E-Commerce companies: How to deal with 1-star reviews?
Attacking brand perception at its root with technology
You are the CMO or COO of an e-commerce business. Or the head of customer success. Or the customer support executive. Now, after years of hard work, your brand is now getting good traction online. Your brand is growing and you are looking forward to the problem of having lots and lots of customers. But one thing is bothering you — the online customer reviews.
Your brand being a growing one, any bad rating at this point of time could create a negative perception. 1-star ratings online could deter new customers to trying your products. But, once a 1-star rating is given online you cannot do much about it.
The problem with online reviews today
Ratings and reviews were built as a way for consumers to give feedback about a business. But then, customers use online review sites today not only to review but also to air grievances. And many times, the problem for the business is that these grievances are aired on the review sites even before the customer support gets to know about the problem!
Many e-commerce businesses operate with channel partners to fulfill their product/service promises and there arises another problem. Let’s say that there is a delay in delivering a product, then the customer reviews your brand, not the delivery partner. Let’s say the customer did not understand your product warranty related information. Then again there is a bad rating on your brand’s name. A problem with installation or post-purchase service by a partner, again a bad rating for you and you alone.
Once your customer support reaches out to such an audience and even solves their problem, the 1-star rating is still there. Because the review is left before the problem is solved, it remains even after the problem is solved. So basically, your brand has no fair chance to respond and correct a review today. Even if the individual customer is happy with the resolution, to the rest of the world the customer had a 1-star experience. And that’s all matters to them.
What can be done?
For one, you can be more transparent about your customer support process with all your consumers. Showing consumers how you handle a complaint real time, could greatly boost and improve brand perception.
But then, doing so has its own set of problems today —
- You cannot have private conversations on review sites today to contact the customer real time and have a quick conversation.
- There are limitations to what kind of response you can share on the review sites regarding the customer’s problem owing to privacy reasons.
- You still cannot control how consumers behave post resolution — they might or might not change the original review. Most of the times, the original 1-star rating remains on the internet, forever.
This is exactly why we built No No No.
No No No is a “resolution review” platform where customers rate and review the way businesses solve their problems.
On No No No, consumers do not just review the business, they review the resolution that they got for the problem they faced with the brand.
This is how it works —
- Customers can register their consumer problems or “file a complaint” as we call it, on the platform.
- The brand in question gets notified on the problem and is given direct access to the customer.
- Both the customer and the brand can message each other, exchange information — all on the platform.
- And once the problem gets resolved, the user rates the brand on the whole experience — including the resolution process.
- While brands have a choice to communicate with consumers privately, many also publicly comment on the complaint. This gives other consumers a chance to see how fast the brand responds and how it deals with typical consumer problems.
Right now, consumer-focused e-commerce brands like Mapiful, Houzz etc. are using the platform to be more transparent with their Customer support process. In fact, e-commerce companies like Mapiful plan to display the “No No No resolution score” on their website — showing clearly to their consumers that they are customer focused and are ready to go any distance to give a great product experience.
Even traditional retailers like Costco, Kroger etc. are using No No No to address this exact problem of online reviews today.
And on the other side, consumers are finding it way more easy and productive to engage in conversations with brands on No No No regarding their product/service problems.
Customer reviews need not be a zero-sum game. It is possible to give a great customer experience and be known for the positive outcomes online.
By focusing on transparency and capturing such experiences, traditional and growing brands have the chance to convert product/service problems to great customer experiences.
If you are an e-commerce business having trouble with 1-star reviews, then we should talk. Reach out to us at customercare@nonono.com and we will immediately respond.
