However, even the most wonderful 5 star rating with a kind word, does little to salve that loathesome negative review...
In a nutshell, negative reviews hurt. I take them very personally. This is because I put my all into the items I make. I want them to be perfect. I want my customers to love them as much as I do. I want to have happy people wearing my hand made items.
I mean, if you buy something, and it isn't what you like or thought it would be, you contact the seller and ask to return it. Right? I know that I do. And, it takes a lot for me to leave less than 5 stars. I don't take away a star if the item is lost, or late because of the post office. Even if it takes the seller 4 days after I order it to get it in the mail. I mean, if it's just what I ordered, I don't usually leave anything negative. But that's just me and I am a seller, so I know how it feels I guess.
I will say this right now: Etsy's star system stinks! It is so vague and can have such a devastating effect on a business from just one 1-star review. And this 1-star review can be left by someone who is having an awful day, or just being plain vindictive.
I think there should be a few categories. Delivery/Timeliness, Honesty in the Listing, Seller Communication, Presentation. And, if the review is 1 up to 3 stars, the reviewer must elaborate on WHY they feel this way for EACH category. This helps sellers to make changes and also keeps the review legitimate.
I know this will never happen, because I think customers would be like "that is too much time to do". But if you leave someone 2 stars, you should have to elaborate on it.
My Etsy Negative Review Story:
- This takes me back to the very first, and only, thank God, 1-star review I have ever received. I believe it was from the 4th or 5th item I sold! Not only was it 1-star, it was absolutely scathing. It was so full of venom I was dumbstruck into paralysis for a short minute. I wanted to cry. I was so injured that someone would say such horrible things about a necklace that was so carefully and expertly finished and really very pretty.
- When I regained my composure, I called my big sister and read it to her. Her reaction? "oh my gosh! Listen to what she said! She sounds like a shrink plastic jewelry maker who is doing her best to put you out of business! She sounds like a competitor". And after reading the review again and again, I realized that every biting insult this person dished out to me sounded like insults the buyer herself might have heard from potential buyers of her own shrink plastic jewelry at crafts shows. Yes,. the criticism was that pointed. "it is cardboard" "the bead is not ceramic". etc. Everything she said was not true. Everything.
- They tell you to never respond to negative feedback and carry on. I'll tell you, if someone gives me a 1-star or 2-star review, I will have a response. It is that simple. However, I won't make my response a personal one with regard to the buyer. My response to the review made me look the way I felt; like I had just had the wind knocked out of me and was seriously injured, that I was never contacted by the buyer asking for a refund, that after multiple attempts to reach the buyer and offering a full refund, she never responded and decided to keep the necklace, and that down the list, for every thrust of her knife, I had an answer. Which was, the item is shrink plastic, the bead is ceramic, and that I and my shop are not going anywhere, etc.
- I even had a customer who, shortly after my awful review, mentioned how suspicious the review sounded. Yay truth! Yay other honest customers!
- In the end, I realized that this particular customer had an address that was in the very same city as a super-huge shrink plastic jewelry maker on Etsy. Call it coincidence, but I don't think so.
- Anyway, that is my horrible review story, I had to share it!
Observation of another Etsy seller who was slammed
- I remember browsing other shrink plastic jewelry shops and coming across one in particular. She make shrink plastic pins and bracelets but also made resin jewelry. Well, apparently, some of her resin had bubbles in it and apparently, the bubbles weren't small. The buyer purchased several items, about 5 I think and for each one, she left 2 stars. Even though the problem was with only one item. I felt so sorry for the seller. All of those 2 star reviews knocked her rating way way down. It was so unfair. I realize the upset of the buyer with the bad resin work, fair enough. But to take away stars from every item when it wasn't deserved was just plain mean.
Oh, and one more small story...
I have had people in the past give me 4 stars because they felt a stud earring was too small (hey, it's a stud), or that an earring is not long or big enough. This is after having an insanely clear and very detailed description with explicit measurements in the "details" section of the listing, along with 8+ images of the earrings which included a photo of the item on a life-size mannequin and a photo of the item compared in size to a US Quarter Dollar!
People don't read sometimes and the seller pays for it.
Getting tired,
have a great day!
No comments:
Post a Comment