Many businesses worry about having Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, Pinterest pages or a blog that allows
Prepare for best & worst case!
people to post comments. They wonder, “If people complain about us on these platforms, it will make us look bad!”
What really looks bad is not receiving negative comments, but handling them poorly. Take a look at this negative review that one of my clients received:
Review of “The Business”
Posted by “Customer”
The Business advertises itself as place to help not only normally developing children, but one with disabilities. I was informed that their social butterflies program would be good for my son with autism as they have a “developmentalist” who leads the class. I was also told by my wrap around agency that the agency which head behavior services that I could not take my son’s TSS to the program because The Business has their own developmentist and in essence it would be like paying two people the (TSS and the developmentalist at The Business) to do the same job. So I went to The Business with my autistic son who is almost 3 to find that the developmentalist completely ignored him. She never prompted him once to do anything. She never gave me any instructions and expected me to figure it out on my own. And ontop she keep opening the door to class which allowed my son to keep running out. In fact the main doors to building were wide open to the street!!!! Completely irresponsibly and lacking in understanding of someone with autism!!! Clearly The Business is falsely advertising about their programs or their developmentalist is not qualified. I was disappointed and also do not understand how they are also allowed to provide services for the county.
Would you choose to respond to or ignore this comment?
I advised this client to respond and to respond in a positive, nonspecific way that encouraged the parent to speak directly to the service provider about the experience. Here’s what they wrote:
Business Response
Greetings “Customer”. Thank you for your feedback. It appears that there has been some miscommunication along the line, so please feel free to be in touch with us directly to further discuss. We value all children and their families, so we hope we can chat with you about your feedback and concerns.
It’s a great reply that shows this business watches it’s online reputation, that it seeks to assist customers who did not have a great experience, but also doesn’t air dirty laundry or get into battles online. It’s the best way to handle negative comments in this social age.
Have you ever received a negative review of your business? How did you handle it?