Getting feedback for your business is important. Positive feedback tells you, you’re doing a great job and negative feedback helps you see where you might be going wrong before it’s too late. It helps build a reputation for your business that drives in more work as new customers can see how you’ve dealt with other customers in the past, giving them an idea of how their relationship with you will go.
In today’s Digital World, feedback is now more important than ever as because anyone can come across your business either on your website, your social media channels or other people’s comments on social media.
We all love positive feedback, it makes us feel good that all the hard work we did for our clients is noticed and appreciated.
It shows our expertise and did a great job. None of us can get enough positive feedback and now with Google using their reviews to push your website up and down search results, it’s important to have positive feedback.
None of us like negative feedback, it can hurt personally and make your business look bad even when you haven’t done anything wrong.
A customer could just be having a bad day and you might’ve forgotten part of their delivery or didn’t call when agreed because you were busy but that can still lead to you getting negative feedback.
Sometimes a customer just doesn’t like your business so will find any excuse to rate you down, don’t be discouraged though as you always have the option to turn it around.
Here are some things to remember when you get negative feedback
Even if it’s not good, it’s always useful as it can help you make decisions on how customers are handled or procedures are carried out. These are important in driving your business forward.
The first priority in any business is customer service, without our customers we won’t have a business so it’s important we actively engage with them and show we can and not just after their money.
Negative feedback gives you that chance, because the customer is already disappointed in you, but by trying to fix their grievance (and for free), you’re showing that they actually count and matter to you.
If you address their issue right and effectively, chance is you can turn that unhappy customer into a happy one that returns to your business, and now you know what went wrong last time you won’t repeat the same mistake (we hope). This can make the customer happier that you’ve not only dealt with their problem but made changes to address it in the future, which will mean they will come back again because they felt valued.
Showing you respond to negative feedback, instead of sticking your head in the sand shows potential new customers, you try to help and even if you don’t always get it right – your business is always trying new ways to improve and benefit the customer.
The final thing to remember when dealing with feedback online is that if someone walked into your shop, café or office with positive or negative feedback, you wouldn’t ignore them or try and push them out of the door. Instead, you’d take the time to listen to their feedback and respond accordingly.
This principle is no different to online feedback, you need to take the time to listen and respond properly and it will help customers to see your customer service skills.
If you need some help or further advice on how to get the best out from your customer’s feedback, get in touch here or give us a call.