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Bi-Weekly Discussion Thread: Complaints & Bad Reviews
Agnieszka
Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 3,263 Major grins
Hey guys! How about we share some experience about dealing with complaints & bad reviews? Did you ever have to deal with that? How did you handle it, and what was the outcome?
This topic was inspired by an email I received this morning. You can read the article below, I received it from http://www.getmorebrides.com
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How to Handle a Bad Review
Like it or not, if you do business long enough you’ll unfortunately run into a complaint, bad review or maybe asked for a refund. The vast majority of vendors don’t PLAN on giving a poor performance or providing a bad service. Sometimes the reasoning for the refund has no basis in reality. From the vendor’s point of view, they did everything that was contracted (and sometimes more). But still the customer remains unhappy and you’ve been asked to respond. Certainly, there ARE legitimate reasons to be upset with a wedding vendor. On the other side, I have seen many times when the wedding vendor went way out of their way to make things right and it still did not work. What to do? Let me share some ideas with you that might help.
Buyer’s Remorse
If you’re lucky enough to have the bride voice her concern with enough time for you to offer a solution then a legitimate problem doesn’t have a chance to grow. But if a Bride approaches you with a problem after the fact then getting a fair resolution may be more difficult. In other words, it is hard for you to fix a problem that can’t be. Sometimes the problem was truly yours but is still unfixable and sometimes the case is one of ‘buyer’s remorse’. In either case there are better ways to handle it – on both ends.
Communicate
It’s amazing what two people can resolve when the lines of communication are open. Both sides may be reluctant to get together but it’s a great first step. What might instead happen, and often does, is the bride will vent her anger online and very publically. There are legal responses for a bride that goes too far but try to communicate first.
If a Bride takes her anger to the internet and says bad things about you, it is important that you try to open the line of communication so that things might be able to be resolved. If they are not able to be resolved, then at least you have tried. What’s especially unfortunate is that most people do not pay attention to the good stuff about you and even though more people pay attention to the negative stuff (and some even want to promote the negative stuff without checking their facts), the attention span of the average person is on their own life as well as their problems, not the problems or issues of another. Another point- Brides are a one time only time customer. They may say bad things about you, but we don’t look for repeat business in the Wedding Industry.
Checking the facts
If you hear of another wedding vendor that has issues, give them a call and get their side of the story. I have seen cases where a person experiences multiple problems and has multiple complaints. Even cases where for instance a Bridal shop is featured on the local news in the consumer fraud segments. They are still able to stay in business even though the case is actually legitimate against them. If you, the legitimate wedding vendor were to check into this deeper and have a story to tell, you would have the correct version of the story, not the one sided upset Bride’s side of the story. On the other hand, if someone is not legitimate, you can also help protect your brides from them by telling them the right story that comes directly from the horse’s mouth.
Human emotion is a very fluid thing and it is easy to gravitate to the lower parts of the situation. Think about how many wonderfully satisfied Brides you may have as opposed to the one complaint who tries to define you and your business as the one mistake. It is easy for a Bride to blame a vendor that she maybe feels that she overspent with, on the other hand, it is easy for us as vendors to gravitate to the negative news about others. Either way, we are all human or make mistakes, trying our best to overcome them and make good is the best thing that we have on our side. You would also be surprised how
1) people want to sometimes believe the negative true or not
2) how absolutely wonderful and understanding people can be.
One last note- press forward and do not believe that your career or your own being is defined as a mistake or that someone else can be defined as such. You are probably like me in that for every one mistake, you have 1000 successes- focus on those and don’t Let the turkey’s get you down!
Until next week, here’s to your success!
This topic was inspired by an email I received this morning. You can read the article below, I received it from http://www.getmorebrides.com
__
How to Handle a Bad Review
Like it or not, if you do business long enough you’ll unfortunately run into a complaint, bad review or maybe asked for a refund. The vast majority of vendors don’t PLAN on giving a poor performance or providing a bad service. Sometimes the reasoning for the refund has no basis in reality. From the vendor’s point of view, they did everything that was contracted (and sometimes more). But still the customer remains unhappy and you’ve been asked to respond. Certainly, there ARE legitimate reasons to be upset with a wedding vendor. On the other side, I have seen many times when the wedding vendor went way out of their way to make things right and it still did not work. What to do? Let me share some ideas with you that might help.
Buyer’s Remorse
If you’re lucky enough to have the bride voice her concern with enough time for you to offer a solution then a legitimate problem doesn’t have a chance to grow. But if a Bride approaches you with a problem after the fact then getting a fair resolution may be more difficult. In other words, it is hard for you to fix a problem that can’t be. Sometimes the problem was truly yours but is still unfixable and sometimes the case is one of ‘buyer’s remorse’. In either case there are better ways to handle it – on both ends.
Communicate
It’s amazing what two people can resolve when the lines of communication are open. Both sides may be reluctant to get together but it’s a great first step. What might instead happen, and often does, is the bride will vent her anger online and very publically. There are legal responses for a bride that goes too far but try to communicate first.
If a Bride takes her anger to the internet and says bad things about you, it is important that you try to open the line of communication so that things might be able to be resolved. If they are not able to be resolved, then at least you have tried. What’s especially unfortunate is that most people do not pay attention to the good stuff about you and even though more people pay attention to the negative stuff (and some even want to promote the negative stuff without checking their facts), the attention span of the average person is on their own life as well as their problems, not the problems or issues of another. Another point- Brides are a one time only time customer. They may say bad things about you, but we don’t look for repeat business in the Wedding Industry.
Checking the facts
If you hear of another wedding vendor that has issues, give them a call and get their side of the story. I have seen cases where a person experiences multiple problems and has multiple complaints. Even cases where for instance a Bridal shop is featured on the local news in the consumer fraud segments. They are still able to stay in business even though the case is actually legitimate against them. If you, the legitimate wedding vendor were to check into this deeper and have a story to tell, you would have the correct version of the story, not the one sided upset Bride’s side of the story. On the other hand, if someone is not legitimate, you can also help protect your brides from them by telling them the right story that comes directly from the horse’s mouth.
Human emotion is a very fluid thing and it is easy to gravitate to the lower parts of the situation. Think about how many wonderfully satisfied Brides you may have as opposed to the one complaint who tries to define you and your business as the one mistake. It is easy for a Bride to blame a vendor that she maybe feels that she overspent with, on the other hand, it is easy for us as vendors to gravitate to the negative news about others. Either way, we are all human or make mistakes, trying our best to overcome them and make good is the best thing that we have on our side. You would also be surprised how
1) people want to sometimes believe the negative true or not
2) how absolutely wonderful and understanding people can be.
One last note- press forward and do not believe that your career or your own being is defined as a mistake or that someone else can be defined as such. You are probably like me in that for every one mistake, you have 1000 successes- focus on those and don’t Let the turkey’s get you down!
Until next week, here’s to your success!
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Comments
www.tednghiem.com
Yeah saw that .... let me seeeee ... it's a copy paste thing, so, not sure if I can do it ...
Is this better? Looks ok to me ...
When Madam Angie first posted it it was dark gray. or some color other than the standard color with the bbs color theme thing-a-ma-jig. I opened the thread probably right after she posted...
www.tednghiem.com
Where did she post this review? If it's on a legitimate review site, and she has told a blatant lie to ruin your reputation, you can contact the site, present your side of the story, and maybe get the review removed.
If it's on Facebook or some other social media site, or on her personal web site, then having it removed is more dicey. But, if she actually lied about you online, then she's guilty of libel, and you can sue her. You'll need screen captures and witnesses to it, and you'll need to contact a lawyer. It's not easy, it's expensive, and it's fraught with danger, but it's possible. If her lies are significantly impacting your business, it's worth considering.
Wow. That is utter S$#! right there. And doesn't even leave room to discuss it like adults. Sounds like the bride is and was a drama queen and in need of attention.
www.tednghiem.com
If they are upset about the cars, the, cake , the flowers, the Colour of Uncle Bobs shoes..... you name it, we hear about it.
I think in many cases of complaints that disatisfaction is reflected to us. The other thing as mentioned is that they often are trying a feeble attempt and getting something for nothing once the reality of financing the rest of their lives sets in and they realise how much they blew on that one day.
The one thing that stops that dead is to write and hand them a cheque and take the album back off them. In oz, all you have to do is give them a product they are satisfied with or return their money. In doing that you soon determine who is serious and who is not. Only done it a few times but no one has ever taken the cheque, in fact none of them have been able to hand it back quick enough. Once you get to that point you can start to work with them on any real problems and they are much more rational people.
I have been to small claims court numerous times for all sorts of stupid things. The biggest one where the bridezilla was claiming the full 10K the court could award, got shot down in flames so badly the judge nearly had to call the fire brigade. She made all sorts of allegations which I went to various people on the day such as the car drivers etc and got statements from them that proved what she said just wasn't right.
One of her amazing claims was that I hadn't taken photos with her parents before leaving home. Ummm, see this nice 8x10 I have here with you in the middle of these two people, could you tell me who they are and is this or is this not your loungeroom??
Another was that I was late to the reception and they couldn't start till I got there. the Owner of the reception signed a statement for me saying she spil food on her dress and wouldn't come out of the bathroom for over an hour till she washed the stain out and that was what held up the proceedings and that I had arrived at the same time they did and was waiting round the whole time.
I have never had anyone go online to whine as yet ( I'll give it time) but it's not the death knell it's cracked up to be anyhow. the rational people explain their problems and you can fix them. the nutters make that pretty obvious all by themselves and the only thing they achieve is keeping the other nutters away from you.
Unfortunately brides are only that for a while and then they move on to other things to whine about so a whole new fresh batch comes through that have never heard of you.
What makes the threats and complaints of the neurotics is when you think of the situation on reverse. There are shooters around me that are well know for being dodgy but most of them are still making a lot more money than I am and have been for years. If lots of people complaining about their dodgy work hasn't stopped them, 1 neurotic isn't going to stop me when I'm doing the right thing.