Negative feedback doesn’t have to stay negative

Everyone knows how important customer feedback is in the sales process. 

When you look for a service provider or a product online – how important are the reviews? 

If you’re like most people, you’d probably say extremely important – possibly essential in your decision-making process.

A lot of MSPs believe that every bad review is another nail in the coffin of their business.  

At my company, Tech Pro Marketing – an MSP marketing agency – we see a lot of MSPs fail to turn their negative feedback into positives. In many cases, a bad review simply goes unaddressed, which is a huge missed opportunity. 

Every company has gotten a less-than-favorable review at some point. There’s no doubt that it’s tough to see your company get criticized (especially if it’s on a public platform). The good news is there is a silver lining in nearly every negative review. 

Now, if you’re getting hundreds of bad reviews, there’s probably something wrong – but that’s a story for another day. Today, I want to explain why a negative review every once in a blue moon is actually a good thing for your MSP. 

It shows where your blind spots are

You spend your days providing exceptional IT support to other businesses. After months – or years – of happy customers, it can be tough to see your own flaws. But no business is perfect. 

A negative review from a customer or employee can be difficult to accept. It’s natural to feel defensive in these situations. The most important step in dealing with poor feedback is to take emotion out of the equation and look at the words objectively. 

Is the feedback valid? 

If so, it may expose a shortcoming in your MSP you would have never seen otherwise. 

For example, let’s say you implement a new process or system within one of your customer’s workflows.  It may be a revolutionary system, but the company’s employees are struggling to grasp the changes – and they provide some poor feedback about your MSP. 

This would be a sign that your employee training program for customers may need some improvement. More importantly, you have the chance to make it right with that customer and get them on a better path. 

It gives you a chance to showcase your customer service and create stronger relationships  

The way you respond to negative feedback is much more important than the issue itself.

A few years ago, we had a customer at Tech Pro Marketing who was struggling to use the database where we sent all of the leads we generated for their company. 

To them, it looked like we weren’t generating any leads, even though they had a sizable amount. After getting some negative feedback on a check-in call, we were able to jump in and do an in-depth walkthrough of how to use the system and implement it into their sales process. 

I personally guided the call (which took several hours) and made sure they were 110% confident in a) finding their leads and b) making sure their sales staff knew what to do with them. 

By taking the time to thoroughly address the feedback, we were able to clear up the confusion and showcase our commitment to providing excellent customer service. 

As an MSP, your customers want to know that you’ll go the extra mile for them. A positive, constructive response to negative feedback is a golden opportunity to prove this to them. 

It leads to better marketing (and a better offering)

This goes hand-in-hand with using negative feedback to identify your blind spots. 

Every once in a while, you’ll get a disgruntled customer complaining about something you have no control over. But in most cases, you will be able to spot patterns in the feedback you receive. 

Try to get a feel for the commonalities customers tend to be dissatisfied with. For example, maybe your response times are not as quick as other MSPs, your pricing is too steep, or maybe you don’t answer calls on weekends/holidays. 

Once you pinpoint the trends in negative feedback, you can reverse engineer it to improve your service offering – and highlight the solutions to these pain points in your marketing strategies. 

The best companies start by listening to understand customer pain points. SuperOps.ai has spent years listening to MSPs to build, test, and refine their system to solve problems on the ground level – and you can, too. 

It’s never easy to hear people badmouthing your MSP – but it’s arguably the purest form of market research. 

The bottom line

Your MSP is your baby. You built it from the ground up. Hearing someone talk bad about it is like hearing someone criticize your child – I get it. I felt this way for a long time whenever someone gave Tech Pro Marketing negative feedback. 

Sooner or later, negative feedback is inevitable. For many people, the natural response is to get defensive and let it ruin their day. This makes it difficult to look inwardly and implement proper adjustments. 

Negative feedback is only truly negative if you let it be. It’s either a bad taste in your mouth or a pivotal moment of realization for your MSP.

In 99 percent of cases, negative sentiment can be turned into a positive one with the right approach. 

Are you curious about how you can use negative feedback in your marketing strategy? If so, I can help you. Feel free to shoot me a DM on LinkedIn.