How much would you pay to make it go away?
Here’s another listener suggestion. Michelle McFarland and I were at a conference recently and she reminded me of a story I had told at another event that totally changed the way she handled negative situations with customers. Once the damage is done it’s often hard, or impossible to undo. If you are proactive, it might cost you less than what it would cost to try to undo the damage from negative reviews and bad press.
Listen to this new 7-minute episode and find out.
If you have any questions about anything in this, or any of my podcasts, or have a suggestion for a topic or guest, please reach out directly to me at [email protected] or visit my website www.AlanBerg.com
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Below is a full transcript. If you have any questions about anything in this, or any of my podcasts, or have a suggestion for a topic or guest, please reach out directly to me at [email protected] or contact me via text, use the short form on this page, or call 732.422.6362
Please be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave a review (thanks, it really does make a difference). If you want to get notifications of new episodes and upcoming workshops and webinars, you can sign up at www.ConnectWithAlanBerg.com
– How much would you pay to make it go away? Want to see what I’m talking about? Listen to this episode. This is another topic suggestion that came from a listener, Michelle McFarland, a good friend. Shout-out to Michelle there for reminding me of this at a conference that we were at together recently. It was a kind of a summit for bridal shop owners. And we were talking about many things, including reviews, something I addressed on another episode here: How Do You Reply and How Do You Handle Negative Reviews? And Michelle reminded me and everyone of a story that I had told her a while back, and it’s something that she’s lived by and I want to share this with you guys.
I had been approached by someone who had gotten a negative review, and this happens to me every so often. Especially when it’s someone’s first negative review, they come to me with their hair on fire and go, “Ah, how do I handle this?” And again, I address this on another episode. And I said, like I always do, “Tell me the story”, and then “How much of this is true?” And in this particular case, this was an entertainment company, they had sent a DJ out onto a wedding, and the power went out at the venue. Not the DJ’s fault. The power went out, probably in the whole neighborhood. And the venue sent everybody home. The couple, not knowing where to point their anger pointed their anger at the DJ and said, “You need to give us a refund, like right here on the spot,” which that DJ had no authority to do because they weren’t an owner, and they said, “Listen, I’m sorry, I would keep playing if I could, but they’re sending everybody home. You need to talk to the boss.”
So they sent a very angry email to the boss, the ones that start with them loading both barrels that they’re going to shoot at you and threatening that they’re going to post all these bad reviews if they don’t give them a refund. Some of you can relate to this kind of a quasi-blackmail-ish thing here. I say quasi because they haven’t done it yet, they are threatening it. It’s kind of blackmail, but no, that’s another story. So the owner said, Listen, I might’ve offered them a partial refund, but we will play again if you’re going to redo it, if you can have everybody come back, and all this kind of stuff. And the couple wasn’t satisfied and went and posted all the bad reviews.
At this point, the owner is now standing in front of my table at a trade show that we were at together, asking me, “Can I help make this go away?” And I asked them how much of what the couple said was true and through all of that. And I said, “Well, if I could make this go away right now, would you write me a check?” And he said, “Yes.” I said, “How big of a check would you be willing to write me?” And he said, “Right now, a pretty big check.” I said, “By any chance, is that check equal to or greater than the amount that they were looking for in a refund?” And he said, “Yeah, actually, it would be.” I said, “Oh, so NOW, after the damage is done, you’re willing to pay even more to make it go away, whereas before, you weren’t willing to pay to avoid it in the first place.”
So this was the same thing that Michelle had reminded me that that’s what she thinks of now. I explained that the short-term pain is the money you give them versus the long-term pain of that review that’s there forever for somebody to see. In this case, not even the fault of the DJ, but the idea that the damage was already done, and now they were feeling pain, and that pain was going to be extended again and again every time somebody read that. Because one of the things I’ve talked about on the ‘How Do We Handle the Negative Reviews?’ if you do give someone some money back, make a condition of that that neither they or anybody associated with them or their event will post anything about you, good or bad, right? Just that they’re not going to post anything.
And that’s the point here is if you’re playing the long game, if you’re playing that game of chess where you’re thinking ahead, if I do this, what will they do? What would you be willing to pay to make the damage go away? And can I avoid that now maybe by paying even less? Yes, sometimes even if it’s more than is warranted, I totally get that. But if your hair’s going to be on fire later and you’re willing to pay more, think the long game. Treat yourself like a friend, or someone that came to you with that same problem, and would you say to them, “Hey, it will cost you less to make it go away now than to make it go away later, or maybe not even make it go away later because you can’t, what would you do?” So that’s the whole point of this episode is to think about the long game there. What would you pay to make it go away? Would you be willing to pay that much or maybe even less now to make it never happen, and maybe turn the negative situation into a positive?
Maybe some people would be so happy with the way you handle it that they would want to say great things about you, maybe without the details that you gave them all their money back or not even all their money back, maybe some of it. And I’ve had this happen so many times. I had another customer where, not getting into the whole story, but it was an older couple, they were getting married, they’ve been together a long time, and a week or two before the wedding, the groom had paid in full and then goes out and mows the lawn and drops dead. And it was a whole back and forth where they asked for their final deposit back, they got it, then they came back and asked the initial deposit after they had already accepted that final deposit. And now everybody’s threatening things and threatening to post and go to the newspaper and TV and all this kind of stuff when they could have avoided that in the first place by just saying, “Yeah, you’re asking for your final deposit, but let me give it all,” which is what their lawyer had suggested. And then they have no recourse. And if anything, they’ll say, “Oh, they were so courteous,” and that’s a terrible situation because clearly, that wasn’t planned, right?
So what would you pay to make it go away? And then I don’t have to get the phone call with your hair on fire, “Alan, what do I do now?” because you handled it properly. So if you haven’t heard the other episode on how to handle negative reviews, please listen to that one as well. Thanks again to Michelle for this reminder. I hope this helps you. I hope you never need this, but if you do run into a situation or you have a friend that does, I hope this helps you or them. Thanks. Keep the suggestions coming.
I’m Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you’d like to suggest other topics for “The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast” please let me know. My email is [email protected]. Look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.
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