How to handle negative feedback

Have you ever received negative feedback recently? Well, It’s actually a blessing in disguise.
Remember our ancestors used to say, “It’s good to have a critic neighbor”. Our ancestors indeed had some wisdom, didn’t they?


Just when it’s the time when we are most expecting appreciation from our recent customers they do come with negative feedback instead.

We have all seen folks not knowing how to respond so they just keep silent throughout the call/visit and their faces get swollen & red as if the customer has expressed some personal issues to them. No! They are just being honest about the services offered by your company.

So just take a chill pill and quickly reach an agreement with the customer. Thus, make them feel that you are on their side and exchange some gestures like being empathic but ending with some laughter for sure.

How should we respond?

  1. Make no rush to respond: Listen to them actively and make notes, which parts did we fail them by taking them for granted?
  2. Appreciate: Thanks them for notifying us (remember they could have kept it with themselves or told it to someone else probably your next potential customer)
  3. Take responsibility: If someone has taken the time to call or meet you and address their concerns or if a customer has left feedback or a bad review that negatively impacts your business, it’s important that we respond to these negative reviews with a sincere apology. When we take responsibility and offer a sincere apology we can convert the customer that is posting negative feedback into a loyal customer or brand advocate that may be willing to post a positive review or provide positive feedback in the future.
  4. Be adaptive to change: Revisit your processes to ensure these points are well addressed in your processes/business workflow.
  5. Seek additional feedback, 360 degrees: Go ahead and invite your customer for a coffee or just call them again to thank them and mention, that you have amended your process to take care of that specific thing which caused them not so well experience. Whether they start a new project with you or not at least they won’t talk bad about you to others. When it comes to reference checks they would instead tell others that you are evolving as a business and growing wiser with each project experience.

Won’t this little change and practice will make us stronger and smarter with each negative feedback?