Should you Respond To Negative Feedback?

[itslauracrow]

When a customer leaves negative feedback is it best to leave a public response or just leave well alone?

Obviously it's very upsetting to get negative feedback when you spend a lot of time and love in hand making something & you want to try & put it right. The customer complained that shipping took several weeks even though I clearly stated in the listing it would take up to three weeks as it wasn't in stock at the moment.

[PaperCreationsbyDeb]

I've had one negative feedback, so far, in all my years here and it was related to shipping. I just let it be and sent a convo to the customer to apologize, again, for the lost package and reminded her it had resulted in her receiving a full refund and a prior apology.
Nothing more I could have done except make it worse with a response to her feedback.

[Former_Member]

I think sellers should reply to negative feedback, but only after a few days to cool off or think of a professional response. Of course, no one wants to receive negative feedback, but a positive professional response looks great to prospective buyers in how a seller handles a bad situation.

[heartsabustin]

I do, but only after I've attempted to deal with the customer in a polite and professional manner. If they refuse to respond or won't change it, then I leave a response. Once the response is left, no one can make any changes. I think in your case, a response would be okay.

If they're being abusive, I would have no problem with getting Etsy to remove it.

[itslauracrow]

Thank you for all the advice.
So should I speak to the customer privately first?

[Paintspiration]

I would speak to the customer first. There is a chance you can work out the issue and the buyer can change the negative review. If the buyer doesn't want to change the review, I would definitely respond, in a professional way of course. As a buyer, negative reviews don't necessarily bother me because I know there can be difficult buyers or situations, but I do judge the shop by their response. I like to hear how they handle difficult situations.

[Former_Member]

I agree with Julie, give yourself some time to come up with a professional response. Whether it's a convo or response on your feedback, make sure you give yourself time before you respond.

Related question: if the negative feedback is due to the shipping time which was clearly in the listing, will etsy remove it? The customer is in the wrong, will etsy remove their feedback? Just curious.

[TinyTiptoesBoutique]

I've never had any explicitly negative feedback in either of my shops, but I did have one slightly less than pleased customer in my other shop due to a mistake that was completely my fault, but we convo'd first, and I apologized and refunded the order, and she ended up amending her feedback. And I just left a note with an apology again and a reassurance that I would do my best to make sure that didn't happen again, and everything seems to have turned out fine! I always do my best to make sure my customers are pleased in the first place, tho!

[maydaylabels]

Etsy doesn't remove feedback for reasons like that, just for abusive language, complaints about Etsy as a whole, and revelations of personal/private information (like putting your phone # in the review).

[PaperBoundLove]

I think you should definitely respond. I checked your listing description and the negative feedback about it. I think you are not in the wrong, especially about the shipping time. About it being different, any handmade buyer would know that each item will be slightly different. You aren't in the wrong about it too, but I guess you can include in the listing that each item is unique. (:

You have a lovely shop and I'm just glad that negative feedback didn't make your shop's rating less than 5 stars.

xx

[BlackCatStudio98]

I would offer the customer the option of a refund or a discount and then hopefully she would change the feedback. If nothing changes after talking to the customer I would respond to the feedback in a professional way.

Do the pictures vary a lot or just slightly? If they vary a lot then I would include pictures of other variations and state in your listing that the pictures may be different than the ones you have in your listing.

I received one 3 star review and I did respond to it. Mainly because the buyer made me so mad. She had ordered a ready to ship item and a custom item and wanted them shipped together. The custom order was a nightmare because I made a couple of variations for her and she would not tell me which one she wanted. It was a very strange transaction (I will cancel any future order from her), she kept asking me questions and wouldn't answer my questions. It went on and on and I should have just canceled her order. I finally was able to send her order, and then she said in her review that she had ordered the item on such and such a date, but never received it until that day which was three weeks later. I couldn't let it go, so I replied to the negative review and explained the delay in shipping. I waited a couple of days to respond so that I wouldn't type anything I would regret!

[WilliamsGiftshop]

It depends.
If the negative review is called for, you swallow it and learn from it.
Or you could reply with a sincere appology and an explanation on how you are going to avoid your mistake in the future.

If you think injustice was done, you reply.
But keep it polite and professional, don't let your emotions speak.
Of course you want to contact the customer too (if that hasn't been done yet) and try to solve the issue.

PS: never offer something for sale that is 'not in stock'!
That calls for trouble.
Have your customers place custom orders instead, that you list and they purchase once it is ready to ship.

[purplewyvernjewels]

I recently had a 1 star review (my first ever one), so I know how you feel. The first thing I did was to contact the customer with regards the order, and in my case I offered them to return the item for a full refund. My customer hasn't replied at all to me, so after a number of days without any response from my customer I replied to the review as there was some inaccurate information stated about the product. I tried to keep the wording polite and as professional as I could, which is why I took several days to think over what to write.

Once you respond to a review you can't go back and change it, it can only be deleted, and your customer can't change their review either. So you need to think carefully about if/when to reply to a review, as it stays locked when a reply is left.

[Kezylou]

I had a one star review from a customer who said the bag she bought was very nice but too small. I contacted her to say she could return it but heard nothing back. All sizes are clearly written in my listings. I waited over a week for her to reply to my convo and when she didn't I wrote a response.

It's definitely worth waiting til any upset or anger has died down before writing a response. Unfortunately non etsy sellers don't think about sending convos before they send bad reviews or think about how personal it feels when they don't like something that we have put work and love into.

[Mollymoojewels]

Laura, I would do whatever I could to rectify the situation first. If you are left with the negative feedback I would respond with your side of the situation, just the facts and apologies. Perhaps you have offered the lady a refund or postage refund to pacify her, which you should mention in your response.

I purchase a good deal on etsy and I do read sellers feedback so I would like to see how you resolved the issue. Unfortunately, It could make or break another sale for you.

Best of luck

[CozyDawg]

Remember that when you respond to the feedback, the client will not be able to change the rating or review. I would take it offline, try and resolve the issue by private convo. Many times they will edit their review and rating. Myself, I do not like reading a shop owners response to negative feedback. It never comes off well.

[Former_Member]

I received a heartbreaking review once - thankfully only once. But I researched the person. Their twitter feed quickly showed that she was really quite nasty to many people. I ended up feeling sorry for her.

I wrote to her - very nicely - and offered to help you find something she liked - asked her to change her review - even if she did not like the product, rate my customer service.

I think I killed her with kindness!

I shipped a new package free of charge, and she changed the review.

To me it was worth it - what she originally wrote could have taken down my shop it was so harsh!

[umeone]

How much weight is put into reviews? I received a negative review from a customer that was a mess,at first review, no star, she said she couldn't get in touch of me or Etsy. I then contacted her and turns out she was confused as to how to contact me, she had found the same item on that other site and with free shipping, so after 3 weeks she wanted (and I gave her) a full refund. She changed the review but, still left me 3 Stars. Then I got another review shortly after of 4 Stars, I tried to contact them to see what they were unhappy about and what I could do to make their experience 5 Star, I never heard back from them.
So now, I was averaging at least 12 sales a month and last October was a good month for me but, I haven't had a sale since September 26th. I've been listing items, using Promoting Ads, Team Treasuries, Twitter and Pinterest, cleaning up titles, tags and pictures to no avail. My views are up, stats are good. The only thing different are those 2 less than perfect reviews.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[StuckOnSilver]

Definitely add that each one is unique! There will be differences because they are handmade!