Yay or Nay? Going on the Offensive against your 1-Star Reviewers?
If you’ve ever experienced an unfair and accusatory 1-Star review then you’ll relate well to guest Maarten Belmans. But is going on the offensive the right approach? Yay or Nay?
You work so hard to do everything right, respond to every email, tweak all your on-page keywords, fine-tune your bookkeeping. Being a plugin author solopreneur can be exhausting. And then a new 1-Star review hits your inbox.
It’s blatantly untrue. It’s unfair. It’s defaming and harmful to your hard-earned reputation. Isn’t it time that someone stood up to such privledged, insensitive customer reviews? Shouldn’t we “hit back”?
The Context
This conversation was inspired by Maarten Belmans from Studio Wombat and his experience.
I certainly don’t blame Maarten for his response here – it’s totally understandable. Business owners should defend their integrity publicly. But did he go just a bit too far?
The Yay or Nay of Going Aggressive against 1-Star Reviewers
Listen in on our episode of Yay or Nay and decide for yourself.
Some Developments Since this Incident
Since Maarten first posted his tweet above, two interesting things have happened:
- The WordPress.org Forum Moderators decided to remove that review. We all applaud them for their good judgement there.
- The Forum Moderators also updated the Forum rules to broad-strokes forbid reviews like this as a rule. You can see me in the comments on that post asking clarifying questions like whether that rule works retroactively, or applies to reviews that mention good support, etc.
Overall, I think Maarten’s proactive and constructive attitude about this clearly undeserved and negative experience worked toward a very positive outcome. Thanks Maarten for your diligence and joining us on the show!
Also check out Maarten’s episode on WP Product Talk about his experience as a WooCommerce extension business owner.
