Courtney Jane Maxwell
Saint Sabrina’s

The internet has become such an integral part of our marketing, allowing our clients to leave feedback about our service. Sooner or later, we all encounter one of the least fun parts of the piercing gig: dealing with a bad review or negative feedback/criticism on our social media. These reviews can be true, false, simple misunderstandings, and everything in between. Some will be incredibly easy to deal with or even ignore, “they wouldn’t pierce me because I was drunk—how rude!” Others can make you and/or your studio look bad, especially if you do not take the opportunity to reply.

On many review websites, you can reply publicly to the original poster. When responding to negative feedback publicly, the first thing to consider is that this response is therefore not only for the original poster, but for the public who may be reading later. It then becomes wise to consider both perspectives (the current client as well as future ones) when writing your replies; your response doubles as a chance to show the public how you handle business. Do you handle complaints with integrity? What kind of customer service do you give? Do you keep your cool when people are being unruly? What type of policies do you have, and why? Your response is a reflection of your business, and it can have a dramatic impact on how readers perceive the negative review itself.

When deciding how to respond, having a solid idea of how you want to present yourself/your studio to the public is extremely beneficial. Using your company’s mission statement as a guideline for this will point you in the right direction. It can also serve as something to refer back to if you are unsure what the tone of your reply should be. It also keeps you from kicking yourself later. Having a well laid out plan from the beginning makes it much easier to navigate the trickier situations in business. Embarrassing online interactions from the past have a way of sticking around, so it’s always good to think about potential readers to see how any online interactions may come back to haunt you. There are many different ways to run a piercing studio and handle clients, but consistency in how you handle difficult online situations will be much more beneficial long term than playing into the negative spiral that internet arguments can create.

Once you have read a critical or negative review, take some time to process what was said. There are a lot of things to consider, and jumping to reply quickly can lead to an overly emotional response. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Criticisms can often be dramatizations; it is habit for many people to play up a story in their favor. The perspective from the critic can make this “version” of the story seem like it is accurate. On the other hand, sometimes people are just angry and really do try to spin a situation in a spiteful way. As with any conflict, accepting the way people may think and express themselves is important in allowing you to understand the situation. You can’t change people or how they choose to express themselves, and getting angry at the way they react is a waste of time. In the end it is counter-productive to your goals. Attempting to understand them better may allow you to handle the situation more effectively.
• Think like the client. Walk yourself through the details of their criticism and genuinely try to consider how the experience may have unfolded from their perspective.
• Never reply without getting the full story! Speak directly with any staff members involved in the situation that led to the criticism. Also be prepared to consider that your staff/co-workers are just as human as clients. Their perspectives may create some bias in the situation as well, even if they are trying to avoid that.
• Don’t assume that the customer is always right, OR that the customer is always wrong. Keep an open mind and remember to see past the presentation and look for the content of the complaint.
• Don’t make the mistake of invalidating someone’s experience; it’s a sure fire way to offend people. No matter how inappropriately someone may react, telling them “your feelings aren’t real” is not going to get you anywhere you want to go.

For example: “We are really sorry if our policy about handling jewelry made you feel singled out. We have policies in place specifically to keep the shop as clean as possible for ourselves and our visitors. It may seem a little odd at first, but we like to take every precaution when it comes to our clients safety!“ Rather than, “our counter person wasn’t being rude. He was just doing his job.”

• Don’t call someone a liar, even if it seems like they are lying. It makes people furious, and if somehow you are wrong, it makes you look extremely unprofessional. If you have solid evidence that what they are saying isn’t true, present the evidence and ask if perhaps there was some confusion. Giving people the benefit of the doubt is often the only way to “win” in this situation. If you think it’s pertinent to make it clear that something isn’t true, stating it in a way that doesn’t direct the statement at the client is a really great way to get the point across while still sounding professional.

For example: “We have a very strict policy that nobody gets pierced without doing paperwork,” rather than, “There is no way you got pierced here without doing paperwork.”

• Remember not to disclose information about your client and/or their visit that should be considered private. Even if there are no legal repercussions, it will make potential clients reading it very uneasy to think that you could be provoked into sharing their personal information where the public can see. If details of this nature are necessary, it may be appropriate to reply publicly that, out of respect for the client’s privacy, you would prefer to contact them directly to discuss the matter. It assures that onlookers won’t think that you simply ignored the situation.

In the end if communication like this isn’t your strong suit, I suggest taking time to read other people’s reviews. Check out reviews from people who you respect and shops whose business approach you admire. Then read reviews from random other studios as well; finding examples of what you don’t like can be just as helpful. When you find ones you like, analyze what you like about them and consider why you think it was an effective response. You won’t have the benefit of knowing the entire story behind the situation, but it’s still a very helpful way to prepare yourself and get an idea for how you want to handle that type of situation. I also suggest looking for places where the original poster can publicly reply to the person’s responses. It’s good to see how clients react to these responses, as it can give you clues on which approaches work best for the type of results you would like to see in a particular type of interaction.

Developing a good method for handling negativity online is an incredibly valuable skill in our profession, although it can be a challenge. While this subject could easily become an entire novel, the points highlighted here are intended to help steer you towards better results when managing online reviews. Here’s to not having to use these skills too often!