Negative Review / Response?

[Get Shirts]

Okay, so this is the first public forum negative review we have received in 13 years of business.. see below.  What would you guys do?   This customer posted on Google & Facebook and I feel the need to respond, if nothing more than to correct his points.  This guy is just out of his mind.

This is the post:

Most of the shirts arrived looking fine. However, I noticed several were "misaligned" and the yellow, red, and green, were replaced with black, ruining the design we had spent weeks on. Right away, after addressing this with Press Press Merch, I knew I would have a problem. Instead of apologizing, the staff were defensive, saying it was "a rare error" and it "probably didn't happen more than once". They weren't sorry, they just wanted to "make sure you're stoked in the future." For $10 a shirt, I expect quality and compassion. It doesn't matter what you think, it matters what the artist thinks -and when you can admit there's a problem and not fix it, that's a big deal.
Finally, by request, I spent $6 mailing two of the unsold misaligned shirts back to the company in order to receive a refund, which I was told would be the price of 2 shirts ($21). Six months later, I have still not received this refund. In fact, the best they could do is offer me credit for $17, which is less than the price of the shirts and does not account for mailing or tax costs.
Why take a risk? If you want high quality shirts and a company that will take accountability for mistakes, there are literally fifty other local Tshirt companies, most of which will make the shirts for cheaper than Press Press Merch, all of which will show more gratitude and compassion toward their customers.

[mimosatexas]

so 2 shirts were "misaligned" (off center, tilted, what does that mean?) AND somehow 3 colors were turned into a single color?  I'm not sure I understand what happened...

If these reviews are the result of $4 not being refunded, I would say you messed up big time by not refunding those $4.  Like I said though, I don't know anything about the situation beyond what was posted.  The reality of the situation will determine how you should respond.  No matter what though, don't get defensive or corrective online.  It ALWAYS comes across poorly.  I would probably either not respond, or respond by apologizing in some neutral way like "We are sorry you had a poor experience.  Please contact us directly so we can resolve the issues with your order.  We pride ourselves on proving an excellent product and customer service experience."

This guy is probably a lost cause, but if you handle it right it will actually impress other potential clients who see that you will correct problems publicly with compassion and a level head.

[jvanick]

I'd like to hear your side of the story before I would respond.

however, Mimosatexas is 100% right on with how to respond... 

[Screened Gear]

Why would you respond publicly to this. Your goal with any bad review is to get that review removed. If this was my customer and they put a review like this up I would reprint the whole order, give them all their money back even the money they paid for the shipping, if they take the review down. I would also apologize for my staff and the way they handled this. I don't care if you were 100 percent right, I don't care if the customer is trying to pull something over one you.  Its not worth it. That review will loose you more business then what giving away this job cost, times 100.

[mk162]

so it's extortion...

[Screened Gear]

ex·tor·tion   ikˈstôrSH(ə)n/
noun
the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats.

[Frog]

The only problem with an obviously non personal response, is it seems like an automatically generated response, implying that there is such a need to apologize, the process has been automated.

However, if it clearly states the best way to resolve issues, it can show folks that you are committed to customer satisfaction

[GoWestRob]

That sucks, negative reviews are the worst to deal with.  We've had our share of bad reviews on Yelp and Google and they're such a sting.  I'm all about contacting the reviewer to try to get them to budge.  I'm also all about conceding in almost any reasonable way to get the review removed.  It doesn't seem like screen shops get many reviews in the first place, positive or negative, so unless you are consistently asking your happy customers to review you there won't be many happy reviews to dilute the bad ones.  That Google review is going to hang on forever, so when you look back and still see it there 3 or 4 years from now, it'll at least be good to know you did everything you could at the time to pretty it up.

If a couple customers a year see that review and pass you over for another shop, how much lost money could that be over a couple years time?  Instead spend that money trying to fix his order and make him happy.  You can always peacefully part ways afterwards, but if you don't make it right ASAP you might kick yourself later.

We had one customer meet our minimum of 36 shirts for her initial order, then came back for 5 more shirts.  We reminded her of our minimums and asked if she could meet them.  She took it to Yelp and Google and wrote us 1 star reviews for not being able to do her order.  I got in touch and mentioned I didn't object to her review, I just asked her to reconsider the review being 1 star.  I told her that I thought one star would be appropriate for a shop that had horrible print quality, high prices, crappy attitude, sloppy and dishonest.  I asked her if she was happy with the quality, prices and service of the first order, and if she was happy with that then the one star review seemed unfair.  She liked our shop, we simply couldn't do her small quantity order and possibly didn't disclose our minimums on her first order (although I'm sure we did).  She ended up being nice about it, changed it to a 3 star review and re-worded it to be not so scathing.

We killed another guy with so much kindness and stayed in touch for a year about his review, in the end he finally removed his one star reviews.  He tried to friend me on LinkedIn like 4 years later and send a nice message.  Taking the high road is the way to go, I'd suggest making it right and get him to at least revise the parts that make you seem untrustworthy.

[mimosatexas]

I disagree about reprinting/refunding for removal of the ad for a few reasons.  It sets a bad precedent and can be taken advantage of if that guy wants to have his friends get some free crap from you.  There is also no guarantee they will remove it or repost it later so you effectively lose twice. 

I also think it is unavoidable that people will give you bad reviews online, and you won't always be able to remove them.  My etsy store got ONE bad review from a woman that claimed she never got her shirt without ever contacting me about it (tracking said otherwise, but whatever...).  I sent her another for free and told her she could pick another design of her choice also free.  I asked if she would be willing to remove or update it, which she said she would, and she never removed or updated the review or responded to me again.  I chose not to respond at all online and let the overwhelmingly positive reviews speak for me instead.

[mimosatexas]

The only problem with an obviously non personal response, is it seems like an automatically generated response, implying that there is such a need to apologize, the process has been automated.

However, if it clearly states the best way to resolve issues, it can show folks that you are committed to customer satisfaction

Yea, fine line for sure.  Don't be too generic, but don't go overboard either.  It's a lot easier to come off as defensive or crazy yourself if you get too elaborate with your response.

[3Deep]

Why would you respond publicly to this. Your goal with any bad review is to get that review removed. If this was my customer and they put a review like this up I would reprint the whole order, give them all their money back even the money they paid for the shipping, if they take the review down. I would also apologize for my staff and the way they handled this. I don't care if you were 100 percent right, I don't care if the customer is trying to pull something over one you.  Its not worth it. That review will loose you more business then what giving away this job cost, times 100.

Dang Screengear,  I like to talk with you one day, you seem to be a very nice guy when dealing with customers, either you run a top notch shop with all happy customers or your giving away profit when confronted by a slick custy.  Just about every post like this one you say give in and customer is always right....I need to know what you know cuz if we are in the right it's just to hard for me to give in.

darryl

[Get Shirts]

Thanks for the responses everyone.  I've contacted him directly to see if he would remove the post for his requested refund and it looks like that is going to take care of it.

For those who care to know:

- He placed the order in question in November, contacted me after the event about the two shirts and I immediately said "Sure, bring them by and I'll refund your money".  Just today I received the two shirts.. TODAY, 6 months after the order.

- His quotes are fabricated.  They are abbreviated & out of context portions of our exchange.

- He paid $8.66 per shirt, but I guess he's including setup in his cost per shirt.. understandable.

I really just want the posts taken down so don't have to worry about this. 

[Homer]

so...what really happened? what's this BS about colors turned to black or something? I understand the feeling of "get that sh*t down"...

[royster13]

When I have a complaint from a customer I ask them what they want me to do......And even offer to refund 100% and let them keep what they have....Most are very reasonable when you put it in their hands....I can not recall the last time I had to refund 100% of an order...But I think it was 2007.....Never heard from customer again but did get a couple long term referrals.....It all works out in the long run....

[Screened Gear]

Why would you respond publicly to this. Your goal with any bad review is to get that review removed. If this was my customer and they put a review like this up I would reprint the whole order, give them all their money back even the money they paid for the shipping, if they take the review down. I would also apologize for my staff and the way they handled this. I don't care if you were 100 percent right, I don't care if the customer is trying to pull something over one you.  Its not worth it. That review will loose you more business then what giving away this job cost, times 100.

Dang Screengear,  I like to talk with you one day, you seem to be a very nice guy when dealing with customers, either you run a top notch shop with all happy customers or your giving away profit when confronted by a slick custy.  Just about every post like this one you say give in and customer is always right....I need to know what you know cuz if we are in the right it's just to hard for me to give in.

darryl

I am not a super nice guy. I am more of a business person then a nice guy. This is business. If the customer is mad enough to write a review then you did something wrong. Maybe the shirts are right but your communication of the job was off. Something went wrong. I don't give in very often, I also don't mess up very often. I have been doing this for going on 7 years and I have only lost about $2000. That is for reprints, non pays and other small fixes. Most of that was a miscommunication with one of my big customers. I printed the shirt like the proof they supplied and didn't make a color change that they had in one of these 20 or so email on the job. It was a Rush and I just had to get it printed in time. That job I did reprint and I even let them keep the messed up ones. They do over 50K with me a year so keeping them happy is worth more then the time and cost to reprint. She was not even mad, I just did the right thing.

I look at problems in their eyes. It doesn't cost us that much to reprint a job, to make it right. Most jobs I can reprint and still make some money on. I know the bottom line is to make money but if you mess up you have to fix it. I have another guy that tells me to offer a discount. I think that is a crappy way to handle a mistake you made. We are a business and we stand behind our product and if it is our mistake we make it right.