldn’t get to them all right away.” 

In other words, you can mention circumstances that were outside of your control. Hiccups and human errors are more likely to sound like a poor excuse for a poorly executed job. Even if it’s 100% true, it probably won’t convince your upset customer to change their negative review to a positive one.

Provide Compensation

Studies have found that consumers care about a brand or company’s ethics. In a lot of cases, that could mean their commitment to reducing their carbon footprint or their annual donations to charitable organizations. However, integrity is an ethical value that consumers love to see!

Determine a way to compensate your disappointed customer in a fair way. Send a replacement without requiring them to return the originally purchased damaged product. Give them a voucher for free service next time they use your business.

Or, and this tends to be the easiest and most satisfactory route, give them a full refund. No, it’s not fun to lose the profits from that sale. At the same time, it doesn’t count for much of a sale if something went wrong on your end.

If potential customers see how quickly and fairly you addressed the reviewer’s concerns and provided them with compensation, they’ll feel much more confident about shopping with your business. And hopefully, the negative reviewer will come back and leave a positive follow up review after they’ve received a better product or service from you! This will really seal the deal to your potential customers that this negative review resulted from an isolated fluke and not from an overarching problem with your business.

Encourage Feedback

If you have questions regarding a customer’s negative review or you feel like they have more to say, encourage them to call your office or send you a private message to discuss the matter further. Make sure that you’ve addressed their initial review publicly first. That way, it doesn’t look like you’re hoping to bury the negativity from view.

Use negative reviews as an opportunity to let all of your current and potential customers know how much you appreciate their feedback. Remind them that their experience with your business gives you a new perspective that can aid in your constant improvement.

Look for Negative Trends

If you’re getting multiple negative reviews addressing the same issues, you have a problem. The problem is not just that your potential customers are going to be dissuaded from purchasing your products or services. The problem is your products and services.

Let’s say you run a restaurant and you’ve gotten tons of complaints about the same dish. You can’t keep apologizing and saying, “Next time, your meal is on us!”

You need to do something about that dish! And whatever you do, you need to make it known that your customers can expect a better experience at your restaurant (and ideally, with that dish) in the future.

One or two bad reviews about disparate aspects of your business won’t do that much damage, especially if you address them in the right way. However, if multiple people are calling attention to the exact same issue, your potential customers are going to think, “Why would I want to deal with that issue like all of these people did?” And in the end, they’ll take their business elsewhere!

Know How to Respond to Negative Facebook Reviews

When you know how to respond to negative Facebook reviews, you need not live in fear of them! Use them to make constant improvements and you won’t lose any business at all.

Improvements take money, and that’s where we come in. Apply for funding and let us help you to make your business the best that it can be!