How to Respond to Negative Feedback?

Happy and satisfied customers are an asset to a company. One happy customer can bring on average 6-8 new customers since around 72% of customers share their positive experience with 6 or more people and 13% of them share with 15 or even more.

Do you know what unhappy customers will do?

Simple. They will just stop doing business.

Only 1 in 26 customers complain, the rest just leave.

So, the real power of businesses lies in their customers.

Whenever customers are unhappy, they leave negative feedback. Then it becomes important for you to deal with customers personally and solve their problems.

Since there is a 50% chance that you can change the negative perceptions of your customers, you have to start responding to their negative feedback rightly.

In this blog, we will tell you how to respond to negative feedback such that you can change your customers' perceptions.

Let’s get started.

10 tips to respond to negative feedback

Overall, negative feedback is good for a company as it helps them to improve their products or services in a way that their customers want.

But the negative feedback should be handled with care so here are 10 tips to respond to negative feedback and turn a negative scenario into something positive for your customers and your business.

Address Customers by Name

Your customers want to be acknowledged and addressed individually. So don’t forget your salutations and avoid the generic “Dear guest,” or “Dear Customer” salutation. People like their names more than anything. So, if you want to give a good start to your response to negative feedback, start with the customer’s name. This will give them the impression that you are interacting with them. You can get the name of the person from their feedback form. Start the conversation in a friendly manner and try to solve their issues.

Start the Conversation with "Thank You"

People like appreciation. Show your customers that you value their feedback and appreciate them by saying “Thank You”.

For instance, you can say, “Thank you for your feedback. We are sorry for the trouble that you had while using the product, but I truly appreciate you for bringing this to my attention.”

You can say it in different ways as per your convenience and requirements.

Apologize and Sympathize

Whether the customer doesn’t know much about your business, is in a bad mood, or is a competitor, you have to apologize for the discomfort that they had. This will help you to grab their attention as it will make them feel that you care about them and are ready to help them out.

Keep the response short and crisp, for instance, “We’re sorry your experience did not live up to your expectations.”

Also, sympathize with their problems as a bad experience might have ruined their day. A person whose day is ruined because of your service deserves a few words of sympathy. This can calm their anger and they will become more willing to listen and understand you.

Let Them Know You Are Solving Their Problem

There must be some reason behind the negative feedback from your customers. Maybe the service was not satisfactory, shipping was not on time, or the product was not up to expectation.

Offering help to a customer who has given negative feedback is a healthy sign for your customer retention.

So, tell them that you are either solving their problem or that the issue has been resolved. This will make them feel that their problems are being heard which will make them more patient if the issue needs more time to get resolved.

Be Responsible and Accountable to Your Customers

Excuses can kill your company's image among customers. So, try to avoid making excuses and be responsible for the inconvenience that your product or service has created. You are accountable to your customers and you cannot survive in the market if they won’t trust you. So, reassure your customers that you are known for the high standards that you hold.

Here is what you can say, “We strive to give each of our customers a great experience, and we are disappointed when we fail to meet. Thank you for taking out time for the feedback that brought this to our notice. We'll use this feedback to improve us and avoid this the next time.”

Talk Directly to Customers Through Email or Phone

It's always better to speak directly to customers about their issues and resolve them offline as it will give them a sense of being valuable.

Here’s how you can say, “We apologize for the bad experience with our company. We'd like to know the reason for this so that we can improve our service in the future. Please reach us at [Email Address] or [Phone Number] at any time. Thank you for your valuable feedback.”

Try to Compensate by Offering Gifts

Another method to try to improve a customer's perception of the company is to offer them another opportunity. Offer a present to entice the consumer back if the problem they've encountered is unusual.

Depending on your industry, it could be a discount or free shipment. However, the issue they were complaining about could be a common one. In this scenario, requesting them to come back before you fix it is pointless.

Ask for Feedback Once the Issue Is Addressed

Once the issue is resolved and the customer is satisfied with the resolution process, it’s time to know their opinion. You don’t need to be pushy. Simply ask for their feedback at the end.

Here’s what you can say. “I hope your issues have been rectified, and you are happy with the product/service now. We’d love to know your feedback so that we can resolve issues if you still have any. Looking forward to your feedback. Thanks for your time.”

Don’t Delay Responses

According to data, 53.3 percent of customers who give feedback want a response in seven days or fewer. It can be difficult to respond to feedback in a short time span as there are other responsibilities as well. So, you can use automation tools to get notified about the feedback and respond to it on time. Allowing your consumers to wait for an extended period of time is not good for your business.

Create a Team to Respond to Feedback

It’s important to know who is responsible for responding to customer feedback so that there won’t be any delay or confusion while responding to the feedback. Create a team that can respond to feedback and prepare guidelines for the response.

Easy Ways to collect feedback and take action

To collect feedback from customers you can use tools like Olvy that help companies in collecting customer feedback from anywhere.

Olvy makes feedback collection as well as feedback analysis easier and smoother for companies.

Once the feedback is collected using Olvy, you can analyze the collected feedback within your workspace. After analysis, you can convert similar feedback to tasks and then at last update users accordingly.

If the feedback is negative, you can use these 10 tips to respond to customer feedback. Your key focus should be on improving customer satisfaction by enhancing your product quality.

Final Words

As of now, you know customer feedback is valuable and your company's reputation is established by what your customers say about you in the market.

By responding to negative feedback, you can improve your brand's reputation by changing your customers' perceptions.

To respond to negative feedback, you first need to have a collection of feedback from all the sources possible. So, are you ready to collect all the user feedback? Get started now with Olvy.