Matthew Gates 4m 1,102 #negativereview
The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
Negative Reviews in Focus
It seems that one negative review can outweigh a dozen extremely positive reviews, especially when it is your business being reviewed under the magnifying glass. You work so hard to impress your clients and customers, only for one person to have a bad experience, and runs off to a review website such as Yelp or TripAdvisor, and seems passionate enough to spread that bad experience to others. The tendency is to focus solely on the negative.
I once went to a magic show which was overall very good. The magician was very personable, eager to please his audience, and include and engage his audience in many of his acts. He was mysterious and a pleasure to watch. He was able to keep the audience guessing at what tricks he was going to pull out next. The theater was slightly smaller than expected, but this only added to the performance, as it brought the audience within close range to the magician. My date and I were included in on some of the acts at separate times, and it only added to our experience of making it a great show.
Afterwards, the entire audience left and we went into his shop to see what kind of neat things he had and ended up getting an autographed photo from him. He asked us how his show was and we told him it was very enjoyable. He said he knew that he put on great shows and had traveled around the United States, receiving only the best reviews, but recently, he had received this negative review, which he showed us on his Macbook.
The person left him with two stars and basically had said the opposite of what I said. The magician seemed devastated, almost in disbelief. My date and I had stated for him not to really focus on this review and to look at the other twenty-seven people who had left him five stars. It still seemed that although he said he would be fine, he still seemed to focus on the negative review as we were leaving his magic shop.
This is nothing out of the ordinary, as in almost all areas of life, we receive multiple positive compliments that help our self-esteem, are encouraging, and everything beyond, but the moment we receive a negative comment, we tend to focus on that. There are plenty of celebrities who have both admitted to reading tabloids and many who have said they ignore them, knowing that most of the information about them in the magazines is made up and false, as their names and photographs are used to create hype in order to sell. They know best, as the moment they begin to read these negative comments, stories, and reviews, is the moment they will begin to focus on them, rather than what is important: their talents, skills, and just doing their best.
Negative reviews are not always bad and can be used for constructive criticism and feedback to improve ourselves and our business. For example, if a customer really did have a bad experience, why wouldn’t you want to know about it so you can take steps and measures to improve the customer service experience? If a customer wrote a negative review because you or your staff sent a wrong item or did not send the item at all, than you might just deserve the review. If you are not the perfect company yet, in which you have learned to cater to all types of customer needs, than you might have to work on improving the business.
When it comes to negative reviews, anyone can have a bad day, a bad experience, or even just a sneeze that led to a bloody nose, and then that turned their day and experience bad, and they just happened to be in your store or doing business with you, and that drove them into a bad mood, leading them to write a negative review about you. You cannot control a bad experience, but you can take measures to ensure that the majority of customers or clients never have to experience it in the first place.
There are also plenty of customers who will eat the entire hamburger, steak, or rack of ribs, or even eat half of it, before letting the server know how awful and terrible it was, than have the courtesy to go on the Internet and write about it. These people are just everyday common trolls, as you might find on YouTube videos posting in the comments nonsense about whatever. They live to be negative, live the negative, and spread the negative, making everyone around them miserable, and like black holes, sucking all the energy and life from around them.
If you do own a business or service customers, you should definitely take all of your reviews seriously, both negative and positive. The majority of companies and people on Ebay and Amazon go out of their way to ensure that they do not receive negative marks, as those few negative marks can certainly lead some customers going elsewhere, and they know it. Many of these company owners emphasize the importance of emailing them or calling them to make sure their customers are satisfied before sending a negative review.
Whether you sell products, clean houses, or do magic shows, do your best to ensure your customers are getting what they are paying for and are satisfied with your job. You are the professional of your business and by offering your services, it is assumed by your customers that you offer the best.
If you are a customer, always give a company the benefit of the doubt, as they are not in the business of losing business, nor making sure your experience is horrible. They want to gain your business in order to make money, provide for themselves, their employees, and deliver the product that you ordered to you. They want to make sure you are satisfied with your purchase or the service they provided you, as it is in their hope and expectation to have your business again.
Before you write a negative review, contact the company first and work things out. If you really did have a horrible experience with a company and the company did nothing to guarantee your satisfaction, than you might be justified in writing your review. However, if they did you a great service and you were satisfied with their business, you should consider writing a positive review about the company, as they are most likely appreciative of any compliments their customers are willing to provide.
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