That One-Star Review Isn’t the End of the World. In Fact, It May Be Helping.
Small and independent publishers tend to be dedicated product page lurkers, scrolling through metadata, descriptions, artwork, and, of course, customer reviews to make sure everything is as it should be (and if you’re not, don’t worry—your author almost certainly is). And there are few things publishers likes less than coming across a nasty one-star pan of their book, regardless of how many glowing five-star reviews it’s nestled between. The tendency is to take offense (at least a little) and suppress the urge to fire off a heated response. Keep suppressing that urge—not only is a defensive response nearly always the wrong approach, but according to a growing body of evidence, including research just published in the Journal of Marketing, that one-star review may not be hurting sales. In fact, it may actually be helping.
The Three Most Common “Bad” Reviews You Should Actually Welcome
Embedded Credibility
It’s been known for a while that bad or mediocre reviews can sometimes be a useful way to create credibility for platforms or the products on that platform. This makes a certain sense. It’s ingrained in us that you can’t please everybody all of the time, and a page of glowing 5-star reviews comes across as a bit fishy. This is especially true on publisher’s own platform, where there’s already a credibility gap (which is why, personally, I think reviews are more trouble than they’re worth on a publisher’s own direct commerce platform). And while a 1-star scorching isn’t necessary, the occasional mediocre or 4-star review adds a sense of authenticity. Keep this in mind the next time you set your authors out to gin up reviews for their new titles (which you absolutely should be doing) and have those friends and family members drop in a couple of 4-out-of-5 star comments. It’s even better if they make the reason for the one-star deduction as nitpicky as possible (you’ll see why below).
So Bad It’s Good
Then there’s the review that takes the concept of customer feedback and elevates it to an ironic artform. You’ve likely seen one of these : the intentionally over the top or humorous 1-star review that reads as an ironic endorsement of the product or is simply just entertaining in its own right (the inverse—glowing ironic reviews—can also be true, as thousands of three-wolves-one-moon t-shirts can attest). The Internet was largely built on anti-establishment sarcasm, and it’s been shown that regardless of whether that humorous post was ironic or not, a funny 1-star review can give a product or service a statistically significant bump in sales. Why? These comments trigger psychological transference, attaching a reader’s enjoyment of the review and being in on the joke to the product itself. For certain brands, this is gold. Unfortunately, it’s also often deployed as a form of critical camp, and unless you don’t mind being the butt of the joke or you’re an incredibly sophisticated publisher, that’s probably not a sector you want to traffic in.
Wired for Justice
And finally, there’s the review examined in the recently published study by Allard, Dunn, and White mentioned above—the unfair pan. This is the irate customer complaining on a restaurant’s Yelp! page that that weather was bad while they were dining, or the visitor complaining that park staff “shut off” the waterfalls at Yosemite during the summer to save money. While these can sometimes be unintentionally funny, they affect users and customers differently than entertaining or intentionally humorous reviews. In the case of the unfair review, it’s our sense of empathy and, ultimately, justice that move us to develop positive associations with the product or company as we internally defend the entity we feel is being wrongly maligned. As humans, we are wired for justice and among peers and in social situations most humans desire to defend a person they feel is being treated unfairly. Interestingly, the study shows that this can happen with companies and firms as well. If we feel a business or product is being unfairly judged, we create a more favorable opinion as we look to set the psychological balance.
In other words, if you have a one-star review pop up that complains your literary novel wasn’t appropriate for second graders, or that your history of NASA doesn’t address that the world is actually flat, don’t worry. Those reviews are probably giving you and your book a boost.
Take a Deep Breath and Then Make It Personal (the Right Way)
So, what is a publisher or author to do with this? First and foremost, don’t automatically sweat the bad reviews. As creative professionals, it’s impossible not to have at least a small personal stake in the publications you take to market and so it’s difficult not to take negative feedback personally. However, taking a defensive stance or insinuating the reviewer is wrong just breeds additional negative feedback. This looks like you’re “punching down,” and you’ll end up triggering the empathetic response from other customers, just not in the direction you need. The customer is not always right, but publicly pointing out that the customer is wrong is courting trouble.
Most times, the best response is none at all. If you are publishing quality materials, you’ll likely have a defender in another reviewer or customer, whose thoughts will carry more weight with potential buyers. And if your imprint is focused on relatively partisan, difficult, provocative, or humorous subject matter, a negative review is demonstrably an asset. In these instances, controversy is exactly what you need, and that one-star feedback is a credibility signifier. In the case of unjust reviews, the best bet may be to embrace it. Some businesses have taken to celebrating them as a marketing tactic, which seems like an appropriate option for hipster (sorry) imprints and titles. For all other publishers, if your negative review falls into one of the categories above, you’re better off leaving them be.
When a Review Is Actually Harmful
There are times, however, when a response is warranted and there are lessons to be learned from the concepts mentioned above. A parade of one-star reviews that are level-headed and specifically addressing issues over which you as a publisher have direct control should not go unaddressed. Things like printing and production issues, missing content or pages, significant typographical errors, or even pricing should be fixed by any credible publisher and customers need to know this. Even in instances where the mistake isn’t your fault (“The Amazon box was dented when I got it!! NO STARS!!!!!”), it may not be apparent to customers with a limited understanding of supply chains and vendor relations that it isn’t, and a clarifying response may be necessary.
If you do need to make a response, use the empathetic tendencies of customers to your advantage. Some tips to keep in mind:
According to Allard et al., respond as a person with a name—not a company—doing everything in your power to address the situation.
Own the problem, and even if it’s not your mistake, make it clear that you’re taking the issue seriously.
Avoid blaming and finger-pointing; the customer doesn’t care who is at fault and it makes you look untrustworthy.
Be solution-oriented in your response and talk about the steps being taken.
Make it clear an actual person or people are trying to fix the problem.
While it’s scary to put yourself out there like this, it can pay substantial dividends in maintaining or even growing credibility and reputation. Fortunately, you likely won’t need to do this much. The buying public is often more emotional and savvier than we give them credit for. They can read between the lines, and often, in the case of a borderline ridiculous product review, this can be good news for you.
