I completed a job for a residential client two years ago and had no contact since then. Recently, she left four negative reviews online, claiming that we never returned her calls, overcharged her, and didn’t seal the concrete patio.
In reality, we provided her a discount at the end of the job, and she never reached out to us or our employees. After finishing the job, she was so pleased she even tipped my employees.
During our recent meeting, I maintained professionalism, but she asked me to leave her property and then called me back when I was driving away asking me to come back, I came back and she started explaining that recently she had fallen and hit her head. She demanded we address the concrete issue and other problems caused by another contractor, all while insisting the negative reviews remain online, even after we resolve everything.
Unfortunately, she’s an 80-year-old client who seems to be experiencing cognitive issues. I’m seeking advice on how to handle the situation and get the negative reviews removed without making matters worse. I feel like any response to her bad reviews explains cognitive decline is going to make me look worse. Any guidance would be appreciated.
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Although she is not a “Karen”, I love when we get negative reviews from them.
Simply respond with all the factual information, including the steps you took to provide them service and/or information.
We have folks tell us they came to us for how we handled poor behaving patients.
You might be able to ask if she has anyone helping her that you can talk to. They might be able to discretely remove it if she’s just being batty.
No one legit has all good reviews. You can’t make everyone happy-some people are just unreasonable, or assholes, and this situation is yet another possibility with this poor old lady. I make it a point to respond to the reviews in a calm, matter of fact and earnest manner. Let people draw their own conclusions. I think I learn more about a biz by reading owner responses to mixed reviews, personally. Having all 5 star reviews look suspicious to me.
Question for ya, I only have all five star reviews and I have almost one hundred over four years. Most of the reviews go in depth and are at least a paragraph. I have about 20 competitors in my city and they usually have about 30 to 70 reviews and they have a rating of about 4.5 - 4.7 on Google. Am I in danger of someone thinking my reviews are fake?
I would 100% assume you had bought every single review honestly.
Yes.
One hundred five star reviews seems suspicious. Even if you just got the odd 4 star review from someone who only gives 5 stars if the service is basically giving it away for free.
Even when I get bad reviews my response as the owner is always the same line, “Thanks for the great review!”
You are gonna get bad reviews. Nothing you can do about it. Google won’t take them down.
I got a bad review that was based on my race and I contacted google immediately with the reason and they took it down on the spot.
This sub doesn’t like to hear it but there are services that will help with getting the Google reviews taken down. Obviously it’s not 100% guaranteed because it’s still google but it can help.
Depends on how truthful you are being. If she really is that bad off she may have a caretaker family member you could talk with.
Just respond to the review with positivity, empathy, and honesty. Do not address her condition directly, simply say that there was an unfortunate misunderstanding after the job was completed, and you are reasonably certain that the issue was not anything that had been addressed by the former contract, and you wish her the best, and you welcome any opportunity to work with her to make her happy, etc etc. Be kind, be positive, make it somewhat interesting to read.
As a prospective client, I always read the business responses. They really show the character of a business.
As other have said. Be professional and respond like a robot would. In fact, why not ask one! Keep it short. Also, try to get a heap of positive ones - they drown out negative reviews which you WILL get regularly.
Ignore the negative reviews and encourage positive reviews and it shouldn’t be a problem. If 1 bad review is that much of a big deal you have a bigger problem than just that review.
And this is why a fair amount of people have disdain towards Boomers
You mean old people? You’ll be one eventually, if you’re lucky. And the younger generations will feel the same way about you. And you’ll hate their music and their work ethic. It’s as old as time.
Not old people. Boomers.
I like their music and work ethic actually.
I don’t like how they demand services rendered by the government and expect them to be free. In a capitalistic society for better or worse money will get your services faster.
I am sick of them wanting something special and then not paying for it. If you want it then pay for it. If you have someone else pay for it then you abdicate your ability to whine.
Can’t have it both ways.
I got a bad review on google. Someone claimed they called our office and no one answered. He was offended that he got our voice mail and didn’t leave a message. He was most likely looking for services we don’t offer. I replied to the review apologizing and offering to set a call time and kindly suggested we don’t offer the services he’s looking for. I also appealed to Google under three grounds that he wasn’t a customer. Google rejected our appeal and he never contacted me.
Cest la vie? Not much you can do about bad reviews. You have to foster enough good reviews to overwelm the bad.
After they leave negative review you block the number and dont do work for them again!!! Yes respond to the review. State the facts. All facts including customer was mad i dont do free warranty work for another contractor. Customers have to learn they cant be a keyboard ranger and still get work done!!
In reality we…… just copy paste that part in a comment response. And leave it that. If you work on cultivating positive reviews then this one won’t matter.
I would just respond with exactly what you did to remedy the issue and how you tried to work with her without being accusatory or suggesting anything about her mental state or personal info. Don’t focus on getting them removed. Whenever I see negative reviews with a professional response from the business owner it let’s me know that the client was the problem. There are a lot of people out there who are going to leave negative reviews. All you can do is address them in a polite and professional manner and move on. Trying to remove them shows lack of integrity IMO.
Negative reviews can be good. You do enough business, you won’t please everyone, no matter what you do. Respond professionally and move on.
Suck it up. Leave a non-emotional response if you must, but bad reviews are part of business. Your first instinct should not be to get a bad review removed, even if it’s from a person in cognitive decline. It should be to get more good reviews so that the one bad review isn’t a big deal.
I would just respond with an answer to the review(s) so that any prospective reader can make up their own mind. Something along the lines of: “We revisited and reinspected the work done. Unfortunately, as explained during the on-site visit, the damage/problem has been caused by xyz. We understand this is a difficult situation for you, but we unfortunately cannot execute these repairs free of charge as requested by you. Let us know if you want us to provide you a quote for the repairs.”
This is good. But I would also recommend saying the work was done two years ago and our inspection (last month, last week: to show they have replied to this woman’s contact) determined that the damage was caused by xyz.
Agree with others who say not to mention the woman’s potential mental health decline.