How pubs, bars & restaurants should respond to negative TripAdvisor reviews.
Ok so you have a negative review on TripAdvisor what are you going to do?
This appears to be an increasing problem, so many venues that had never really experienced any negative feedback feel that they are now under attack.
It could be that whilst we have been experiencing a cultural change on to the online world that with Covid- 19 something more dramatic happened, or it could be that just people are trying more new places, or that a break away from going out raised expectations… who knows, but either way having customers give you feedback publicly is now the new norm and is only going to more prevalent.
Operators need to build great resilience to it and perhaps develop a strategy for dealing with negative feedback.
Nearly all my clients ask the same thing. It is a panicky heart-breaking moment; how do you respond?
Well, first you need to understand what your response is trying to achieve?
Option A: Persuade the customer they are wrong.
You are right and they are wrong - this is where most people start.
It is instinct to want to make sure that someone else sees and understands your point of view.
Sometimes these responses can be cutting and funny. We’ve all seen on social media a viral witty response from a publican to a rubbish review which points out how terrible the customer was, how badly behaved or stupid they were. But what does this really achieve? You look bitter and angry, self-righteous, and petty. It does briefly feel good though!
I have been known to write out a great clever response pointing out exactly how right I am and how wrong they are and exactly how they missed the point or how hard my staff work, or what a rubbish day someone was having, just to then delete it and never publish cause on reflection the points below are much more important than someone else being wrong or me being right…
Option B: Persuade the customer to give you another go.
After all, changing their mind is easier and cheaper than finding a brand-new customer.
We’ve all heard that finding a new customer is more expensive than keeping an existing one. Even if you don’t advertise, there is your time and planning and effort. And even if this negative review was from a new customer it is still potentially cheaper to try to keep them than to replace them.
This only works though if you think that they may have a point.
It requires a little bit of humility from you. Even if they are being unreasonable in their tone or in the enormity of what they perceive as the problem can you see that they may have a point?
In which case would an apology be appropriate?
If so, why not? what have you got to lose? is your pride really too fragile?
In the past when faced with this situation I have unreservedly apologised to customers if what they are complaining about could be justified.
I don’t agree with how they have gone about it by complaining publicly rather than to me directly, however, they have had a point and so in return I have asked them to revisit to give us another go. Sometimes I even ask them to do a mystery customer review of us checking that we have in fact fixed the problem (whilst giving them a free meal/drink for their time effort and humility).
In doing this we have turned a rubbish experience from a customer into a staff training exercise whilst making the customer feel listened to and valued.
On every occasion when I was able to engage like this with the customer, I turned that negative complaint into a positive, happy returning customer and, whilst it didn’t change the initial review, my response was read by other potential customers, and that influenced their perception of me and my business (see the point below).
Option C: Demonstrating to everyone else who is reading that you are likeable & trustworthy.
OK so you’ve had a bad review from a totally unreasonable customer who behaved badly themselves or didn’t give you a chance, you want to act with a cutting killer response.
But who is your audience?
Is it that one person who has already decided that they don’t like your venue or is it all the other people who will read that review and response?
This is really important.
Your killer response will only get the back up of the author of the review. It will give them further ammunition to say that you are a terrible venue and so you have guaranteed that they have further negative stuff to tell their family and friends either privately or online.
You’ve lost them, and to be honest, all those people that they tell will already have loyalty to the person you have now attacked, they are now no longer indifferent, they are also angry and will tell others the story… and so it goes on.
But do any of these people matter aren’t they are already lost to you as customers?
However, what you do have is a post online about your venue with an audience…
So couldn’t this be an opportunity to broadcast to them, to potentially find new customers, people who agree with you, like you, trust you, and therefore, are willing to try your venue?
Getting strangers to know you, like you, and trust you is the number one purpose of social media promotion and activity - here is a great opportunity for you.
If this is an option, then whilst the response may not write itself it certainly means you cannot publish that (option A) cutting response that you drafted earlier. Whatever your need to believe that you are right and someone else is wrong posting that will make you look angry and petty and unless that is the personality that you want your customers to engage with - don’t do it!
If you want to respond be reasonable, demonstrate that you care, that you listen, you can respectfully disagree if you want but it is a light touch - your audience is your new customers who haven’t visited yet.
But remember, those new customers that haven’t visited yet are reasonable people. They are people that automatically agree with you (cause they are your perfect customer). You know that if they walk through the door of your venue they will love it and that they are likely to become regulars. So they will already know that the person that posted that negative view was not like them and they will be able to see that they are being unreasonable without you needing to point it out, just like any of your own family and friends would know.
Option D: Do you need to respond at all?
As I got more experience of all of this and the new social media world, I gained loads more confidence in just being able to ignore the negative reviews. They just were not my ideal target market; they just didn’t get it and my real customers could see that they were unreasonable and not part of our ‘tribe’.
If you do want to write something then ignore the negative and thank the positive reviews.
These are the important ones - these are the customers who liked you so much they went out of their way to tell other people and to persuade them that they will also like you. These are the customers you want and a ‘thank you’ goes a long way. This is what most venues forget. These are the customers who actually deserve your attention.
What works best?
Responding to the complaints that are genuine, that you can see have a point and that are pointing out problems that you recognise and can fix - convert these unhappy customers into those that love you.
Ignore the rest - honestly, it is what is good for you. It’s not to say don’t consider or take on negative feedback - if you can fix a problem or it is reasonable these reviews are ones that you will have responded to. I mean those that are just ‘wrong’. Your real and potential customers will read through the lines, trust them and then….
Say thank you to every positive review - it is just the right thing to do.
Instead of wasting your time on your keyboard proving that you are right - spend your time on your businesses delivering exceptional customer experiences that your ‘real’ customers love and write about. Drown out the negative reviews with all the amazing positive ones.
And the secret bonus is…
This makes you more trustworthy!
You should of course be aiming for only positive reviews, but it is human to be imperfect and the best of your customers know that.
If you go on TripAdvisor and there aren’t some negative reviews aren’t you a little suspicious?
You can’t please everyone all of the time and if you try you will end up pleasing no one.
