How to turn a bad review into a blessing
If one person has a complaint about your business or a client’s, is it a crisis or are your feelings just hurt? The answer to that question should dictate your response.
My wife broke the news: “Somebody wrote a really bad review of Joe,” she said.
Joe is my brother-in-law. He’s a good guy who takes a lot of pride in his work and would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. He is also a small-business owner. He works as a contractor in North Carolina, doing repair and renovation work: power washing, painting, refurbishing, and other small projects for people all over the Goldsboro area.
A real boon to his business occurred about a year ago when he was listed on the website Home Advisor as a “screened and approved” vendor.
Suddenly, he was getting more leads, and better leads, resulting in more and larger jobs.
After a series of five-star reviews, a bad review came in. He was given one half of a star and the reviewer said he did not repair the leaky roof for which he was paid.
That’s the polite version.
Being fairly new to Home Adviser at the time, Joe was fairly convinced his business was shot due to this one review ruining him on his top lead generation tool.
Is a bad review a crisis?
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