• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Cleaning HQ
  • Start Here
  • Hiring & Training
  • Sales & Marketing
  • Systems & Automation
  • Scheduling Software

How to Respond to Negative Online Reviews

June 24, 2021     in Hiring & Training     by Mony      1 Comment

As a business owner, you are probably very familiar with the concept of negative online reviews. At some level, criticism is pretty much guaranteed as an entrepreneur.

Truth is, whether you provide great service or not, negative reviewers are inescapable.

And no matter how unpleasant it is to read negative comments about your company, you have no choice but to accept them, but it doesn’t mean you can’t do anything about it!

A 2019 Local Consumer Review Survey found that 82% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses, with 52% of 18-54 year olds saying they ‘always’ read reviews.

Based on that survey the average consumer reads about 10 reviews before feeling comfortable enough to trust a business and spends 13 minutes and 45 seconds reading reviews before making a decision.

What does that mean? Online Reviews are very important. It takes a single negative review to sabotage the decision of your potential customer before they purchase your services or product.

You can’t please everyone, and negative reviews are not something we have control over.

However, what we can control is the way we’re going to deal with the situation. By properly responding to the reviewer and taking action, you’ll be able to decrease the damage caused by the negative review.

Three steps to take when responding:

1. A thank you and an apology:

Start by responding to the reviewer and taking responsibility.

As business owners, we have a propensity to fight tooth and nail for our business’s reputation.

However, for the very sake of the business, approaching negativity with kindess and acknowledgment will have a much more positive impact from a customer’s perspective who’s reading through your reviews.

“Customers are sometimes wrong. But telling one that he or she is wrong about an issue could cost you your business.”

Instead of getting defensive, acknowledge the problem, thank the reviewer, and apologize. Taking the time to genuinely apologize is essential to show the reviewer (and people who read the reviews) you care for your clients.

You can say something like: “Thank you for taking the time to share your experience with our services. We acknowledge that problem and sincerely apologize…” This acknowledgment shows that you as a business (business owner) are taking responsibility.

 

 

2. How you’ll fix the problem:

After you’ve apologized, it’s time to explain what steps you’re going to take/have taken to fix the issue.

For example: if the reviewer criticized the quality of the service, you can offer them a free session. While also issuing an apology on behalf of the worker that was assigned to the job.

Make sure to offer to make it right by providing some sort of solution.

“Putting actions behind your words online helps the customer trust your company more.”

The unsatisfied customer needs to know any action will be done to fix their problem. Give specific details and let them know what has changed or will change. Future customers will see this as a positive sign and take your ability to communicate effectively as assurance for quality of their own service should they choose to use you.

 

3. Leave contact information:

At the end of your response, leave your contact information for the reviewer.

Your contact information should include your physical mailing address, your email address and your phone number.

From the reviewer’s standpoint, leaving personal contact information shows you’re not trying to escape the responsibilities you’ve taken to fix the problem and the commitment you have to keep them satisfied.

This is about establishing and fostering good customer relationships, something that is vital for your business’s longevity. Be a human and show them you care.

 

Real Examples of Good Responses:

Notice here how both companies do a great job by starting with an apology, then going on to look for a solution. Also, they both leave contact information at the end giving the customer an opportunity to reach out to them to resolve the negative review.

1. A client shares dissatisfaction with the service of a dental office, Forest Family Dentistry.

2. A client shares a bad experience he had while at Honda of Thousand Oaks, an auto dealership.

Let Negative Online Reviews Make Your Business Better:

It’s important to remember that criticism is healthy, and responding to negative online reviews is essential.

A 2016 study done by Cornell University revealed that responding to reviews, particularly negative reviews, “appears positively related to the consumer’s view of the hotel, as measured by increases in the TripAdvisor score”

This kind of data can reflect on your cleaning business as well.

Once you’ve taken all these steps, you need to refocus your energy on what’s important-providing outstanding services.

The more you try to improve your business and please future customers, eventually you’ll get less and less negative reviews.

Nevertheless, make sure to follow the essential steps given and start applying them to your responses.Negative online reviews might not be so negative after all!

74
#customer service#customers#human resources#marketing#negative reviews#online reviews#reviews#support
You May Also Like
5 Ways to Retain Cleaning Contractors for your Business
Independent Cleaning Contractors vs Regular Employees
How to Hire Employees for Your Cleaning Business
Training Your Cleaning Staff
Author Picture
Mony Gueorguiev

Founder & CEO

Maidily

Mony’s inspiration for Maidily came from being the owner of Maid to Glow, a cleaning service company in Atlanta, serving more than 500 customers each year.

With a passion to give other cleaning business owners an opportunity to grow their business Mony believes Maidily will be the tool that will take all the stress out of running a business.

As a normal human, Mony enjoys traveling, doing lots of Bulgarian things, eating unique foods (lots of food…), exercising, hanging out with his pup, Leo, and trying on expensive watches that he will never buy.

Reader Interactions

Trackbacks

  1. Learn the Best Cleaning Business Marketing Tips says:
    July 12, 2021 at 9:00 pm

    […] Once you start a cleaning business, positive reviews help gain leads from sites like Yelp, Google, and Thumbtack. Ask your customers to provide feedback by leaving reviews that highlight their positive experiences with you. Don’t forget to respond to negative online reviews. […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Popular Posts

  • Definitive Guide on Getting Commercial Cleaning Clients

    June 24th, 2021
  • Guide to Setting up a Cleaning Business Website

    June 24th, 2021
  • Discover How to Use Yelp, Thumbtack, and Google Local Services for Your Cleaning Business

    August 10th, 2021
  • 7 Best Cleaning Business Tools

    July 29th, 2021
  • 7 Ways to Promote Your Cleaning Business

    July 12th, 2021

Subscribe & Follow

Maidily Facebook Maidily Instagram Maidily LinkedIn Maidily YouTube

What are you looking for?

Start Here Need More Cleaning Clients? Struggling to Hire Great Cleaners? Systems & Automation to Give You Freedom

About Us

About Us

Maidily is a simple and effective online scheduling software for maid service/cleaning businesses across the nation. Our online integrations will give your customers the ability to purchase services through your website in seconds. Maidily also offers complete job automation (reminders, analytics, receipt sending + MORE) functionality that works seamlessly with our dynamic calendar system to completely automate your business while increasing conversion rates. Learn More

Footer

Feeling a little lost?

  • 14-day free trial
  • Team
  • Community
  • Cleaning HQ Home

Latest Posts

  • 5 Ways to Retain Cleaning Contractors for your Business
  • How to Advertise your Cleaning Services
  • Cleaning Business Success Story: AZ Clean
  • Independent Cleaning Contractors vs Regular Employees
  • How to Hire Employees for Your Cleaning Business
  • How to Find Customers Without Trying

Recent Marketing Strategies

  • How to Advertise your Cleaning Services

    June 13th, 2022
  • Cleaning Business Success Story: AZ Clean

    May 31st, 2022
  • How to Find Customers Without Trying

    April 13th, 2022
Success story time! 🔥 We had a really informat Success story time! 🔥

We had a really informative and interesting chat with Fred, CEO of AZ Clean in Canada, about their success and Maidily!

Read the entire interview and learn how Fred scaled (they grew 10x) AZ Clean with the help of Maidily!

👉 how hands-on is Fred with AZ Clean?
👉 what is the hardest part about running a cleaning business?
👉 how has Maidily helped Fred grow his business in Canada?

Click on the link below to read: 👇 https://cleaninghq.maidily.com/cleaning-business-success-story-az-clean/

Enjoy!! ✅
Find out what got missed without missing a beat! Find out what got missed without missing a beat!

Checklists are SO important for cleaning and keeping track of those important to-do items per job has never been easier with our checklist function!

🔥Create a default checklist that applies to all jobs

🔥Create categories for each to-do list item

🔥Customize your checklists per job

Ready to save time managing your cleaning business? 
Jump into our 14-day free trial 👉 www.maidily.com
You’re losing so much money by not retaining you You’re losing so much money by not retaining your existing client base. Every business owner knows that the bulk of their profit comes from recurring clients and repeat bookings.

5 Steps:

🔥 The Basics
🔥 Follow Up
🔥 Loyalty Programs
🔥 Email or SMS Marketing
🔥 Expand your Scope of Services
🔥 Fill your Cancelation Slots

Cleaning HQ: https://cleaninghq.maidily.com/convert-one-time-clients-into-recurring-clients/
Did you know you can show Estimated Working Hours Did you know you can show Estimated Working Hours on our booking page? Let your customers know how long the cleaning will take!

🔥Turn on ‘Job estimation’ & show your customers how long the job will take!

Give it a try - www.maidily.com
(Don’t have an account? Jump into our 14-day free trial)
Check out our customer portal! You can invite your Check out our customer portal!
You can invite your customers to the portal so they can:

👉 View their Past & Upcoming bookings
👉 Create new bookings
👉 Update payment information
👉 Add another payment form
👉 Cancel bookings
👉 Reschedule bookings
👉 Update their address
👉 Add a new address

Jump into our 14-day free trial and try it out for yourself! www.maidily.com
Add custom fields to the booking form + complete t Add custom fields to the booking form + complete template redesign!

🔥 Add a pick list and/or free hand text field to the booking form
🔥 Live preview your booking form, calculator, or quote page
🔥 Fresh redesigned of all customer communication emails

Want to save even MORE time managing your cleaning business?

Jump into our 14-day free trial: www.maidily.com
Do you have multiple locations? You can add your l Do you have multiple locations? You can add your locations in just a few clicks!

🔥 Easily switch between locations

🔥 Easily add locations

🔥 No limits

Happy Holidays from our entire team!!
We're SO excited for 2022!

14-day free trial (no credit card) - www.maidily.com
Charge your customers a cancelation fee! 🔥 Cha Charge your customers a cancelation fee!

🔥 Charge a cancelation fee for each canceled job

🔥 Fee can be different for each job

🔥 Receipts get updated to include cancelation fee

🔥Takes just a few clicks

Check it out --> www.maidily.com
14-day free trial
Add custom text to your booking form! 👉 Add hy Add custom text to your booking form!

👉 Add hyperlinks

👉 Edit the font size, text color, and font

👉 Add additional text to each section of the checkout page
Follow on Instagram

Copyright © 2022 · Maidily · Rights reserved