How to Respond to Any Feedback

We all have had to give or receive feedback as a customer or a business at some point. We call these “reviews” in the service industry. Businesses get reviews through social media, surveys, claim reports, word of mouth, etc. Through reviews, you can receive positive or negative feedback on your service or product, and depending on the type of feedback, it can boost, or sink, your company’s reputation and future customer expectations.

We all dread bad reviews, nobody likes to be criticized. Nevertheless, we are here to convince you that any type of feedback can be good for your business and bad reviews are the most appreciated and valuable feedback any business can receive.

Do you want to know why? In this article, we will walk you through each type of feedback and give you our best practices on how to respond and act in the face of an opinionated customer while delivering the best customer experience.

Types of Feedback

• Positive feedback: We call these “treats”. Everybody likes something sugary and happy, as it boosts morale and motivation for a team after doing a great job at delivering great service. These come in a variety of formats: a 5-star review, shout-outs to your supervisor, a smile on the customer’s face when they thank you, and such.

• Constructive feedback: These are “instruments” for your business's continuous improvement. They represent the most honest and objective customer’s opinion, and if used well, they will help you develop and enhance what you can offer in the future.

• Indifferent feedback: Also described as “meh” feedback, It is neither good nor bad, but it can be tricky to address. These types of reviews usually don’t give you enough context to grab onto, but you can use them as an opportunity for promotion and encourage future customers with your positive and elaborated response.

• Bad feedback: The “Bomb” review or simply unssatisfied feedback, is the complete opposite of constructive feedback: The customer is unsatisfied or annoyed due to their expectations not being met. You need to address them as soon as possible to protect your brand and then tackle any possible issues before they become persistent and damage your business.

• Hurtful feedback: Also known as “Vicious” feedback, it differs from bad feedback as the main intent is to hurt and damage your business reputation for no apparent reason. Most of the time, these are overreactions based on anger or frustration with your service or a non-resolved issue, and the customer is just venting out over the comment box for everyone else to see. Please be careful about how you react as you may be perceived as unprofessional if you downlevel to these types of opinions.

  
  

Best Practices for Responding to Feedback

Now that we are confident that you will be able to differentiate all the types of feedback you receive from your customers through any source, let’s move on with our top recommendations for responding to any kind of feedback.

1. Don’t panic or overreact: Don’t take your customer’s feedback to heart. Turn the situation around instead and be grateful that they have decided to share their thoughts with you, which in the end will help you on your journey through continuous improvement.

   As unhappy as they may seem or as hectic as it may come, everything can be fixed when you keep calm and “just keep swimming” professionally and with your best attitude (we love Dory BTW).

2. Talk to your team: You need to hear both sides of the story, the customer’s and your team’s perspective, which helps you investigate and draw better conclusions based on real facts. Take a page out of our “10 Service Commandments” article and “Be Supportive but Objective” before taking action on the negative comments you receive.

3. Acknowledge mistakes and plan ahead: Part of excelling at customer service is to own the mistakes you make and then work on amending any issues that may come up by presenting possible solutions immediately when possible. Whenever there is a mishap, take note of the situation and what caused it, so you can record all the actions that took you to that situation and then plan ahead so you know what to do later on.

   Remember that nobody is perfect, regardless of what the customer expects when it comes to service, but this does not mean that you can’t do your best to fix your mistakes and ensure they won’t happen again.

4. Monitor the feedback you receive from different sources: Nowadays, there are a lot of places where a customer can leave their opinions about your business online. Be wary of these sites and select the ones that interest you the most when it comes to your image: if you have a restaurant, it is good to have a good reputation on The Fork, a good rating on Google Maps if you have a store or even great comments about your service and installations on Booking if you have a hotel.

   Many potential customers search for previous customer feedback, before selecting a business and what they read can be the tipping point in the decision between you or someone else. This is why it is so important to have an image that is coherent on those platforms you care about the most based on your business type.

5. Curate communications so they align with your branding: Coming back to the first point, if you let your feelings or judgments reflect on a response to the customer, it can come across as mean or disrespectful.

   Have a clear mind and understanding of the situation when responding to any comment ensure communication is aligned to your brand communication style and remember everything that is uploaded onto the internet will stay there forever.

6. Complimentary service or bribing?: Let’s say a supervisor or a colleague upgrades a customer to a better room or gives them a free drink when they are upset, sound familiar? These things happen a lot everywhere in the service industry. What you don’t know is that giving free stuff to resolve a situation can be a double-edged weapon when it comes to how you solve problems as a business. It will never guarantee that they will give you a 5 star review when you gift something to an angry customer if you have not addressed and resolved their issue properly.

Your customer experience does not end when the customer leaves your business, this is something that you should always consider if your goal is to gain new customers and increase loyalty to your brand in the near and far future. The key to managing customer expectations is to continue building trust and taking great care of your customers, regardless of their intentions when leaving feedback. Remember our 8th Service Commandment: “You Shall not Receive Feedback in Vain”.

Any suggestions for handling a specific type of feedback? Share an experience you have had with a customer review, how you reacted, and what was the result so we can all learn from each other. Which is your preferred platform to use?