Phil Risher says 1-star reviews actually build trust when you respond right. People check bad reviews to see how you handle complaints. A calm, solution-focused reply shows good service and reassures other customers. A hostile one scares them away.
Bad reviews are always a trust test. My wife, every time we look at reviews on Google, says, "What do the 1-star say?" Because she wants to go to the 1-stars and make sure that they didn't put some hair in our food or something ridiculous. She wants to make sure that the 1-stars are like, "Oh, there was a little bit of a wait," or "My food was a little bit cold," something that's not too crazy. Your customers are doing the exact same thing. They go to Google and they say, "What's the 1-star say?" And they want to read the 1-star reviews. And more importantly, they want to see how the business interacts with the 1-star review. If you go off the haywire and say, I'm going to find you. I'm going to come to your house. I'm going to do X, Y, and Z. That doesn't show a pleasant customer experience. And the customer or the prospect is going to say, what if I bring up a concern and I voice my opinion? Are they going to freak out on me like they did on this 1-star review? This is why you need to have a game plan for 1-stars. You need to work with the customer to try to get it fixed. And you also need to have a very good way of responding so that way you don't come off and deter new prospects from coming to work with you.
