The RIGHT way to handle a negative review

Aaron Gaynor has built ECO into a plumbing, electrical, and HVAC business that he projected would reach about $113 million in revenue this year.

And when I spoke with him about customer reviews, he told me every one-star review gets emailed directly to him. He stays on the email chain as his team works through the concern.

Even at that size, he wants to know what happened and what his team is doing about it.

Allison Belles, one of our executive coaches, emphasized this at Endless Customers Live: customer feedback needs to reach the people who can improve the business.

Writing a thoughtful reply is a good start, but what changes afterward matters so much more.

The next time a negative review comes in, here’s how I’d handle it:

1. Find out what happened. Check the records, talk to the people involved, and contact the customer privately. Listen before defending yourself. Own any mistakes and work with them on a fair resolution.
2. Fix what allowed it to happen. Ask whether the problem exposed a gap in your process. If a promised callback never happened, who owned it? What would have caught it? Give one person responsibility for the fix, a deadline, and a way to check that it’s working.
3. Update your public response. Once you’ve made the change, explain what you actually did, without sharing private customer details. If you added a callback owner and an overdue alert, say that. The next person reading it should be able to see what changed.

Even an occasional bad review can help you catch a problem you didn’t know you had.

If you’re not sure how to work through this with your team, bring the review to your coach or reach out to us. We’ll help you figure out what needs to change.