Negative customer feedback is something a business can never truly escape from. It’s the wasp in the room, the Christmas decorations in October, or the car that steals the last spot in the carpark. It’ll always happen, it’ll always be there to bother you, but it doesn’t have to tear your business apart.
When you’re constantly reminded how important it is to keep customers happy and content, it can be damning when despite your best efforts to keep them on your side, some customers can seem determined to tear your business apart. There is truth to this. A customer shrieking in the lobby of your business can definitely put other potential customers off.
So what’s the solution? There will always be that fringe of customers who take their frustrations out on others. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t things that can be done.
Customers (usually) don’t go out seeking a bad experience, they want to have a good time. So when they’re pouring negative feedback onto the company, some of it will provide insight into how to improve the experience they had.
"...there will always be that fringe of customers who take their frustrations out on
others. But that doesn't mean there aren't things that can be done."
What did they complain about? Is there anything that can be done to improve customer experience related to that problem? If not, is there another way to prevent further outbreaks of negative feedback related to the problem? Ensuring you have a process in place to get feedback can help you keep a pulse on your business. For every customer who is loud about their dissatisfaction, there may be more who don’t want to be the one to cause a scene, but are happy to fill something in confidentially.
The more positive your feedback, the better the reputation of your company will be; on the flipside, negative feedback can cause it to plummet. At the heart of it, customer feedback is all about reputation. But reputation isn’t solely about customer feedback.
By building and improving your company’s reputation beyond customer experience, you can dramatically reduce the influence of negative customer experiences.
Negative customer feedback doesn’t need to be an albatross around your neck. Do what you can to make customer experience as pleasant as possible, take advice from the negative feedback, and build a reputation that denies any influence the unfair feedback could have. At the end of the day, so long as you can keep the overly dramatic and negative fringe just that: a fringe, your company can thrive despite them.
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