Getting Through a bad review

One of the hardest parts about starting your own business has to be when you get a negative or bad review. It’s easy for our friends and family to tell us how good we are, how successful we are, and how wonderful our work is, but grasping that your not going to always get a positive reaction from every single person is difficult.

As much as we can discuss what goes into receiving a bad review, one of the hardest things to do is to come to terms with the emotions a bad review brings up.

Words that come to mind are disheartening, devastating, detrimental and sorrow. If your heart and soul goes into making and creating the best experience and images for your clients we won’t sugar coat it; a negative review hurts. But in the end, it’s meant to be something that allows for self-evaluation.

What are the reasons for a bad review?

We break them down in four categories:

1. The client was having a bad day
2. You didn’t deliver
3. You weren’t clear about what the client would be receiving
4. The client didn’t do their research

I can fix this. I can change them up. I can change my editing.

Christora Osters’ response to getting her first bad review.

It’s hard to process through a bad review. It’s similar to grief. Being able to get to a state of acceptance with the negativity will also require that you go through stages of processing. From justification to anger to denial to sadness, it’s okay to feel all the feels.

I apologize. What could I have done better?

Tom Russo

After you allow those emotions to exist, you can move forward with a growth mindset.

In the end, the longer you are in this world the more likely it is you’ll receive a bad review. While it’s hard, it’s not the end of the world. You can learn from it, grow from it and serve your clients better in the end.

When you allow a bad review to direct you toward a bettering of yourself, that is when you learn the most about your business, the experience you are giving your clients, and in the end yourself.

Tagged as: weddingphotography, weddingphotographers, helpfultips, thecapturecrew, tomandchristora, badreviews.