How to Handle Client Criticism and Bad Reviews (Without Losing Your Cool) | Seven Figure Agency

What's the nastiest thing a client has ever said?

We had a client, we failed to deliver on that promise. They felt like we just ripped them off. I felt like we were doing a good job. He was unhappy. I'm not getting the results and I don't want to hear the excuses. You know what your problem is, Josh? You're a good salesman. You know, in that moment that hit hard. How can we make this right?

Unfortunately, when you're first starting out, you have no idea and you're doing it for the team. That's what's helped us a lot is refocusing on we're not letting go this person for us personally because it's an issue. But if we don't, we're letting our team down because it's going to fester and it's going to cause an issue for them.

All right. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Scaling Together podcast. We're talking about how we grow and scale our businesses together as a couple. And today's episode, we're going to be talking about a hot topic, which is— it's criticisms, it's public feedback, it's client shade. How do you deal with that in your business and in your relationships?

All the juicy stuff. Number 1 question is, what's the nastiest thing a client has ever said? How did it hit you personally?

Hmm. You know, there was a time that we had a client, I think I could say the name, Arrow Plumbing in Little Rock, Arkansas. And the client, you know, we spent a lot of time with them, right? And we all care about our clients. So spent a lot of time talking about their growth, their goals, their targets. So I personally sold this client at the time because I was still taking sales calls and I was still doing account management. And about, I don't know how many months, 3, 4 months into the relationships, he was unhappy. He was just like, look, I'm not getting the results and I don't want to hear the excuses. And what he said, and it still hits me, he goes, you know what your problem is, Josh? You're a good salesman. Like, in other words, I had sold him a bill of goods. I had sold him we were going to grow the company and we failed to deliver on that promise. And, you know, in that moment that, that hit hard. And I did feel like we were doing a lot for him. I felt like we were doing a good job. But fortunately, we were able to, you know, continue to execute on his behalf, grew that company. I think he stayed with us 2 years after that and wound up selling the company to private equity. And it was, it was good, but it was good feedback because I wanted to make sure I wasn't overselling Or, you know, overselling versus what we can actually deliver as an organization.

That's tough. You never forget your first. Where it went—

I don't know if it was the first negative feedback, but that was definitely one that resonates with me.

So have you ever felt like feedback in the past was something that was directed to you personally, not just the work?

I think usually it's going to be a mix of their relationship with you directly, especially if you're the one that sold them or retaining them, as well as kind of what you're doing as a company.

Yeah, I think every time that a client leaves, it always feels personal. It's like, oh, they're leaving us, not leaving the company. But yeah, because we pour our heart and soul into the business. So when we, and I'm sure other agency owners can relate that when somebody walks out the door, it does feel like they're walking out on you.

Yeah. Painful.

Yeah.

It feels like that.

It's painful. Every single one.

Dagger through the heart.

Yeah. What is the most unfiltered behind the scenes fight you have had after a bad review? Kind of a fight, but what is the most unfiltered behind the scenes bad review you've ever had? Has maybe like on a Google review?

Yeah, I mean, I mean, there's been people that have, have said they didn't get good results or they felt like we just ripped them off.

We did have the one situation for Plumbing and HVAC SEO where an employee left and did leave us a negative review. Um, you want to talk about that?

Yeah, so, so this one specifically is more like employee feedback. I was thinking in terms of like a client, a client negative review. Um, the, the— like, this was one of the writers we had within, within the company when we still had a big internal writing team, and I was kind of two levels separated from that. But I like to be encouraging, and so everybody, when I see them in the break room or when I see them at their desk and say, hey, thanks for all your hard work, really appreciate you're doing a good job. And, you know, the feedback came up on Glassdoor, which is like a place where people write reviews after they work someplace.

Yeah.

And it was directed to me personally. And it was like, you know, this, this company should really change their ways. You know, how dare you tell employees they're doing a great job and like fire them the next day. And so that was actually a wake-up call for me because You know, you shouldn't just be encouraging in a vacuum. You know, just you don't have any idea if that person is doing a good job and say, hey, appreciate you, thanks for all your hard work, you're doing great. But to really only share positive feedback if somebody is actually, you know, in your own knowledge doing good, positive work.

When do you let it slide and when do you go full clapback mode on a bad comment, bad review, just negative criticism in general?

I mean, I think you always have to take feedback with a grain of salt, right? I mean, like, if they're writing a negative review about your company, whether it's a client or team member, it's because something didn't go right, right? And you need to look at that with clear eyes and say, hey, like, where did we drop the ball? How can we improve in the future? And in a lot of cases, I want to try and either me or somebody on the team reach out to that person and say, hey, you know, like, we appreciate your business. We're sorry that this went badly. "Hey, you know, how can we make this right?" And the goal would be to understand so we can improve. Also knowing how important your reputation is, you know, think about cost to acquire a client through Facebook ads, Google ads, content creation. You know, if you have to give a refund, if you have to give some money back, even though that might feel like, you know, unfair to you as a company, I would rather give the money back end on a clean slate than to have somebody leave so angrily that they want to publicly defame your company.

Have you ever had to fire a client just to save your sanity? Yeah.

Yes. And one of the best things we've done in, in like a couple of cases, right? I think we've done a better job over the years getting clear on who's the right client, vetting them on the front end, which makes a big difference. But there have been a lot of clients that we've, we've worked with over the years that we're doing everything we can. We're implementing our strategy. And they're either not appreciating it. They're not treating the team with respect. They're not paying their bills on time. And in those cases, it's better to get with the client and just say, hey, you know, we appreciate your business. Unfortunately, this isn't going to be a good fit long term. And we're going to have to go a different direction. And every time we've done that, it leads to better team culture, a vacuum of mental energy for the team to focus on clients that do appreciate us and that are getting great results from what we do. And so I highly encourage, like, set your minimum standard, set your core values, and hire fire based on that.

What is your internal script when the criticism hits below the belt?

Mm. Internal script below the belt. I would think this would only be like maybe someone randomly commenting on something on social media. And I take that with a grain of salt, right? Because at the end of the day, they probably don't know me. They're thinking, you know, just based on context, they're lumping me in with some other experience they've had or some other person that they've dealt with. And so if it's super negative, I would probably just have somebody delete it. If it's something that could be up for debate or conversation, I'll probably engage in it. How about you?

I'm surprised with how many you just like, you're like, whatever, people are going to say whatever, and you just leave it and don't delete it. I would I would say 99% of the time that I've ever seen anything that's like weird, that somebody's just commenting on like, oh, this is a silly ad or whatever, you know, like something that is totally irrelevant, um, that they post. So I am surprised by that. Yeah, same. How do you keep ego and insecurity from poisoning your leadership?

I'll let you speak on this one first.

Um, keeping ego out of it, what we do is the way that we look at life in general is that Yes, we are leading the company, but we're here to serve. And so, even with our kids, like, yeah, we're the parents, but it's like, how can we make our, have our kids be healthy and have everything that they need in order to be good, outstanding adults and do well in life? And the same thing with our team and our clients, our members. We basically just say, how do we serve? How can we serve? And so we look at these events and we put them on, and every last detail of everything that we do on how we serve the community, with the coaching, with the training, with our events itself, is all feedback that we've received from the members. And so none of it is like how necessarily we want it structured. It's just listening ear to the ground and being close to the people who are the closest in the group and, and just making sure that we keep a pulse and we commit to what we've achieved and so set out to achieve anyway.

Yeah. Yeah. I guess it's, it's not about us. Yeah. A place from ego is, oh, it's about me when really it's about the client, it's about the member, it's about the team.

What's the worst piece of advice someone gave you about handling unhappy clients? Has anyone ever given you bad advice?

I don't— you know what, I don't perceive any of it. I don't really perceive advice as bad advice in, in almost any situation other than, you know, I think one, one bad piece of advice is to say the customer is always right, because there's times where the customer's right, but there's times where the customer's wrong And so you have to, you know, meet the customer where they're at and try and keep them happy. But that doesn't necessarily mean they're, they're right.

Yeah. When does silence become self-respect in the face of client drama?

Hmm.

When do you choose to stay? Is there ever a situation where you felt like we shouldn't, we should not respond back to something? I feel like that's never a situation.

I think, I think if you're thinking silence in terms of pause. Like, they said something jarring, they've made a complaint. You don't have to jump in on the offensive. Like, you can pause, you can ask some of their questions, you can reframe. But I don't think it's a good practice to just ignore it, just be like, oh, hopefully that goes away. Like, you need to— you need to meet it head-on and you need to have those conversations.

Yeah. How do you keep social media shade from getting into your bedroom conversations?

I don't think we've ever had social media shade come into our bedroom conversations.

Yeah, let's keep it at that. Let's keep it at that. Let's not discuss it of ever happening. I'm glad that it doesn't. How do you stay unshakable when someone publicly calls out your business?

I can't say that that's really happened. So like, I don't really have a— like, oh, some agency— they're scam artists. The only people that have ever really publicly said negative things about either would be somebody that doesn't have any experience or context, and they're just— they're, they're in a general rule kind of talking about companies that do similar things to what we do.

Okay. What advice would you give to somebody who is dealing with negative comments, a negative client, negative employee in their business, just anything negative in general? In general?

I think negative comments on social media specifically are typically somebody that's coming from a very lower place than you. And people that are winning, people that are thriving, they don't tend to throw shade. They don't say negative things. So I would only take feedback from somebody that's 10 steps farther from me. Right. And I might take some stock in that. But if someone's saying nasty things on social media, you know, that's them reflecting on their own personal issues. From, I think, from team members, negative comments are either an indication of a cultural problem, right? Because sometimes poison starts to spread inside of an organization, and we've absolutely experienced that. Um, or, or it's a potential for feedback, right? If they're saying something negative about other team members, what's going on, you should at least hear, hear it out. But if it's, it's a cultural thing, you want to try and find the source of the poison, whether it's you, somebody on the team, some negative situation, and get to that as quickly as possible.

Yeah, it definitely is the bad apple in the barrel scenario if it's left to essentially rot.

Yeah.

In that scenario. And you're doing it for the team. And that's— I think that's what's helped us a lot is refocusing on we're not letting go this person for us personally. Because it's an issue. But if we don't, we're letting our team down because it's going to fester and it's going to cause an issue for them. They're probably not able to get things done effectively and efficiently because of this one person that's not holding their weight, causing drama, being an issue. So, uh, you learn as the more that you hire, the more experience you pick up on what to avoid. And you see red flags in the hiring process before they even come into your office. You tend to pick up things like, oh, that probably might not be fit because XYZ. So, um, that is something you pick up. Unfortunately, when you're first starting out, you have no idea. And so that's where a lot of our situations that we've come across client-wise and employee-wise has all been just not knowing what to expect and, you know, doing the best we can in the circumstance and just figuring it out. And trying your best to lean on God and on our verses and trying to make the right decisions on how we should proceed forward. And using that experience now coupled with that has really been super helpful for us and what's helped us be successful. Mm-hmm.

All right. Well, so hopefully that was helpful. You got some good insights on what to do when you've got negativity, shade, public shame coming your way. If you've got follow-up questions or thoughts on this, drop it in the comments. We look forward to seeing you on a future episode of the Scaling Together podcast.