In this journey of supporting more black owned businesses (life in general as well), having a negative experinece is inevitable. This negative experience can be turned into a positive experience for the business and the consumer if handled correctly. The typical first reaction to a negative experience is to write negative feedback on social media, but when done in anger, the negative feedback can do way more damage to the business. In this post, we will give you a few actions that can help the business improve.
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Don’t write feedback on social media when you are still angry or feeling emotional about the experience - Feedback and ratings on social media can have an enormous effect on businesses. The goal with this step is to wait to give yourself time to write constructive feedback rather than bashing the business.
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Contact the business to let them know what happened and how it was different from your expectations - This step gives you another interaction with the business. A second interaction allows you to get to know the business as well. You never know what may have been happened on the day of your negative experience. A waitress or cook could have quit, there could have been a gas leak or any number of issues could have impacted your experience.
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Give the business the opportunity to make it right - After contacting the business, give them time to address your concerns. After sufficient time has passed, revisit the business. This once again, gives you another opportunity to come to a conclusion about the business.
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Write feedback on social media after completing the previous steps - After a negative experience, I wouldn’t expect you to give the business a 5 star rating (you can if their response to your negative experience warrants it); however, you now have room to give them a medium to high rating with details about how they were able to successfully make your experience right. If the business did not respond to your feedback, you're in a better position to write a fair rating.
Criticism must be constructive, try to avoid submitting complaints. Construcive feedback includes the problem and a potentiall solution. As consumers, we shouldn’t let one bad experience stop us from patronizing a black owned business. Personally, I think the current feedback and rating systems are broken so IABB plans to tackle this problem once our mobile apps are stable. Improving black economics requires everyone to be actively involved with the continuous improvement of black owned businesses by providing constructive feedback.