Around the world, businesses have grown frustrated with how easily customers can leave them negative reviews. Sites like Yelp, Google, Twitter, and more all offer platforms on which it is easy to share experiences at a business. What’s more, consumers increasingly use these online reviews to decide where they will spend their money. In other words, a bad online review could have lasting effects on a business’ bottom line.
There are two bits of good news here. First, virtually every business—even the ones that are nearly perfect—will have at least a couple of bad reviews. Second, with a couple of steps, it’s possible to turn negative reviews into an opportunity to demonstrate exceptional service.
Here are the steps you should take if you get a bad online review one you become a car mechanic.
1: After You Become a Mechanic, Consider Whether Negative Reviews Are Right
Receiving criticism is rarely fun, but thoughtfully considering feedback is one of the best ways to improve. That’s why, whenever you get a negative review, your first action should be to review the incident in question and see whether you were somehow at fault.
Perhaps your tone was unfriendly when you were discussing a problem with a customer’s car, or you dismissed one of their major concerns as being unimportant. If you do discover you acted in a way that you don’t like, don’t beat yourself up about it! Mistakes do happen, and it’s how you deal with the mistakes that really counts. It’s also important to remain calm if you determine you did nothing wrong. Customers have bad days, and it’s entirely possible that you were just an accidental outlet for their frustration.
2: Right or Wrong, Take the Time to Address Complaints Politely
You may not want to become a mechanic to spend your time addressing customer complaints online, but taking time to do so can help improve your online reputation.
If you believe you were in the wrong, apologize for what happened. If you do not believe you were wrong, and that the complaint arose from a misunderstanding, apologize for the customer’s poor experience. For both of these situations, it can be helpful to offer a discount on future services, or maybe a free oil change.
If the complaint is totally unfair, it can be appropriate to respond and point that out. Remain polite and calm, and stick to the facts. You will prove your expertise and professionalism—big factors when people are looking for a mechanic—and also discredit the negative review.
3: After Mechanic Training, Be Proactive and Encourage Customers to Leave Good Reviews
Research shows that people are more likely to share bad experiences than good ones. To combat this, consider encouraging your customers to share their positive experiences online. Enough good reviews will help drown out the bad ones.
You can do something as simple as leaving a “Find us on Yelp” sticker in your front window, or you can encourage happy customers to leave a review on their review website of choice. If they’re really happy with you, they might be eager to use this opportunity to say thanks.
Of course, one of the keys to this strategy is to ensure that the service you deliver is of high quality. Use your mechanic training to ensure you do good work, and always remain professional when interacting with customers. If you don’t give customers a reason to complain about you, they probably won’t.
Be reflective, polite, and proactive in dealing with feedback, and the online reviews for you and your work should stay more good than bad. Odds are decent that this could drive more business your way for years to come!
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