Brad Schweig thought he had a satisfied customer when a woman who bought outdoor furniture in March 2017 posted a five-star review online. Less than a year later, it was down to one star after a squirrel chewed a hole in one of the cushions.
Many business owners have faced the same uncomfortable situation since the advent of online review sites – a negative review, out there for potential customers to see. Schweig, co-owner of Sunnyland Furniture in Dallas, did what marketing experts recommend and tried to make amends in an online response.
In this Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2018, photo Brad Schweig, co-owner of Sunnyland Furniture, poses for a photo at his store in Dallas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)“We apologized, and said, ‘we’d be glad to work with you on a replacement at discount,'” Schweig says. “We explained, ‘this can happen with nature.'”
Negative reviews are likely inevitable for many companies, especially those that cater to the public. Even a company whose customers are almost universally happy will be panned by someone who wound up with a defective product or had a bad experience or misunderstood a situation. Marketing consultants and owners themselves say the best way to handle these reviews is to acknowledge that the customer is unhappy and offer to discuss the problem offline, either on the phone or via email.
The malcontents who are easily angered and impossible to placate tend to be rare, says Ryan Goff, chief marketing officer at MGH, a marketing firm in Owings Mills, Maryland. Most negative reviewers respond well if a company is sincere in trying to right a situation, he says.