What to do with a one-star review. Stay tuned. If you're looking to build your reputation and get more clients to find you and your services, one of the best ways you can do this is through word of mouth. Now, in this day and age, that's usually in a digital format, i.e., an online review.
Personal Experience with a One-Star Review
I've been running my own PDR business over the last 15 years. And during that time, I've been really proud of building up my reputation, my name, my brand, and building those five-star reviews online. One day a year or two ago, I woke up to a one-star review, a negative review, and I was devastated. It's personal. I did take it personally. It's my business. It's my name. It's my reputation. And I thought, what on earth have I done to warrant this negative review, this one-star review on my company?
Investigating the Review
So I looked through all of my emails, all of my enquiries, checked all the different social media platforms for messages, and then realised I'd never actually heard from this person. Didn't have any enquiries, any messages, voicemails, calls, anything like that. So my first response is to go back to this review. Probably a bit aggressive and a bit angry. Like I say, it's personal to me; it's my business, it's everything. So I start off a bit aggressive, and my first set of replies is full of swear words and abuse. Then I delete, delete, delete, delete, and realise I need to calm down and not leave that kind of response.
Using Negative Reviews to Your Advantage
Now, I learned a little while ago that sometimes having a negative review, you can still use it to your advantage. It can work in your favour. For example, if you've got 100 five-star reviews on Google and you've got one negative review, most of your customers or client base can see that overall you offer a good service. Now it's unlikely they're gonna take the time to read all 100 positive reviews, but you can almost guarantee they are gonna read the negative one. And if they are reading the negative review, you guarantee they're gonna be reading your response as well from the business. But I've learned that it really can work in your favour, leaving a very professional response.
Crafting a Professional Response
So for me, usually, I have to take a break, sleep on it for 24 hours, let myself calm down before responding. But this is your opportunity as the business owner to really show your colours and show your moral integrity. So despite being upset with the review and believing that it's a kind of fake review for whatever reason, knowing that my customers are gonna be looking for my response, looking for my reply, it's my opportunity to really put a professional response down, to reply to it and really kind of represent my company and keep my brand looking good.
Example of a Negative Review and Response
The negative review was along the lines of: "Awful service, don't recommend, didn't respond to emails, didn't answer the phone, terrible service, one-star review." So my response is to try and be polite, professional, and I'm asking for their details. Can they let me know a bit more information like the email address that they sent their enquiry from or the platform or the date or time? Perhaps their name, their details, the vehicle details, any photos, any images, really asking them all of these different ways and addressing that you are trying your most to help them with their enquiry and also to resolve the negative kind of response or feeling interaction with your company as well.
Handling Multiple Negative Reviews
Now, this has happened twice in my career over that 15-year period. Despite all of my positive reviews from my customers, I've had two bad one-star reviews on my company. Both times around, I can see that it's not an enquiry that I've had, and I can't find any recollection that this person has contacted me. So both times, I've used this way to respond, and it looks good. I haven't had a response from the person that left a negative review, which personally, I think also makes me look good because if they had got a response and they had proven that I've ignored their email or that I've missed their enquiry, then perhaps the one-star review is kind of legit or justified. But the fact that they haven't responded to me trying to resolve the issue, I think shows well on me as the business owner trying to make sure that I've covered my bases and keep my customer happy.
Conclusion
So if you are building up your own business, hopefully, this won't happen to you. But if you do receive a negative review, do have a little think about how you're gonna respond to it and try to remember that chances are the majority of your potential future clients or customers are gonna read your response. So replying aggressively or in a rude manner doesn't really reflect well on you. Replying in a professional manner and trying to resolve that issue definitely reflects well on you as a business owner and your company reputation.