When starting your own company, everything about that company is your baby.  From the service or products you provide, to the design of the logo.  So when someone insults your company, you may feel like giving that so-called “hater” a taste of their own medicine by retaliating with a snarky comment.

Before you do that, step back, take a deep breath and assess the consequences.  There’s that saying that “any publicity is good publicity” – which in this case could be true.  Obviously it’s a bigger issue if the majority of your audience is harsh on your company, but if it’s only one or two customers, don’t sweat it.  Everybody gets bad press sometimes, and at least people are talking.

Owner of Union Street Guest House, Chris Wagoner’s joke of charging $500 for a bad hotel review went viral recently when he sent out a public apology.  TripAdvisor, the website that the bad review was posted on, was outraged by this punishment as it completely went against what the site is all about, encouraging its users to give honest reviews.  So for Union Street Guest House, what was simple a bad review, turned their reputation upside down and the company could face a lack of trust from its future hotel stayers.

Learning from Chris Wagoner’s mistakes, here are 2 tips when responding to bad press about your company:

1) If the reviewer is an honest customer with a bad experience, consider replying to them apologizing and hoping to make their experience better next time.  This will make them know that you care about each and every customer, not just the happy ones, and will provide them with an invitation to try the company’s services again.

2) If the reviewer is a “troll” or a “hater”, someone who specifically goes on websites to write bad, untrue press, ignore the comment.  Other readers can see through these guys anyways.