Whether you’re a food truck, concession trailer or food cart, customer feedback matters. But it can be tough to navigate online customer feedback. Which reviews are valuable and which are unreliable? Consider the following when dealing with the negative ones.

How To Respond To Negative Online Customer Feedback

  • Respond Promptly. Promptly responding to negative customer reviews shows the customer that you care and value their opinion. It may also result in a person who had a bad experience with your food truck giving you a second chance.
  • Seek a solution. Post a response and offer a way to turn a negative situation around. Always extend an olive branch if you can.
  • Don’t treat all comments equally. Anonymous reviews should never receive the same attention as authored comments.
  • Request defamatory reviews to be removed. Most food truck rating and reviews sites will not allow you to remove reviews. In the case of one that is defamatory, request that the site take it down. Typically, you must claim your food truck business listing before making the request.
  • Invite comments. If you’re open to hearing input, you’re more likely to hear positive things. Create forums for discussions about your menu or service. This allows customers to post video testimonials, and keep social media lines open. Negative online customer reviews are here to stay, take the initiative to get positive reviews from customers and ask them to post on review sites, such as Food Truck Reviewz.
  • See the good in a negative customer review. Negative reviews can benefit your mobile food business. If every review is positive, potential customers could become suspicious, feeling that the reviews are bought rather than being left by real customers. As weird as it may sound, the fact that a negative review is shown can contribute to building trust, rather than diminishing it.
  • Share reviews with employees. Make sure every one of your staff members is aware of reviews you’ve received, both positive and negative. This can help to ensure you and your team prevent similar problems in the future.

The Bottom Line

Food truck vendors have to deal with bad reviews, you can’t ignore them. Fortunately, there are a number of ways that mobile food business owners can minimize the influence of negative reviews and encourage satisfied customers to join the digital conversation about their food truck.

Online reviews are not set in stone and can always be updated by the reviewer, one last reason to respond to any reviews; whether positive or negative.

RELATED: How To Protect Your Food Truck From Fake Online Reviews

How do you handle negative online customer feedback? Share your thoughts on this topic in the comment section or on social media. Facebook | Twitter