For better or for worse, the internet is a public platform for comments and reviews of your business. While you serve your clients to the best of your ability with your mortgage services, it’s inevitable that you might actually end up with some not so flattering reviews.
Find out the best way to respond to bad online reviews –and see how you could turn it around and gain additional leads for your lending business!
How to Respond to Negative Comments
Be Slow and Keep Your Cool
A negative review about your business can feel like a personal attack. Your initial thoughts may be to justify yourself, say that the other party is wrong, or worse yet, attack them.
This moment is critical — how you respond will have a lasting effect not only on the person you’re replying to but also to everyone who reads it.
Keep a level head and think about possible responses. Write down your initial thoughts on paper (that way you won’t accidentally email or post it on social media).
Try to see the situation from the perspective of the commenter. Doing this exercise will help you to understand the best way to de-escalate the situation — possibly keeping the client, or at the very least, convince them to stop the negative campaign against your lending business.
When you finally decide on the best response, keep it brief and write it with a pleasant tone. Steer clear of any hint of passive aggressiveness or defensiveness. Have the attitude that the customer is right, even when they’re wrong.
Have a Plan On How To Respond
Unhappy customers are expected, so it’s a good idea to have a script of how to respond. If your mortgage business is composed of several LO’s, have a policy in place of how to respond to negative comments, as well as who should be responding.
If you are a single LO working for a larger firm, ask if there is a company policy or a department that handle these issues.
Don’t Take It Offline
Respond to the negative review wherever it was originally posted. Remember that the online community is reading the review, and if they don’t read a reply from you, they’ll assume that you are ignoring the comment.
If the negative review deals with some privacy issues on the part of the client and a phone call is needed to resolve it, still follow up with a brief comment on the original post without exposing the private information.
See It As A PR Opportunity
No publicity is bad publicity. All reviews are PR, and even with negative comments, you still influence the result. Your response is going to be read by hundreds of prospects for many years to come and may be the deciding factor on whether they give you a call or not.
Demonstrate that you’re the type of mortgage professional or company that listens to and cares about its clients. Help to establish a trust that extends beyond the original post and influences every prospect that reads your thoughtful reply.
If, despite your best efforts, you aren’t able to resolve the reviewer’s problem, agree to disagree. A simple, “We appreciate your feedback…sorry you had a bad experience with us, and we wish you the best” may be all you can do in some situations.
Unfortunately, you can’t control everything that is being said about your business. However, you can influence the outcome. Engage the negative review with a genuine spirit of helpfulness and your mortgage business may even get some leads from it!
Did you find this article helpful? Please share it and explore the site for more ideas and tools built with your digital mortgage success in mind. 888-377-1265
Pingback: Mortgage Lead Generation: What No One Is Talking About | LenderHomePage