Tepid reviews

[Melody]

i recently noticed that someone left a less than glowing review on my etsy account. It was for a tutorial. The item is listed as difficult.

I was frustrated about it yesterday but I'm over it today.

How do you deal with bad/tepid reviews?

 

[MrDeranged]

Is it the only review? Are there other "good" reviews? Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it too much. In life, and especially on the internet, you'll never be able to please everyone. There's always going to be that "miserable" person whom nothing is going to be good enough for. You just have to hope that future clients will be able to differentiate. If a potential client is unable to tell the difference, you may be better off without them as a client.

 

[Tomeka Watkinson]

I've sometimes had to look at multiple tutorials to find the one that "clicked" with me. I was once teaching a friend a weave when I realized that even though she is right-handed, she mailled and beaded left-handed, which was why she was having difficulty. So the person who left you the yucky review may have been having a "wrong-handed" day.

 

[Melody]

Thanks, I guess it just surprised me

 

[Sue May]

I have noticed that in life, the people who complain about something often are known for complaining about EVERYTHING. Unless you get LOTS of complaints about it, don't put any stock in it. There are just some people who get up in the morning expecting a fight... and they won't be happy until they get one.

 

[Beth]

Have you thought of contacting the customer to ask why the less than enthusiastic review? They may not realize that "it was ok" is not as good a comment as "oh my, this was the best ever and I am so happy" - even though the second is a better representation of their thoughts. Failing that, if they really did feel it was "just ok", find out what they felt could be done better - it might surprise you.

 

[chris]

I understand completely. Finish a shirt the other day and post it up for sale. Get tons of like form wonderful comments from some amazing people. And then the dreaded bad comment about how the shirt was horrible and that it wasn't worth $5.

 

[Lassarina]

Yeah etsy can be tough sometimes and there is nothing you can do to change a review unless you can convince the customer to change it. I once had a woman who bought a scarf for her son and ranted about how she thought I was a crap knitter but her son loved the scarf. I offered her a refund to return the item and she refused. Nothing I could do after that but keep the 3 stars.

 

[steampunkgarage]

I've been known to contact the reviewer and ask if there's anything I can do to give them a better experience. I'm extremely hands-on with my customers and will bend over backwards to get them to come back.

 

[GetChainedUp]

I have yet to get one, fingers crossed , but if I get one I'll suck it up and attempt to learn from it. Try to make it right for the current customer as well as fix what the issue was in the first place so it doesn't happen again.

 

[LittleCLUUs]

Depending on the review I may contact the person to help further but otherwise I don't care since the average is generally not affected by 1 bad review

 

[Rick Bergeron]

When I look at reviews, I expect to see some less than stellar. To me, it gives a more realistic feeling. All perfect, glowing reviews gives me reason to be suspicious that the reviews are being moderated or removing those that are less than perfect.

 

[Theresa]

Personally if I bought a tutorial that I thought was too difficult I sure as heck wouldn't leave bad feedback. I agree with other comments that there are just some people who find fault in everything and like to complain.

 

[Mimi]

I don't have an etsy account and have only left good reviews, even if I have a challenge (read plier throwing fit) making it work. If the tut is well done and easy to understand I give it a good review. I don't review based on operator error!

 

[Jo Mayer]

Thanks, I guess it just surprised me

Melody, this is completely off-topic, but I am fairly new to the group and just getting back into maille after a long hiatus. I*love* the piece you are using as your avatar on this site. Is this a tutorial you sell? Care to point me to you site?

 

[Frann]

I'd contact them and in the most professionally friendly way inquire why she left such a review. Once I had a person say "I didn't realize that this bracelet was in two differently colors. (Mobius bracelet in brass and copper). It turns out my photos were too dark. I knew the color differences but the photo was so dark it looked like all copper.

 

[Sharyn Hamilton]

If I got a negative review, it would bug me. Was there anything in the review that gave you any insight into why she wasn't happy? If so, if it seemed like a legit issue you can look into remedying it. And some people are just negative. They think to be critical means to be negative.

If you get another negative review for the same tutorial, it's definitely worth digging deeper. The fact that a negative review bothers you suggests you're very conscientious, which seems pretty positive to me.

 

[Sapphire]

I almost always try to ask the person for specific examples of what was wrong and how to improve. I ask for specific examples because I often get vague statements about issues but specific examples are much easier to understand and discuss.