Tips for dealing with bad reviews and how to use them as a chance

[gigbydani]

Hello community,

It’s my first own post here and I hope I can help some people with my advice.

Although the problem of facing bad reviews isn’t actually affecting me, while reading a lot of forum posts I noticed how many people are really and seriously panic-struck when it comes to bad reviews, that they even tend to do work for free to avoid it.

As I’m responsible for checking reviews on my “regular job” amongst other things, I deal with people in panic about those bad reviews almost every day. If I’m not able to remove those bad reviews, I have to deal with the people complaining about it.
I then try to show them a different view on it and how they can turn bad reviews into a positive chance for them.

Since fiverr is very much based on a review system as well, I thought I’d share some of my advice with you all, maybe it’s helpful for some.

Certainly, nobody likes negative rating, nobody wants it – sometimes bad reviews are unjustified or given with bad intention. You have several options to get rid of those (contacting CS, contacting the buyer etc.).

But what if the worst case happens and the bad review seems to mess up all your good reviews apart from that?

Most important advice: Stay calm! But do not leave a bad review uncommented.
You’re able to review and comment, as well! Fiverr is giving you the opportunity to comment the reviews given to you. Use it!

• Be transparent and honest – not only towards future customers/buyers, but also to yourself.
  Maybe the review were justified, maybe you could have done better. In an ideal case the buyer has given you reasons why your work/service didn’t meet their expectations. Use them for improvement. Say “sorry, I know this and that could have been better etc.”
  Don’t make the mistake and take the review personally. Maybe the buyer just had a different vision, different expectations than you. If so, explain your own.

• Kill them with kindness – no matter how angry you are, no matter how much you want to flip out (which you shouldn’t, s.a.), no matter how unjustified the review is - don’t show that in your comment to the review.
  Say things like: “I’m sorry that you’re not satisfied, I tried all the best possible and my other positive comments prove my good work.” (for example)
  Note that this is not supposed to help the author of the bad review in the first place.
  This shows future buyers that you’re a competent, professional seller and that you’re capable of dealing with difficult situations. That you’re self-confident, and always trying your best to satisfy the costumer’s needs.
  If their critique is justified, tell them you’ll make it better next time and how.

• Use even bad reviews as a marketing tool for you!

Those future buyers will not leave your gig without ordering, because you have a bad review. They will enter and stay if your service is interesting for them.

• Think a moment about your own behaviour when it comes to reading reviews. If you want to buy something, you surely look at other people’s ratings (if any available). If the offer is interesting to you, but the seller has some bad rating score, you look at the bad ratings more closely.
  You see the seller has answered his bad reviews in a similar way as I mentioned before. The majority of his reviews are perfect. Would that stop you from buying, if all other things were exactly matching your needs?
  For me it wouldn’t. It rather scares me off if I don’t find any reply at all or rude and unobjective replies.

• And one last point to mention:
  I know that fiverr ranking for sellers is pretty much based on having a positive ranking score. Though it allows some negative as well. For reaching fiverr seller levels it not says: You HAVE TO have 100% positive feedback. Okay, they say about 94% positive rating. But that’s actually a lot. Sure, if you only did 5 gigs and half of them are rated bad, well, maybe you should really think about what went wrong.
  But if for example you did 100 gigs – it would allow you 6 bad reviews without affecting your chances to reach the next level.

What I’m trying to say with that is, actually it’s quite special always having 100%. Especially if you’re in the range of those that did 1000 gigs and more.
But it’s possible because think about situations where you gave 5 stars or points or whatever and actually didn’t want to give that much. That’s because the majority of people tend to give the best rating because they’re satisfied with the work in general.

There will always be the difficult ones, who try to use bad reviews as a pawn to get what they want, e.g. free work or people who are simply rude and unhappy with their lives by nature and need to use other people as a punching ball.

Don’t get scared by them. Be proud of your service and as you hopefully see, a bad review once in a while isn’t the end of the world.
It’s bad for the own ego, yes. But if the majority of your rating is constantly good, don’t fear a bad review, don’t let it discourage you to go on.

I hopefully showed up some ways to use them as a chance.

Thanks for your attention (I know it’s a lot to read) 🙂

[magellon]

Thanks for your great first post Dani, hope it will not be the last. Bad reviews definitely hurt, especially if we have overdelivered and done our very best. More so when we know that the buyer has not read your Gig´s description properly before ordering.

If I may, I will add to your excellent report how I deal with a negative review (I must admit I am not faced with many of them):

I do not reply immediately (as I know that I am very angry), I can even wait up to 12 hours, then I message my buyer directly and ask him/her to please let me know on what basis they decided to give me such a mark, so that it will help me to review my delivered job and improve my services in the future. And if after that he/she feels that after all I deserve a better review, I would be very grateful.

More often than not, the buyer would adjust their review, and even sometimes apologies for having not completely understood the work supplied.

Sorry for taking advantage of your post Dani, but I hope this will also help your readers. Thanks very much - John 🙂

[gigbydani]

No need to apologize at all John, you added some valuable content, thanks for that!
My post was mostly meant what you can do after contacting failed. Of course this should be the first action always, to directly contact the buyer.
But sometimes all this is useless and you’re stuck with the review and need to make the best out of it 🙂

[jamesbulls]

37. Even Negative Reviews Are Good

Well, actually, no. Negative reviews aren’t good. If you’re getting negative reviews, then something has gone seriously wrong either in your communication with the buyer or in your delivery of the agreed upon service. But in the event that you do get a Really Awful Review, you can make it work for you. When new buyers visit your gig, they’re ALWAYS going to look at your reviews, and will ALWAYS look for negative reviews. That means that if you have a particular message you want to be certain that buyers see, you can attach it to a negative review. Now, don’t lie or bad-mouth the buyer, because – no matter how much the buyer deserved it – it still makes you look hostile (and no buyer wants to do business with a hostile seller.) Instead, focus on being professional and apologize that for the buyer’s experience. Demonstrate that you would have made it right if the buyer had given you the opportunity to do so. This is your first chance to make an impression on your future buyers: act professionally and you should be able to recover.

Read more: http://forum.fiverr.com/discussion/37-detailed-tips-to-optimize-your-gigs-and-start-selling-today/

[gigbydani]

Thanks for sharing! (I don’t know if you want to point out that my post was not neccessary because your advice already existed. I’m sorry, I didn’t read the whole entire forum before. I guess I’m not the first one to do multiple post to the same subject, though. So sorry if I made a mistake or something. :/)

Anyway, great post and it’s adding information and I will for sure read the entire post as well. 🙂

[jamesbulls]

No, no - not saying that your post isn’t necessary. Just joining the conversation 🙂