The moment they say they will leave a bad review
I do not want you to have had that experience. Tell me what happened, and I will tell you what I can do today.
Threatening a review will not get you anywhere.
That should not have happened. I can have someone back out tomorrow morning to put it right.
Go ahead and leave it, then.
You are free to write whatever you want. I would just like the chance to fix it first.
If you post that, I will reply publicly.
What to do in the first hour
- Write down what happened in the customer's words, not only the tech's version.
- Offer a specific fix and a specific time, not 'someone will look into it'.
- Call back when you said you would, even if the answer is not ready yet.
- Tell the tech what the customer said before the return visit, so nobody walks in defensive.
- Never offer anything in exchange for not posting or for changing a review. Review sites do not allow it, and it reads worse than the review.
If the review is already posted
I am sorry this happened. I have called to put it right and I would like to finish that. Please call me directly.
This customer is not telling the whole story.
Thanks for letting me fix it. If you feel differently now, you are welcome to update what you wrote.
Take the review down and I will refund you.
The three ways this goes wrong
- Answering the threat instead of the problem. It turns a complaint into a contest.
- Promising a fix and then going quiet. The review gets written in the silence.
- Arguing in a public reply. Everyone who reads the review reads the reply too.
The threat is not the problem, it is the alarm. Fix what set it off, quickly and specifically, and the review either never gets written or becomes the story of how you put it right.
I answer the phones for contractors, and when an upset customer calls I take down exactly what happened and book the fix on the same call. callbobai.com