Dealing With a Bad Consumer Product Review

A consumer product review is a vital part of ensuring the quality of a product. After all, who knows more about how it really works than the people who buy it? A consumer product review can be an invaluable asset when it comes to selling products and services. A customer recommendation will go a long way toward helping endorse a product and make it appealing to other consumers. On the other hand, a bad consumer product review can bring sales to a screeching halt.

It’s fear of a bad consumer product review that inspires many sites to remove product reviews from their web pages altogether. If consumers don’t have a chance to express their opinion, they won’t have the chance to give a bad product review. The problem with that logic is that consumers may assume sites that don’t include a consumer product review have something to hide. If they didn’t, wouldn’t they give their customers the chance to let them know what they think?

The best way to promote sales and still establish feelings of friendship and trust with your consumers isn’t to eliminate the chance of a bad consumer product review, it’s to deal with it. What stores do you respect more, those that sweep their customer complaints under the rug so as not to accumulate bad publicity or those that are open and honest and willing to fix their mistakes?

Here are some quick and easy tips to dealing with a bad consumer product review that will help you to keep your customers happy, your reputation intact and your consumer product review forum working the way it’s supposed to:

1) Always ensure that when you post the option to make a consumer product review you include a space for them to give you their contact information (preferably only by e-mail). Make this mandatory; you can’t fix a problem if you can’t reach the person who is having it.

2) Troll your review forums daily to locate bad reviews immediately.

3) As soon as you find a bad consumer product review, make note of it in your records. Include the consumer having the problem, the product or service that they purchased and the issues they are having. Chances are good that if the problem is associated with the product it will pop up again.

4) Note whether their complaint deals with your product or your service. Many consumers love their products, but if they have had a difficult time making a transaction with the company involved they will walk away unhappy.

5) Contact the consumer immediately and offer to work with them to correct the situation. Treat these complaints the same way you would a customer complaint if you were working in a physical store and they were able to speak to you face to face-assume that the customer is always right and do what you have to do to leave them happy with the situation. This may mean a refund, a repair (free of charge) or a product switch or upgrade.

6) Encourage them to post a recounting of their experience with you on the consumer product review forum to let other consumers know that you are a seller who is willing to do what it takes to do the job right