Here’s a Four-Step-Framework for Responding to Negative Customer Feedback

Criticism is an opportunity for growth — but only if you know how to properly deal with customer complaints. 

Let’s face it — everyone’s a critic these days, and it’s all but impossible to work a job without getting some negative feedback at some point in your career.

Even the most successful people deal with valid criticism. In the end, their ability to handle and interact with that feedback is what sets them apart. 

Knowing how to isolate, identify, reflect on, and act on negative feedback is a skill they have developed over time — and doing the same will help you grow in your career or in entrepreneurship.

The next time you need to respond to negative feedback, turn to this four-step framework.

Step 1: Isolate

It’s all too easy to view negative customer feedback as a personal attack. There’s a fine line between constructive criticism and insult — and sometimes the feedback is just downright mean. But even when something falls into the category of constructive criticism, it can still hurt!

The first thing you need to do is isolate the feedback. It is not reflective of you, the person. It is reflective of the experience the customer had with the product or service.

Isolate the feedback as if you were a neutral, third party to the situation. This will remove any emotions, disappointment, or anger that you may be feeling about the situation and allow you to interact with the customer’s concerns in a positive way.

A lot of the time, the spirit of the negative feedback is valid, but the way it’s said isn’t. Your job is to not let the presentation of the criticism bother you (even if it comes in the form of yelling or choice language) while trying to identify where the real problem lies.

Step 2: Identify

After you’ve isolated the feedback — you can identify where the real concern lies.

This may seem like a simple step, but it’s usually anything but. Customer feedback doesn’t happen in a vacuum. There are usually factors outside of the situation that impact how the response is worded or expressed.

A customer may rant about 10 different things that you did wrong — when all of those 10 things boil down to one specific concern that the customer can’t quite put their finger on. Or they may simply state that “this is bad” without explaining any of the reasons why they feel that way.

To work with negative feedback, you sometimes need to play detective. Ask questions that allow the customer to fully express their feelings. This won’t just help them feel heard, it will also give you the context you need to get to a solution.

Don’t just aim to listen, aim to empathize and understand.

Don’t say “I hear you” while someone is complaining — say “I understand.” Big difference there.

When the customer is finished explaining — repeat back what you’ve heard, but remove the emotion out of it. Be matter-of-fact as you walk through what’s just happened. This will prime the customer to start viewing the situation as a solvable problem (and not an emotion-crushing disaster).

As you go through your recap with them, focus on the handful of issues that are really at the crux of the issue. Even if these are things outside of your control. Take responsibility for them. The worst thing you can do is “try and pass the buck” — and in a world where everyone’s trying to point fingers, most customers will respect you for taking accountability.

At first — negative feedback can seem overwhelming and impossible to fix. But when you get good at finding the one thing that sits at the heart of the complaint it becomes manageable.

When the key issues are identified, act swiftly. Show the customer you’ve listened to them in the way you go about resolving the matter.

Step 3: Reflect

The most important work happens after the specific situation has been put to bed. Your job now is to evolve so that the problem does not happen again with another customer. It can be useful to discuss the negative feedback with your boss or peers — not to gossip or complain about it, but to get their opinion about how you handled things and how you can improve.

The odds are that they’ve gotten the same kind of feedback at some point in their careers. Listening to their experiences will help you grow — and will also reveal that getting criticism is normal (so you shouldn’t feel too bad about what that customer said!).

Reflecting helps you fix a problem before it becomes a trend. When you invest the time to think about how customers are responding to your product or service — you can start developing a tangible list of action items that are going to help you grow.

Step 4: Act

The best businesses are the ones that listen and adapt based on their customer’s needs and concerts. The greatest entrepreneurs have a spotlight on them at all times — and are criticized relentlessly. Knowing how to turn a negative piece of feedback into an opportunity for growth is a skill that directly correlates with success.

So, remember that everyone gets negative feedback sometimes — and if you know how to interact with it, that feedback can be a positive turning point in your career or entrepreneurial journey.

The last step in these situations is always to act. Take time to improve based on feedback and move forward with confidence and integrity.  

There will always be negative feedback. But if each complaint is different than the last… you’re going in the right direction!