Friday 5: ways bad reviews help

This week’s Friday 5 comes from Marketing Pilgrim: 5 ways negative reviews can actually help you.

I can’t say enough about tip #3:

Fix the problem. Research suggests that a customer will tell ten people about a negative experience with a business. However, if you fix the problem to their satisfaction, they’ll tell twenty people how happy they are!

This tip is talking about evangelical customers. I’m one of them. If I love a product, I tell everyone I know. But, if I have an awful experience, I’ll tell the world. In fact, I’ll even tell my blog, as I did with Soapopular.

Just recently, I wrote to a coffee shop to tell them that their clerk made fun of me and then super-heated my child’s mac and cheese. I could have just let it go and never made a purchase there again. But I did them a favour by writing to them and explaining why they’d lost my business. I haven’t heard from them, though. So now I’m telling all my associates why they should avoid that shop. I’d estimate they’ve lost thousands of dollars in business from me alone.

So, if someone says something bad about you, embrace it as a learning opportunity. And get thicker skin.