# Preventing Bad Customer Reviews (and How to Handle Them)



## PlumbingZone (Feb 10, 2016)

Any plumbing contractor, regardless of how conscientious, can receive a bad review or two. A tired or distracted worker can make a mistake or sometimes a client just wakes up on the wrong side of the bed and decides everything is your fault. Maybe something happens on the job that no reasonable person could have possibly anticipated. A bad review isn’t the end of the world. In fact, if handled properly, it can sometimes be turned to your company’s advantage.

Prevention

As the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So the best course of action is to avoid negative reviews altogether. Always using top quality materials and ensuring expert workmanship will go a long way toward minimizing negative impressions. But there are many aspects of your business relationship with your customers that can contribute to an overall positive experience. Let’s examine a few:

Value

Even if your price may seem a little high, compared to what others charge for similar work, as long as the customer feels like they got everything they were promised (and maybe even a little more), they’re more likely to feel satisfied when the job is done. Since plumbers are so often called upon to deal with emergency issues at any given hour, promptness and cheerful service can mean a lot to your customers. Remember, if it’s an emergency call, they’re already in a bad mood – if you do all you can to turn that around, you’re more likely to be fondly remembered come review time.

Confidence

From the moment of first contact with the customer, building and maintaining a feeling of trust and confidence in your company is important – not just in landing the job, but in leaving them smiling afterward. Confidence is earned through your trustworthiness, punctuality, safety, cleanliness, workmanship, choice of materials and security of their property. All of these qualities play a critical role in the customer being able to feel satisfied when you pack up and leave.

Courtesy

Some plumbing contractors may be quick to point out that it’s unrealistic to expect a crew to tear into a wall or replace a water heater without generating some noise and dust – the majority of clients understand and accept that inevitability. But every effort you and your crew make to minimize the effects of noise, dust, muddy tracks on their floor and a hundred other minor byproducts of plumbing work is likely to earn appreciation and hopefully, a positive review.

Professionalism

As we all know, many customers enjoy watching contractors work. It can be disconcerting to some crew members, and in some circumstances, spectators can be a safety concern. But since they’ll still sneak a peek whenever possible, it’s beneficial if you and your team behave as though you’re always being watched. Horseplay, unsafe practices and vulgarity are never acceptable in a customer environment, and will detract from an otherwise positive impression. 

Proficiency

Most customers enjoy the pleasure of watching an expert at work. Seeing a pile of copper tubing and fittings transformed into the whole-house filtered water system of their dreams sets the mood for appreciating the workmanship of your company’s employees. It can sometimes be advantageous to make a point of inviting the customer to watch one of your craftsmen work their magic. If a particularly intricate task is underway and safety permits, outfit them with the appropriate safety equipment and escort them to a place where they can get a brief glimpse of that magic. 

All the above suggestions can help avoid negative – and subtly lay the groundwork for positive – reviews. And of course, they all help contribute to your company’s efficiency and profitability, so it can be a double win. Still, things do happen. So what do you do if someone leaves a scathing negative public review of your plumbing company?

Overcoming

*Rule #1*: Never simply ignore a bad review. If you think a negative review from a disgruntled customer is harmful, don’t add the impression that your company doesn’t care enough to even respond to it – that can be even more detrimental. In fact, this is where you have an opportunity to not only neutralize a negative review, but to possibly transform the impact into a positive. 

Regardless of how unfounded, unreasonable or exaggerated you think a review is, it’s critical to respond in a fair, dispassionate fashion. Don’t be defensive – be concerned. The easiest way to accomplish this is to set your emotions aside and try to imagine how the customer is seeing the issue. 

Even better: try to put yourself in their position by pretending you don’t know any more than they do about the issue(s) at hand. This may help you better understand why they may have been motivated to write such a negative review.

Communication

Nearly any dissatisfaction issue can be either avoided or resolved with effective communication. If you’re not communicating clearly with your clients from the beginning, you’re leaving your company more vulnerable to negative reviews. If it’s too late for that, here are several damage control steps to take:


•	First, attempt to contact them directly to find out what their concerns were. If you can’t reach them, invite direct contact in your response to the review. Make sure to express your desire to investigate the problem and find an equitable resolution. 

•	If you were able to reach them offline, post a reply on the review site, citing their complaint and either the resolution, if one was already implemented, or your intent to investigate and provide a resolution promptly.

•	Anything you say you’re going to do – make sure to follow through on. If you say you’ll be getting back to them within the week – do it. Sooner is always better. Remember, you’re demonstrating your company’s reliability, not just to the customer, but to everyone who sees that review.

•	Arrive at a fair resolution whenever possible. In this case, more is better. Many times, in a public forum or social media environment, if a company’s response is viewed as equitable or a customer’s original complaint or response to a resolution is seen as unreasonable, other commenters will express that. Such an impression is how you can turn a bad review into a positive testimony for your company’s reputation. 

•	Remember to make direct communication with an unhappy customer your priority whenever possible. Your responses on the review site should be in more of a “reporting” voice. Don’t be sarcastic or dismissive, regardless of the customer’s attitude. Remember: at this point, you’re setting the overall impression for many potential customers.

•	Sometimes, you may not be aware of a negative review until weeks or months after the fact, but the approach should be essentially the same. Don’t be tempted to ignore it. It may still be converted into a positive impression. If a resolution was long since provided, make a point of stating that the issue had been discussed and resolved shortly after it arose – clearly cite the resolution. 

Otherwise, say you just found this review and are attempting to contact the customer to pursue a resolution. Again, follow through. The Internet is forever, so both the problem and the way you handle it will be there to either haunt you or bolster your company’s reputation. Don’t squander the opportunity.​

Finally, if you missed the opportunity to avoid a negative review and got what you deserved, own it. First, fix the customer’s problem. If you take care of your customer and address it properly in your response to the review, hopefully, you’ll see some benefit with others that encounter that review and the way you made things right. Then use the experience to improve the way your company deals with customers going forward.


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## Plumber (Jan 18, 2009)

Huge topic that affects everyone from the owner to the employees to the future customers. Not all bad reviews are bad, though. The con artists are having a hard time when their dirty deeds are exposed to the internet. But putting the legit bad reviews aside (who can argue about a legit peeve?), most bad reviews are just plain petty.

I useta think that negative reviewers were either trust fundees, people who don't work customer service or people who don't work at all. 

Or by people who think that businesses aren't run by humans. A glaring example is the forum rat who bitterly complains about PZ. The rat don't give a flying __ck that people make the forum run. That there are paid employees dependent on the job for food and shelter. Nope, the rats don't care. They want what they want when they want it.

They want what they want when they want it and everyone else can go to hell. That pretty much sums up the vast majority of bad reviews.


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## cjtheplumber (Mar 9, 2012)

Is the customer always right? Or do some take advantage of this?


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## Master Mark (Aug 14, 2009)

The bad reviews usually are petty ones.....
and they are the only ones I let stand without attempting to
get them axed ........

the petty reviews actually make you look more normal...
I got about 70 good reviews on google and maybe 3 bad ones
and they are all from impatient, petty folks who felt I did not 
give them "good phone politeness" while talking to them....

these reviews are actually useful because they make you look more
normal, and they seem to expose the reviewer for what they are
---just a bunch of whiney crybabies..........

I do have a real petty one on my yelp page that I have an axe to grind someday...
I am biding my time......:yes:


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## Turd Herder (Jun 4, 2010)

While I think this article well meaning, its pretty useless advice for the most part. I have lots of examples, but I'll share just one. 


We had a guy call on a Friday night whose water line was broken from his well pump to his house on a Friday night. He did not know what was wrong when he called, he just said he has no water. He was adamant that we go out and fix it right away because he HAD to take a shower. So we told him that we charge $99 to come out on a Friday night and that did not include any work. He agreed to it. So our guy get there and finds a thin wall sdr 9 water pipe that has been broken by a tree falling over and the roots pulled it up. Our guy tells him that that pipe requires special compression fittings to repair that need to be special ordered and wouldn't be available at that time of night. The customer says he NEEDS to take a shower and we need FIX it now or he is going to leave a negative Yelp review. Our man goes through the gamut and tells him he cant make a proper repair but he will try and get something temporary so the guy can shower. Our guy quotes him $195 to make the temporary repair. The customer agrees to it. So our tech uses some pex fittings and hose clamps and get the guys water on, but the fitting has a slow drip. Mind you this is outside, in the woods, on a rainy Friday night. The customer does not come outside at all. Our tech goes to the customer and tells hem he was able to get his water on, but there was a small drip from the repair. The customer threatens us again with a bad yelp review if our tech does not fix it properly. So he tries one more time to repair the leak, but it doesn't work and the fitting continues to weep. The guy is still not happy. So our tech calls me and tells me what is going on and want to know what to do. So I call the guy and try to re-explain the situation to him and tell him this is the best we can do on a Friday night without having access to materials that are not common in our geographical area on a Friday night. Still not happy. I ask him what I can do to make him happy. "Fix my leak", he says. "I thought i called a professional plumber", he says "I'm sorry we dont have access to the proper fitting for that pipe tonight", I say. I tell him he can keep his money, and we will come out on Monday to make a proper repair on his pipe and if he can just bear through the weekend with his slow drip. "Ok?" "Ok." My guy apologizes to the guy and leaves the job after 4.5 hours, including 1 way drive time. 

Guess what, next day, bad yelp review. Not 3 stars or two stars. One star. Said we made a repair to his line and it still leaks. He wrote we quoted him $595 to repair it properly , but then quoted him $195 to repair it that night under a threat of bad yelp review. He wrote we repaired the line and left it leaking. Then he wrote he is going to call a 'Real' plumber. Nothing about his 'free temporary repair'. Nothing about how we were out at night, nothing about us explaining to him we couldn't fix his pipe properly, and of course nothing about him NEEDING to take a shower. I used to lose sleep over these reviews asking what we did wrong or how we could do better. Most customers love the guy that we sent up there. The only thing we can do as a company , I believe, is try to identify these people sooner, hopefully before we get to the job, and be willing to back out of any work for them before we begin it.

These are the types of reviews we get. I don't respond to them. I am tempted to call them out on it. I'm not going to write: thanks for leaving us a review. We will work harder to make your experience with us better blah blah blah. Not going to happen.

Lately what I have witnessed is customers using the threat of a bad yelp or Facebook review to get their invoice lowered days or even weeks after we completed the service. Most times, we review their invoice and give them some money back even though we know we are being blackmailed. Sometimes, though the customer is just such an ahole and so unreasonable, that I we choose just to have the bad review. 

Honestly, at this point in our business, I dont believe the bad yelp reviews have negatively affected our business. There are three plumbers in town here that have great reviews and a 5 star yelp rating. We are not one of them, but I know the three guys who are and they are good guys, but IMO priced too low. They work 6-7 days a week, aren't able to hang onto employees, are single/two man shops , and never seem to grow or do anything other than chase work around. Would I like to have a 5 star yelp business. Sure, but not at the expense of being profitable, having to work 7 days a week, and being able to provide high wages and benefits to my employees.

Rant over.


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## rwh (Dec 17, 2014)

If I had a forum and wanted to avoid negativity, I would conduct a password change differently.


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## ShtRnsdownhill (Jan 13, 2016)

Im running out of spots to hide the bodies of bad customers...........


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## Plumber (Jan 18, 2009)

ShtRnsdownhill said:


> Im running out of spots to hide the bodies of bad customers...........


lol--so how many customers have you murdered?


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## ShtRnsdownhill (Jan 13, 2016)

Plumber said:


> lol--so how many customers have you murdered?


If I tell you, Id have to kill you...:laughing:


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## lloydclaycomb (Jul 29, 2016)

Well, first thing is to not mess up to make sure no negative reviews. But sometimes some customers are just too short tempered they'll even mention that your company's customer support took my name incorrectly and so on.


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## AdvancedPlumb (Aug 14, 2016)

Unfortunately you will get a bad review here and there. I find that it is just easier to bury the bad review with 2 or 3 good ones within a few months. We offer a $5 discount in the bill if they will give us a review on google or BBB right there on the spot. It really helps get those positive ones up. We try to get as many as possible at [removed]


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## rwh (Dec 17, 2014)

Please post an intro. Please remove the link to your website.


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## GREENPLUM (Jul 27, 2008)

rwh said:


> Please post an intro. Please remove the link to your website.


Forum police wannabe


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## rwh (Dec 17, 2014)

GREENPLUM said:


> rwh said:
> 
> 
> > Please post an intro. Please remove the link to your website.
> ...


Whatever dude. He is just link dropping.


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## plumberkc (Jun 23, 2011)

AdvancedPlumb said:


> Unfortunately you will get a bad review here and there. I find that it is just easier to bury the bad review with 2 or 3 good ones within a few months. We offer a $5 discount in the bill if they will give us a review on google or BBB right there on the spot. It really helps get those positive ones up. We try to get as many as possible at [removed]


A bad link with "spam" as part of the hyperlink text is almost like a bad review. The best way to avoid those is to follow community guidelines and only post links to your site in your signature. 




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## GREENPLUM (Jul 27, 2008)

plumberkc said:


> A bad link with "spam" as part of the hyperlink text is almost like a bad review. The best way to avoid those is to follow community guidelines and only post links to your site in your signature.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


And you quoted it! , smh


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