Q: Grace from Georgia writes ...

Hi Marie. My mom ran across your website, did she really? kidding! My mom ran across

your website .. (laughing..)

Here's my Q:

How do you deal when haters have written negative reviews about your company?

While most of my clients have been happy and written positive reviews, there's a few nasty

ones out there on the internet that bug me and can still be found through the Google.

Of course I've learned from the bad reviews and and am ready to launch a new product,

but I'm paralyzed with fear that many people will throw the old reviews back in my face.

The fear is stopping me from wanting to try again, which I hate because I know there are

still so many more people I could help. How do you handle the haters who haunt you when

trying to move forward?

A: Grace, great question! Negative reviews can be really painful. Let's face it, no company

or person is perfect so this is something that potentially all of us have to deal with

at some point or another.

One thing my dear, I notice that you refer to people who leave negative reviews as haters.

But you know what?

Criticism isn't just from haters. It could be from someone who bought a product from

you who had really high expectations that weren't met. You want to take that as legitimate

feedback.

That stuff is gold girl. What it really is an opportunity to learn how you can improve

your business, and, depending how you respond is an opportunity to show people what you're

made of.

As you know, you can't erase negative reviews from the internet, but what you CAN do is

handle the criticism with a very smart strategy. And guess what girl? You can even make negative

reviews good for business!

Here are 3 steps to take to deal with negative reviews.

Step #1. Thank the reviewer and apologize.

Kick off your response by thanking them for taking the time to offer feedback, and genuinely

apologize. If you don't know how to genuinely apologize and most people don't, you can check

out this video here here coz will help you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y63J3JnSsZI&list=PLEA6BDA790659DB9D&index=1&feature=plpp_video

Take responsibility for what went wrong and do not be defensive. This is about owning

up to it and letting the reviewer know that they've been heard.

For example, on a popular site like Trip Advisor, you'll often see a negative review followed

up by a response from the hotel saying something like this: Thank you for taking the time to

comment on your stay with us. We acknowledge that problem and sincerely apologize . . .

Whenever you have the opportunity to comment back, do it because whoever is gonna see the

bad review, will also see your thoughtful response. And.. this is very important: do

not criticize them for criticizing you. You wanna always take the high road.

Step 2 is you need to explain EXACTLY what you're doing to fix the problem.

You can mention things like new policies, new technology, or additions to your staff.

The point here is to give specific details on the issues mentioned and tell them what

you're doing to ensure this never happens again.

Step #3 and this is THE MOST important. You need to make it right.

Let the reviewer know that you are committed to making this right. Give them an email address

or phone number and invite them to contact you offline. Understand that making it right

can mean giving a full refund or giving them an opportunity to experience your product

or service again on the house.

Once you've taken these steps you need to refocus all your energy on providing outstanding

products and services.

Grace from Georgia - that was my A to your Q, hope it helps and most importantly get

your butt back out there.

Now I'd love to hear YOUR feedback about negative reviews.

Whether you've responded to comments about your business, or you've had issues about

somebody else's business, let me know all the juice in the comments below.

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