Problem Solvers: How I Won This Angry Customer’s Business Back

EMILY: I’m Emily Washcovick, Yelp’s small business expert. Typically, I tell a story featuring conversations with a business owner, as well as someone who wrote them a Yelp review. But this week we’re doing things a little differently. I wanted to share an episode from another Entrepreneur Media podcast – Problem Solvers. The host, and editor in chief of Entrepreneur Magazine – Jason Feifer is actually the one who came up with the original concept for Behind the Review, and showed me how to use podcast storytelling to highlight incredible things happening between local businesses and their consumers that translates to an online review and overall great online reputation.

I’ve stayed connected to Jason over the past two-plus years and often listen to his different podcasts or read his newsletter knowing I’ll get great takeaways and learnings that I can leverage to help the entrepreneurs in my network, or even myself and my own professional development. When I heard this episode of Problem Solvers, I knew I wanted to share it with you all. It’s titled “How I Won This Angry Customer’s Business Back,” and while it’s Jason’s first hand experience with an email from an angry customer vs. an online review in a public forum, there is so much you can take away and apply to your business’s online reviews, and how you handle angry customers. And a bonus? Resolving a customer’s anger or frustration in a public forum can play to your benefit. A recent survey commissioned by Yelp found that 56% of respondents say an owner replying to customers’ reviews would make them trust the business more. And, 87% of review readers say they’re more likely to look past a critical review if they see that the business has responded and adequately addressed the issue. So remember that! Sure it may be frustrating to hear negative feedback online, when they could have come to you directly, but it’s also an opportunity to create and build trust with potential consumers who are checking you out. How you respond is a reflection of your customer service practices. And it can help you stand out. 

I’m going to share some tips at the end of the episode for how I recommend you respond to reviews both publicly and privately on Yelp, and in both positive and critical situations. Reviews can be a powerful marketing tool and engaging with them can be your superpower. But as Jason points out, it can be really frustrating – and I want to validate that. You’re allowed to be bothered when you get critical feedback, but what you don’t want to be is silent. And as you’ll hear Jason point out – you could ignore it, or chalk it up to people just going online to complain and hide behind a keyboard. But in all honesty, that’s not the reality when it comes to Yelp. Nearly 75% of the reviews on the site are neutral to positive, and we have more 5 star reviews than 1, 2, and 3 star reviews combined. But when someone says something negative about you and your business it stings! Instead of being upset and feeling helpless, you can catch them off guard by taking action.

Let’s get right into it and hear how Jason has found you can retain angry people (the people I would argue are emotionally invested and therefore potentially your biggest fans and advocates in the long run).

JASON: From Entrepreneur Media, this is Problem Solvers. A show in which entrepreneurs do what entrepreneurs do best – solve unexpected problems in their business. I’m Jason Feifer, the editor in chief of Entrepreneur Magazine.

Do you hear from angry people? Angry people who don’t like a thing that you made or don’t like a thing that you sell or don’t like something you wrote or posted on social media or whatever. They’re angry and they’re angry at you, and they’re very, very loud about it. Well, I bet it’s pretty common. Uh, it’s something I get a fair amount and, lemme tell you about an email that I got not long ago.

It started with the subject line ‘waste’.  Just, just waste. So I opened it up immediately and the email began with the word. Really? And then it went on to Insult Entrepreneur Magazine and to complain in some very vulgar terms about an article we recently published. It wasn’t a controversial article, it was just a profile of an interesting entrepreneur that this person really didn’t like, and the writer concluded by saying, ‘I won’t be resubscribing.’

So what would you do if you got this? I have experimented quite a bit with how to respond to these kinds of emails because, you know, they come in and you, you could just ignore ’em. Sure, nothing bad will happen. You could argue, but it doesn’t really get you anywhere. And I wanted to know, is there some way to just calm people down and maybe just get them to not take action?  To stay subscribed, to stay listening, to stay, whatever. Are we able to retain angry people? It is possible I will have you know, because it is what I did with this particular email, and I’m going to share with you what I wrote to them and the lessons I have learned from navigating this kind of anger.

So that’s what we’re gonna do on this episode of Problem Solvers. It is how to win back the angry customer, or at least how to just calm people down. And I am soon going to share exactly how I engaged with this very angry email. But first, let’s talk about anger cuz you know we all get an amount of it directed at us, and I would say that we generally reply in one of two ways.

Either number one, we ignore it. After all, what’s the point in arguing with angry people or number two, we might argue back either to convince them that they’re wrong or at least to try to preserve what we have In this case, for me, it might have been to convince them to resubscribe to the magazine, but here’s what I have come to like.

As long as a person seems reasonable, that is to say they’re not some crazy conspiracy theorist looking for a fight. You know, they’re just angry. Even if they’re kind of irrationally angry. Then I reply as fast as possible and I never argue with them, and I never ask for their business back. I just show them that I’ve heard them. Why? Because of two theories that I have. 

Theory number one: More than anything in the world, people just want to feel heard. And theory number two: Angry people do not expect a response. In fact, their low expectations fuels their anger. They don’t think they’ll be heard, and therefore it’s like they’re showing up at a door that will never open. And what can you do if nobody will answer the door? Well, you make a ton of noise, so at least they can hear you inside. That is why I swing the door open quickly. It startles them. 

So here’s what I wrote. I wrote thanks for the feedback and I’m sorry that piece upset you. I’m always interested in what readers have to say, so if you don’t mind sharing additional feedback, I’d like to know, have you been dissatisfied with other stories in the magazine or was it simply your distaste for this one piece that has led you to the decision not to re-subscribe? Then I went on to explain our perspective, not in a defensive way, but rather just to show this guy who was writing me this angry email that despite what he thought about the article in question, it was not created with malice.

And by the way, I’m gonna just back up to some of the language that I wrote there, cuz I started that email back to them – thanks for the feedback and I’m sorry that the piece upset you.  I posted this on my newsletter, which by the way, you can get by going to jasonfeifer.com/newsletter. And, somebody wrote me and said they really loved my approach, but didn’t love the word ‘upset’ because it sort of infantilized the person. You know, it sort of was almost like I was treating them as, like a hysterical person. Maybe, I’m sorry the piece disappointed you or something else like that would’ve been better and that’s fair feedback. But anyway, I used the word upset. Okay, so let’s try to get inside the mind of the person who is angry and writing to us.

Here’s the thing, people often take things personally, which is exhausting and often unreasonable, but, you know, it does carry some kind of logic. When we create something, we are asking people to give us a little of their time. And time is their most valuable resource. Time is a fraction of their lives never to be regained. If they feel that their time isn’t well spent, that feels like robbery. That is personal. Now to be clear, I am not making excuses for people to be rude or worse. People need to calm down. Calm down people! And some people cannot be reasoned with and therefore they are not worth the bother. But if we are going to win people over who are upset, then we have to at least start by recognizing where they’re coming from.

We might not agree with them or where they are coming from. Somewhere. So that’s what I tried to do. I wrote here in continuing the email I wrote, we work hard to make a magazine that we hope will be enlightening and informative and surprising for entrepreneurs. But I also said, we know not everything will be beloved by all.

And then instead of trying to convince this person to resubscribe, I just took as fact that they are not, I wrote, I hope we have at least a few more issues to impress you before your subscription runs. And guess what? This guy responded. He told me more about why he hated that particular article, ‘cause I had prompted exactly that.

So the person wrote, I have gotten a good deal of value from Entrepreneur in the past and sure there are some articles that are amazing and some that don’t interest me as much, but no, no other article made me do an eye roll so high that I actually got dizzy they wrote. Okay. I mean, you know, we don’t need to rub it in that much. But do you note a change in tone? An important change in tone? Now he is engaging with another human being, me and suddenly Entrepreneur is not a waste as he had called us before. In response, I decided to try something a little risky. I was curious to understand what was driving his reaction. I mean, it was such a big reaction for just one article. So here’s what I wrote. 

Got it. Thanks for the additional feedback. I’m just always surprised and a little confused when someone sees one thing they don’t like and it leads them to cancel a subscription. It’s just not how I function as a consumer. If, say, I don’t like one thing that Netflix produced, I don’t cancel Netflix as a result, but I understand that everyone makes their decisions differently. Always helpful to learn how our readers are reacting.

That was the end of that email. Like I said, it was a little risky, but instead of confronting him directly, I put his reaction into the context of my own. And I never questioned his decision cause I never wanted to get him on the defensive. And here was his response. It was very short, but very telling. Here’s what he wrote. 

‘Sometimes I use hyperbole for effect.’ In other words, he’s not canceling. He was heated and probably didn’t expect me to engage him, and now he’s feeling a little sheepish. ‘Sometimes I use hyperbole for effect.’ You know what, maybe dude, don’t use hyperbole for effect.

That’s what I wanted to say. Like, it’s not productive. Just, just don’t do it. This is stupid. It makes you sound stupid. Anyway, but that’s, I’m, I’ve gotta reel it in. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m keeping very calm here because here’s the thing: We live in a loud, noisy, often angry world, and we will get nowhere by joining that anger.

But when we hear people out, we can replace that anger with something else. We’ll start with basic decency and we’ll build from there. I have done versions of this many, many times over the course of my career. I have responded to almost every angry email that I have ever gotten, so long as the person sounded reasonable, and oftentimes once I engage them by not making them feel defensive, by not insulting them, they reveal something or they seem a little embarrassed to have come at my door with a battering ram when I was willing to just open it up. And either way, I think that at the end we all accomplish a little something, which is to say that I think I generally retain that subscriber and that person maybe thinks twice the next time they’re feeling a little upset about something and are considering whether to send a nasty email.

And I would say that that’s progress. And it’s progress that we can only get by not arguing, but by instead just trying to make a connection.

EMILY: Create those connections. I want to acknowledge again the biggest difference between Jason receiving feedback via email, and you receiving a negative review for your business on a public forum, but the opportunity is the same. When people are angry enough that they write to you – be that an email or an online review, they’re emotionally invested. And oftentimes their expectations were not met. But as Jason pointed out, they’re not necessarily complaining because they think someone will do anything; they’re just complaining because they want to be heard. By being responsive, and especially within a timely manner you can surprise and delight the person. You can turn their experience around and make them one of your loyal customers and fans. 

The biggest difference between what Jason did and how I want all of you to think of the review response is he was talking to the customer directly, 1:1. So he was able to ask clarifying questions, and dig a little deeper in order to get in the head of the critic. You can CERTAINLY do this when you get an online review and need a little more information, but you would do that using a direct message. When you respond to a review publicly you want to respond in a way that reflects your customer service practices to all future consumers. You don’t want to necessarily get into a back and forth dialogue with the reviewer. Start by thanking the reviewer for sharing their experience, then mention a thing or two that they stated having issues with and how your business typically handles those things. Then you can provide a method for the customer to get in touch with you, or indicate that you have sent a direct message to connect further. Remember: turning this person around is an incredible outcome to responding, but as a bare minimum by responding and responding in a timely manner you’re sending a signal to all future consumers showing you care. And that builds trust and sets you apart.

I agree with Jason: people need to calm down! But I also think that by not thinking of critical reviews as something you need to get fixed or updated, but rather something that can provide insight or even humanize your brand and give a chance for you to highlight great customer service, it’s a lot easier to manage.  

And lastly, don’t only reply to the critical reviews! Sure those are the ones that are more urgent, but your happy customers who took time to share their positive experiences are important too. Take a minute or two to reply to those customers and thank them for their business and enthusiasm. By reiterating goods or services they mention you can help your business appear in those search results, plus it sends a signal to future customers that you read your online reviews which could motivate them to share their experience after visiting your business. 

Running a business means opening yourself up to people’s opinions and criticism. Don’t let that stop you! See it as normal. And look at each touch point as a chance to better know your customers. When the criticism comes, act fast, address them publicly and remember that simply by responding, you’re creating trust.