This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Oh no, today's listener received a bad review. They got a bad review on Etsy selling some, I don't know what they're selling actually, selling something on Etsy, and they got a bad review through no fault of their own, and they are distressed, which I understand, right? Bad reviews suck. Is there anything they can do to appeal? That's what they wanna know, and this is both a logistical practical question as well as a psychological one, because as I said, when you get a bad review, it doesn't feel good.
I wanna talk about that as much as the actual process of, is there any action you can take to improve or remove that review from your listing? Welcome to Side Hustle School, this is Chris Guillebeau, and this whole thing about getting a bad review is an experience that every creator is going to have at some point. Sooner or later, if you're selling something online, this is gonna happen. So I'm grateful for the chance to talk it through with this question. [Music]
Hey, this is John from DC.
Thanks for the great content and inspiration. Recently I got a bad review and I'm wondering how I should handle it. I've been selling on Etsy for a while and sell on average 10 items a month. It's a start, but after a long starting of unbroken five-star reviews, someone left me a bad review with no real reason. It just seems spiteful, what can I do?
I wrote to Etsy, but they just sent me a form letter in response, saying they won't do anything. Would love to hear your thoughts about this, thanks again. [Music]
John, thanks so much for listening. And hey, first of all, my condolences. I have been there.
Just as I said, anybody who sells something online, you're gonna experience this at some point. But nevertheless, I remember some of my earlier reviews, I was crushed. I was like, what did I do to offend this person? How have I let this person down? I took it very personal.
And in my case, at least I finally learned to not read them for the most part, positive or negative. I just, I don't want to be influenced in that way because I know that they can personally impact me. And again, that may not be how it should be, but sometimes things just are how they are, right? It's not about logic, it's about emotion. Now let's talk about the actual issue of what can you do?
So, as you've found, appealing to the platform probably won't work at all. Just because platforms like Etsy, Amazon, eBay, Google, I mean, every platform essentially, they tend to be pretty resistant to requests for removal or amendment of reviews. To have any chance of success, you usually need to be able to demonstrate that there are legitimately false claims in the review or that it otherwise doesn't meet the rules that the platform establishes. If there's some kind of personal attack, that can actually work in your favor. So you might point that out.
Or for example, if somebody says, I didn't get a refund for this and you can show, actually they did get a refund, here's the credit card statement, then that might help, but it might not. Sometimes you can point to examples and say, this review really shouldn't be here for all these reasons and you are correct, but they just don't respond. Or you get that form letter response that John received. So it's just kind of how it is. If you really do want to fix it, your best bet is usually to work with the person who left the review, which is not always enjoyable, but often if you engage with that person, they at least do have the ability to typically go back and change or remove their review if they choose to.
It may be different depending on the platform, but often that is an option. So if there is a way for you to dialogue with that person and apologize, even if you feel it's not your fault, see if there's anything else you can do for them, then sometimes that might help. So those are your two options basically. Aside from that, your best path forward is to learn to let it go, you know, frozen style. Let it go, just focus on getting more positive reviews.
And I also, I know this can feel really personal. So I encourage you and anybody else in the situation to as much as possible, depersonalize it a bit. And just think about your own experience with reviews. Think about being a consumer. If you're looking at something, you know, it only has positive reviews, you might actually be skeptical about it.
Imagine looking at Yelp, you know, at the listing for your favorite restaurant. If your favorite restaurant has been around for any amount of time, I'm pretty sure you can find a lot of people who don't like it, right? You can go and look and say this place that you love and there's all these people who just don't like it, give it one star, et cetera, but that's not gonna stop you from going because it's your favorite restaurant. You understand that, you know, a restaurant serves a lot of people, people are gonna have a range of experiences. Then also like if you're looking on Amazon, for example, and you're looking at an item, a book or something else that only has positive reviews.
Like imagine it has 500 five-star reviews and zero one-star reviews. You might wonder, is that really legit? You just know that if there's a bunch of positive reviews, there will probably be negative ones as well. I was watching a YouTube video the other day that was live. And as soon as the video started, somebody went and did like a thumbs down.
You know, they like downvoted the video and the video had just started. Like there's no way they'd actually seen the content for whatever reason, they just did that. And we know that this is human nature. You know, this is like a weird, odd, not so great part of human nature, but it's just the way it is. So John, I know this doesn't help you get that bad review removed, but hopefully it puts it in some context for you.
Again, your long-term goal is to focus on getting more positive reviews. Put your energy towards that. Go to your customers and say, "Hey, would you help me out?" If you had a good experience, please leave me a review. It really makes a difference. Lastly, congratulate yourself that you have now joined the club of real creators because everyone who makes and sells something online will eventually have this experience.
It doesn't need to define you. You just need to keep going and doing your thing. So that's my response to you, John, and anybody else out there with that experience. Keep fighting the good fight. Don't give up.
Listeners, if you've got a question, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We will be featuring them throughout the year along with updates from other listeners as they launch their projects. Oh, hey, by the way, if you like Cytosoul School, go and give me a review, preferably a good one. You can do that on Apple Podcast. It just takes a moment, quick little five-star rating there.
Click that button. And it does actually help other people discover the show. Thanks so much to everyone who does that, and everybody else. Well, thank you for listening. I'm glad you're here.
This is Chris Guillebeau for Cytosoul School.
