These 7 key components, responding to complaints will help you conquer bad online reviews

You work so hard on your business. You're proud of what you do and people appreciate what you do for them. Mostly. But like any business out there, you will get people who will slam you on social media, especially when you make a mistake. And when they do, it can be awful. It can be disheartening and it could be so damaging to your brand. But What can you do about it? And that's coming up next on Marc Haine Live. Welcome back to Marc Haine Live where small business owners and entrepreneurs pick up some core skill sets to help them work on their business, not just in your business. I am your host, Service Expert and Master of Experiences Marc Haine. And we are coming to you live every Tuesday at noon Eastern Time right here on YouTube. Of course, you can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Soon, the list is going to be way too long. If you're watching this on a replay here on YouTube, please support this channel. Support me by hitting the subscribe button and ringing the bell. And that'll give you first dibs. That'll give you notifications every time I bring you some fresh content. And that's usually on Tuesday mornings. Like always, we are better when we share our experiences and our thoughts. So, I invite you to drop your own comments, your questions, and your own insights in the comment box below. You know, when we opened back in 2012, I was working in Drayton Valley and we opened up a brand new pub brand. And we got a lot of stellar feedback. By the time we were done, it felt kind of like an episode of Bar Rescue when people came in and they were just blown away by what we did. We were extremely proud of what we created. And we really— what we did in small town Drayton Valley, which had at the time had a population of about 75, 100 people. But they had about 20,000 people commute into Drayton Valley every day. And so, we were really proud that we were able to build a big city pub in a small town. And the local community loved it. Oil Country Tap House was a hit. About a month into our operations though, we got an absolutely slamming review on social media. I mean, it was absolutely brutal. And I know that when we get those kinds of reviews, we go through this whole big rigmarole in our brains. We go through a whole range of emotions. I mean, when I saw the review, I got mad. I mean, how could they talk to us that way, right? I got defensive. Don't they know what it takes to pull off an operation of this scale? I mean, we had 7,600 square feet. We had 304 seats. Seats with over 44 TV sets. I got judgmental. I figured, you know what? They're just idiots. They wouldn't know a quality operation if it hit them in the face. And then, I got defensive again. Wait a minute! They're talking about our products and our service, the stuff that we care so much about. So, how do you overcome getting slammed by the keyboard Wee-woos. They get slammed by the keyboard warriors on social media. And that's our topic today. But first, of course, every episode we have our Question of the Day. So, I have to ask you, have you ever had a review that you thought was unfair or cruel on social media? And it could be on Yelp. It could be on TripAdvisor. It could even be on social media. It seems like every community now has a rant and rave page. And if you did, how did it make you feel? I'd really love to hear your experiences. Why not share your experiences in the comment box below? Maybe we can kind of come to grips with the idea that reviews are going to happen. So, the big question is, why is this so important? Why is how we respond on social media so important? And I guess I have to really think about something that happened back in about 2016. We had a local restaurateur here in Devon, Alberta, and they got slammed on social media. People weren't happy with the service. So, they weren't happy with the food. Any number of reasons why people will always complain about something. But what happened was it wasn't just that the reviews were bad, which they were. But it was how the owners stepped up and responded to those reviews. They started treating their customers like they were idiots. They started treating their customers badly. They started judging their customers. They would say things like, you don't understand what it takes to put out good food. Or, we're short-staffed so we're just doing the best we can. It's too bad you don't have any patience. And so, they started becoming just as judgmental about the reviewers as the reviewer was about their restaurant. Well, ultimately, they created such a storm on social media that people who had never ever tried them didn't even want to take a chance. Comments started coming in and saying, you know what? If this is how you relate to your customers, Then, we don't want to have anything to do with you. We're not going to come. I've never been there. I don't know who you are. But just the mere fact that you responded that way on social media, we're not even going to try you. And ultimately, within 5 months, they were closed. It's a real sad way because I know that as entrepreneurs, we start our businesses and we're passionate about what we do. But how we respond to online reviews is critical. in reflecting who we are. It reflects how we respond on social media, reflects our values. It reflects what we stand for. And it reinforces why people should do business with us. How we respond to online reviews is an absolute mirror. It's a mirror to our values. And it resonates or doesn't resonate with people very, very quickly. So today, I'd like to share with you 7 steps to help you put your best face forward when it comes to responding to reviews. But before we get into that, I just want to let you know that today's show is powered by the Speaker Presentation Timer app, helping speakers and presenters who want to develop great stories and compelling presentations without ever breaking the fourth wall. It's an app that I created. And I'm very proud of it because I want to help speakers not break that fourth wall. And if you want to know more about what that fourth wall is, why don't you go to my website at www.speakerpresentationtimer.com. The app is available on iOS and Android-powered devices. And it's at the App Store and the Google Play Store right now. So, go and visit www.speakerpresentationtimer.com. Go and check it out. The download is absolutely free. You get a light version to start off with. And then, if you want to go to the pro version, which huge benefits to the pro version. And I will put a link to the walkthrough here. But if you want to, it's nominal cost. So, it's not going to make me a millionaire and it's not going to break your bank. Okay? So, here we go. Let's write the best possible Feedback. But before we do that, I just want to share with you a really bad review. Well, actually, I want to share with you not the bad review, but I want to share with you the bad response to review. And so, this slide was taken from Amy's Baking Company. It was done in the States. So, Amy's Baking Company. This was the bakery. that Gordon Ramsay refused to help out. But when you read how they responded to their customers, is there any reason why people would feel that this is not a good business? What does this response say about their values? What does it say about how they think about customers? Right? So, I really want you to kind of take that in a second because how many times have we said something and as soon as we say it, You go, ah, I never should have said it. All right? And so writing responses to reviews when you're hotheaded, when you're angry by what people have written, they don't understand you, they don't— how dare they? I understand it. But like with anything, don't do anything when you're mad. Because if you're all tensed up and you start typing things, it's like, I will show them. I'll Just wait till I get my hands on my keyboard because they will not understand what wrath is until I feed them some words. So, it's really important that you understand where you're going with your response. And I think it's necessary to orchestrate a response. Now, that doesn't mean to create a template that is going to be so inauthentic and so fraught with, I don't know, insincerity. Because really, at the end of the day, why are you in business? And I bet you're in business because you care about what you do for your customers. You care about the outfall. And that's why when you get these reviews, you get upset. It's absolutely normal to get upset. However, I think that if you have a process in place to be able to respond appropriately to the feedback, then you're golden. Right? But here's the thing. It takes humility. It takes sensitivity. It takes patience. It takes an understanding of what your customers are trying to communicate to you. Because at the end of the day, when somebody types out a review, they might be mad and they might say things that they don't really mean. And I mean, we've all done it. So, taking full— giving it full credence to what they said as being, oh, that's the way they think about me. I would challenge that. And I think that one of the ways that you do that is by showing your authentic self and being absolutely true to the reason why you're in business. So, with that, step 1, we want you to make sure that when you are responding to A complaint. One of the things you need to do is you need to thank them. And so, I put in brackets. So, as I go through this, I have little quotes there that will build our response. And so, we want to thank them for their feedback. Thank you so much for your recent feedback. And here's the thing. What this does is it tells the rest of the world that you're responding to this one particular post, that you're open to feedback, that you value feedback. And you can even indicate this on this line. You can say, thank you so much for your feedback. Feedback from customers like you really help us drive the quality that we're trying to achieve. Right? The next step is that you need to apologize. Now, when you apologize for something, it's not, oh, I'm sorry you're such an idiot. Which the very first, that one response I showed you on screen, that's exactly kind of what that whole tone is, right? But you want to apologize and say, I'm sorry that your experience with us was less than stellar. Now, when you apologize, it really does take humility because what you're basically saying is you're saying, we're not perfect. I acknowledge that there's something here. It shows caring. It shows that you are listening to your customer and you're responding. Now, and it's not, I'm sorry you feel that way. Right? It's not that tone. It is really a sincere thing. I'm really sorry that your experience with us was less than stellar. I'm really sorry that we didn't deliver the way you were expecting us to deliver. Okay? Step number 3, summarize what you want to achieve. So, in this particular sample, the text goes very simply. Here at ABC Company, we're committed to providing you the best service. We're providing stellar service. We're committed to giving you an experience you'll never forget, whatever that looks like. And we pride ourselves on providing the very best experience possible. So ultimately, this is your brand statement. This is your brand story. You're telling the world. You're responding to that one email. But keep in mind, this is social media. So, it's very, very public. And you are telling people what you stand for. This is an integral part of your statement to the response because it says that we strive for this. Right? And then step number 4 at the end is admit that you're possibly at fault. So, I know that the lawyers out there are just going, never admit fault! Never admit fault! What are you doing? Ah! But here's the thing. You're not saying, we are guilty of treason, or we're guilty of ripping you off. That's not what you're saying. What you're saying here is that in your case, it seems like we let you down. And that's an important thing to say. It's, well, it's every Tuesday we're short-staffed. So, every Tuesday if you come in, we're gonna let you down. Right? That's not what we're saying. We're saying, in this particular case, it seems like we let you down. Taking ownership, not blaming the customer. Well, if you made yourself clearer with what you wanted, maybe we could have delivered on it. That's not what we're saying, right? What we're saying is, here, we let you down. You had an expectation that we didn't deliver. Right? So, it's important that we Turn around and we say, it seems like we are at fault for letting you down. Step number 5, make a commitment to your customer. So, in this particular case, we'd really like an opportunity to make this right with you. This is a personal statement. You're isolating that one customer. We want to make it right for You. This is your commitment to them personally. And then, step number 6 is create a call to action. What do you want them to do? You know what? If you want to give me a quick shout, I'd be more than happy to deal with this one-on-one with you and we'll figure this out together. Please feel free to contact me. Please feel free to direct message me. Please feel free to email me. And then, you could even give your telephone number. You can give your email address. I'd love to deal with it. And so, that becomes step number 7 is here's the last commitment. The other commitment is so I can make sure that we take good care of you. So, those are the 7 steps in a nutshell. They're all pretty simple and you could look at any one of them and say, but Marc, if I just write that, if I just make a template like that, then people will know that I'm I'm insincere. If you feel that you're doing it because you have to do it, oh, I better respond to this like this because I don't want people to get mad at me. So, I better respond like this. People will see right through it. People will see right through that you're being insincere. However, if you use your words, if you take these 7 steps, put in your own words, and remember, it's about kindness. It's about caring. It's not about justifying. Because that's not what you want to do on social media. Here's the thing is if you try to wage a war like that one restaurant I told you about in Devon, if you try to wage a war on social media, you will lose. There is no winning going back and forth bashing customers and really slamming them. Okay. So, before we put it all together, we're going to create one whole response that you can cater to your needs. But before you do that, I want to make sure that this is valuable to you. I'd love if you would just take a second, drop a comment in the comment box, put thumbs up on the comment box, put something in the comment box. Let me know that this is resonating with you. I'm just going to look at my screen and just see if there's any comments coming up. I don't see any comments at the moment. Let's just double-check, double-check, looking at my comments. So far, it doesn't look like I have any comments, which is fair enough. But here's the thing is if this resonates with you, I'd love for you to like this post. Share it with somebody that you think could use this information because again, I believe that the power of information is if we share it. And please, please, please post a comment in there whether or not you think this would work for you or if it won't work for you. And I'd love to get an opposite perception, an opposite take on what I'm talking about today. And as always, I have a standing offer if you want to take me up on it. I was able to meet with 3 people this past week from last week's offer. If you want 30 minutes of my time, I would love to meet with you and your team. We could brainstorm. I'm there to listen to whatever your angst is, whatever your challenges are. And then maybe together, we can do a little 30-minute brainstorming session to see if there's room someplace to do some renewal, or some reinvention, or something to help solve your problem. Okay? So that is an open offer. There's a link in the YouTube thing down below. It's my Meet Me address. You can just click on there. You can schedule some time on my calendar. So, when we have all these 7 steps and we want to put them together, okay? Why don't we do that right now? We're going to put them all together into one comment, into the response that we want. And so, here it is. You take all 7 steps and here's what it looks like. Thank you so much for your recent feedback. I'm sorry that your experience with us was less than stellar. Here at ABC Company, we're committed to— put in a couple of things in there. What are your commitments? And we pride ourselves on providing the very best experience possible. In your case, it seems like we let you down. We'd really like the opportunity to make this right for you. Please contact me directly so I can make sure that we take good care of you. And then of course, you add your email, your telephone number, however you want them to be able to contact you. As much as they seem to be bad, reviews are not the end of the world. How we respond to them will make all the difference. We have to support our brand. And as much as, again, as much as it hurts, it's like you get a bad review after you try your very best. It's like somebody stabbing you in the heart. Our objective is to provide the very best customer experience possible. And how we show up on social media should reflect that in every sense of the word. But in order to do that, we need authenticity. We need humility. And at the end of the day, we want to make absolutely sure we show kindness and caring because we want to show everybody that we have a desire to serve. If you do fake it, if you just say, okay, I'm just gonna template this. I'll just get my supervisor to hammer off a quick little email and they can copy this text and put it out there. After a while, people will say, oh, wait a second. I don't think that's sincere. I started off by talking about Oil Country Tap House, about getting that really horrible review. I looked at it and as much as I looked at it and I thought, you know what? We're a brand new operation here in town. We just opened. And the way it sounded, it sounded to me like it was set up by one of our competitors. In fact, they mentioned a menu item we didn't even have on the menu. But that didn't matter. By turning to them and saying, thank you so much for your feedback. I'm sorry that the experience with us was less than stellar. Here at Oil Country Tap House, we focus on creating the most amazing dining experience in a pub. brand to support this community. And then, we continued on with the response. My end response was, please contact me directly. I'd love to deal with you on this and make this right for you. And his response on social media right after was, no effing way! So, in the scheme of things, you read the first review and people go, oh, Maybe they're not that good. Then, they see the response. They go, oh wow! That's a really good response. And then, they see the following response, no effing way! Well, now they know who's the good guy and who's the bad guy. I challenge you that when it comes to responding to social media, use the 7 steps. Be kind. Be generous in your response. Okay? That's all the time that we have for today. I'd love to know what you think about today's episode. So, please drop a comment in the box below. And if you think you know someone who could use this information, please, please, please go ahead and hit the share button. And please share on social media. Get it out there. And I encourage the feedback. To me, information is power as I mentioned before but only if it's shared. And hey, if you have a topic that you'd like me to cover, a question, Maybe about leadership or business operations that you'd like to bring forward as a small business owner. I'd love to uncover a topic that is of service to you. And if you haven't done so yet, I'd really appreciate it if you would subscribe to the channel, ring the bell, and you'll be in the know whenever I bring you some fresh, really genius content. My name is Marc Haine and I'll see you next week. We will be talking to Nathalie Plamondon-Thomas about how to become unstoppable. And so, we're going to bring you some fabulous content to help you run your small business. I hope that you will stay safe, stay healthy, and dare to be the exception.