Dealing with Negative Comments and Hate

An unavoidable part of the internet and social media, is negative reviews and comments. The way you deal with them can make or break your brand. So how best can you react to them?

1. Dealing with hate

It’s important to differentiate hate from other negative comments. Hate is characterised by being non-constructive, usually made by suspicious profiles that may not be your target audience. This category of comments should be completely ignored - without a further thought and the best way of dealing with hate comments is to block, mute and report - after all, if they are doing this to your business, they may be doing it to others.

“This nail design is tacky”, “Horrible” or “These brows are god-awful” are just a few examples of the hate many beauty professionals may face everyday. Responding to these can lead to an unnecessary argument - and it will spur haters on to keep posting as they can see there is a reaction.

Removing these comments will also have a better effect on your client, who may be subconsciously affected by reading the negative comments about your work.

2. Dealing with Negative Reviews

Negative reviews usually occur after an interaction or service, where the client is dissatisfied with the service they have received. Responding to these is the hardest, but it’s important to step into the client’s shoes - and also consider how other clients may look at this review and your response - it would be best not to respond in a way that could deter future clients. When reading these, your client may be emotional, so attempt to distance yourself to identify the issues at hand.

Therefore, when responding to negative reviews, you should be customer conscious and put your customer first - as negative reviews can have a large impact on your business. Avoid coming in with a mindset of “how can I defend myself and offer nothing”.

First, respond as soon as possible, this will both ease the reviewer and your customers seeing the review. Acknowledge the issue that your customer has had, and sincerely apologise. If you believe that you are not at fault, explain your side of the story (politely and respectfully), and while you may not be able to offer the treatment to correct this for free, offer them a discount or an upgrade for their next visit instead if they decide to trust you again. If they really don’t want to come back - consider a refund. This will turn around a negative message where you are refusing to redo a service for free to correct, or refusing a refund - to sound positive, as you will be offering something else, showing great customer service!

If you believe you are at fault for the issue that has occurred leading to the negative review, again acknowledge the issue and apologise profusely - but then offer something that goes above and beyond your service - and give the client a choice. Customer satisfaction is key, and you just may gain a customer back who will share their experience with others now that it was made positive.