As an auto shop owner, when a customer leaves a negative review it can be hard to not take it personally. Your shop is your life and when anyone says something terrible about it the first reaction can be to get defensive. Our advice? Take a moment, count back from 10 and start to think of negative reviews as a positive customer service opportunity.

Of course, you don’t want to rejoice when you see a negative review and you especially don’t want to see a lot of them, however, this is the time to let your excellent customer service skills shine! Keep in mind that most individuals who read online reviews can tell when a shop truly cares about their customers. It’s all in how you choose to respond.

When responding to reviews we want to avoid being argumentative or aggressive. Instead, use the opportunity to show you truly care about the customer’s poor experience and that you are trying to make it right. Then when people read negative reviews, they will see your attention to detail and effort to resolve the issue. That alone may convince them to become a new customer at your shop! Even though it’s from a negative review!

Want to see a sample of what a good review response looks like? See below:

Hello “insert customer name here,”

We are sorry to hear that you had a bad experience in our shop. At “insert shop name here,” we pride ourselves on going the extra mile to take care of our customers and provide honest auto repair services. We stand by our professional opinion and would never persuade any of our customers to get any repair work done that we would consider unnecessary. Again, we apologize that you feel that you did not have a great experience in our shop. If you would like to discuss your repair any further or if you have any questions please feel free to contact us so that we may rectify your poor experience with us.

But what if you search your customer database and the customer leaving the negative review is nowhere to be found?

This can be tricky because it’s hard to address a negative review that you believe was left incorrectly. The reviewer could be confusing you with another auto shop and left the review by mistake or somehow they were not recorded in your customer database. Either way, these types of negative reviews still need to be addressed. Below we have included a review response example that you can make your own and use to address these types of negative reviews:

Hello “insert customer name here,”

I’m sorry to hear that you have had a poor experience in our shop. At “insert shop name here,” we make our customers a top priority. However, we do not seem to have a record of you coming into our shop. If you can give us a call we’d love to hear from you so we can get to the bottom of your complaints and resolve them as soon as possible.

We hope our advice and sample review responses help you to tackle any negative reviews that come your way! Let us know if you have any questions in the comment section below.

At Autoshop Solutions, we have a team that focuses on review management and we are always willing to help our clients manage reviews and craft responses. Have questions? Give us a call (888) 978-1685.