It’s natural to say thank you when someone compliments your business, but how do you professionally respond to a bad review? Learn the six habits of those who have mastered the art of responding to negative feedback from customers and employees.

It takes five positive experiences to outweigh a single negative one.

Read that again. 

For every single bad experience, it takes five good experiences to make your audience view you favorably again.  

But sometimes, that one interaction with someone is all you get. There’s no room for do-overs or second chances, just a less-than-favorable review for everyone to see on your website. 

What should you do? 

Well, it depends. Did your unhappy customer or employee whisper or shout?

The Whisper or The Shout: Which Online Review is More Harmful?

In the post-acute care industry, there are two types of customers and employees.  

Those who whisper their opinions about you will eat at your reputation from the inside. Those who shout what they think of you will harm your reputation for everyone to see. 

Whisper Scenario: An entry-level employee is dissatisfied with the level of training they received before entering the field. They feel vulnerable, awkward, and humiliated trying to figure out what to do in their client’s home and start thinking this isn’t the line of work for them. After telling their friends what it’s been like to work at your company, they feel so embarrassed that they didn’t know what they were doing that they don’t show up to work the next day. To their friends, your company is only suitable for experienced employees who know what they’re doing. 

Shout Scenario: The daughter of a customer had to miss work again because their caregiver didn’t seem to have the training to take care of her dad’s specialized needs. This is the third time her dad’s caregiver hasn’t matched his needs, and she feels like no one is listening to her concerns. She tries calling the office to complain but no one answers. She takes to social media, describing what her poor experience with your company was and leaves you a less than favorable Google review. Now when people search for your services, her experience is the first thing they see. 

Both scenarios are damaging to your reputation and need to be dealt with in a timely manner. The fact is, in either case, the dissatisfaction felt by your employee or customer becomes a top-of-mind factor when people look up your business. This can cause potential new clients to look elsewhere if they think you can’t or won’t provide services of the quality they expect. If you have experience with either the whisper or the shout issues with reputation management, you’re not alone. Let’s help you manage your online reputation to fix how people view your business before it’s too late. 

Swimming Upstream: Problems Post-Acute Care Businesses Face That Can Lead to Reputation Loss

There’s no denying it’s a rough time in the home care and senior living industries at present. To say that post-acute care providers are overwhelmed is an understatement. 

The high frequency of turnover means two things for your business: First, it’s more difficult to uphold a high standard of care because highly trained employees don’t stick around for long. Second, the constant turnover is a huge drain on the time and money you do have, meaning there’s less left to attract top talent. So if you feel like it’s harder to find skilled post-acute care workers these days, you’re not imagining things. 

Unfortunately, this has had a trickle-down effect on average customer perceptions of home care and senior living providers. The latest Activated Insights Benchmarking Report revealed that 1 in every 2 customers end up leaving your company. 

This is why both the whispers and the shouts matter equally. As a provider, you will need to fight against a negative reputation, both from inside and outside your company, to both attract skilled employees and new clients. 

Here’s what the pros say you can do to repair your flagging reputation. 

The 6 Habits of Post-Acute Care Businesses with 5-Star Reviews

In the last year alone, Activated Insights performed 754k customer and employee satisfaction reviews to uncover these six habits of those with the best reputations in the industry. 

1. Those with 5-Star reputations ask for unfiltered feedback.

What’s the best way to stop a rumor? Discover what people are whispering about to get the facts straight before it spreads. Collect unbiased feedback via a third party to hear your employees’ and customers’ whispered opinions about you before they become harmful to your reputation. Collecting feedback is crucial to gaining honest insight into how your employees and clients feel about your company culture and service offerings without survey participants feeling pressured to answer a certain way.

2. Reputation leaders in the industry quantify their feedback to make informed decisions.

Once you’ve learned what people are saying about you, turn that qualitative feedback into data so you have a numerical benchmark of your customers’ and employees’ satisfaction. Do this by calculating your Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS). This will help turn feedback into action as the results guide your business decisions.  

3. Those with 5-Star Reputations spot and correct negative trends.

Just like no one saw low-rise jeans coming back again, what your employees and customers are saying about you can come back to haunt you like a 90s trend if you’re not paying attention.

Uncover areas of dissatisfaction to learn which parts of your company need the most work to improve public opinion about your company—before the negative trend turns into a shout. This is where all that nifty data you’ve been gathering comes in handy.

4. Reputation leaders in the industry lean into positive trends.

Running a post-acute care business isn’t all about reacting to negative reviews; it’s about proactively promoting your positive reviews too. Arguably, the most important step, sharing positive feedback, can help inspire your employees and customers when done correctly.  

Validate your care staff’s hard work by bringing positive customer feedback to light. You’ll be speaking your employee’s professional love language as you show them that the work they’re doing matters, and their hard work is being recognized. 

Additionally, positive feedback acts as social proof to potential customers, letting them know you’re the genuine article. Incorporating testimonials on your website gives clients another reason to choose your home care or senior living company over the competition. 

5. Those with 5-Star Reputation ask every patient or client for an online review.

The feedback process builds relationships. As you show your customers and employees that you’re committed to making their experience better, the positive effects of this effort will ripple out to their friends and family. When asking for an online review, approach it like you’re nurturing a relationship—because that’s what it is! Companies with strong reputations deliver an excellent experience and then encourage customers to promote it online through reviews. This creates a positive relationship with the customer while strengthening the business’ reputation. 

6. Reputation leaders in the industry respond to every single review.

Don’t take your positive review for granted! Be sure to show your sincere appreciation for your customer or employee’s positive experience and reassure them that you’re always looking for ways to get even better. 

Responding to positive reviews is easy. But what do you say to a negative review? 

Most of the time, it’s what you don’t say that speaks volumes. While steps 1-5 demonstrate how to proactively gather feedback, it’s important to have reputation management skills on hand in the event you need to react to a negative review too! 

5 Tips for Responding to a Negative Review

Build a Stronger Online Reputation with Activated Insights

At Activated Insights, we understand how integral managing your company’s reputation can be. But we also know it can be time-consuming. While gathering data and feedback from employees and clients are absolutely necessary to create the perfect experience for both those in your company and those receiving services from it, you may not have the resources to do it alone.

That’s where we come in.

Through our various employee and client survey services, Experience Management, and Reputation Management programs, we can help you discover your weak points and identify opportunities for you to improve.

For more great insights on how to boost your home care or senior living business’ reputation and more, check out our on-demand webinars.

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