The Ultimate guide: Five Pro Tips On How to deal with a Bad Review.

Every freelancer’s nightmare: getting a bad review from a client, especially when you’re just finding afoot as a new freelancer in the gig economy. Research shows that 70% of people make their purchase decisions based on reviews, so getting a review is very important.

A bad review is no good for a freelancer than it is for a client because it affects both parties’ purchasing decisions. If you’ve received a bad review from a client on any freelance platform, no worries, even experts receive bad reviews.

These are the best-curated steps you could take to ensure that the reviews leave a minimal impact on your future gigs with other clients.

How to perfectly manage a bad review.

  • Respond quickly.

Don’t feel sad about the review; a bad review doesn’t mean your work is bad. Ever heard of the popular saying, “a stitch in time saves nine?” responding quickly to a bad review can offer the client an option to remove the review from your freelance profile. 

  • Respond politely

When requesting a change or removing the bad review, politely ask the client without expressing your anger or disappointment. You can also apologize stating the “why” and “how” the contract turned out badly. Also, ask if you can refund part of the payment or redo the contract, this will express your genuine intentions to the client.

Give a sincere and thoughtful explanation of how rare it is to happen in your relationship with other clients. 

  • Adjust to the feedback 

If truly you’re guilty if the charges against you, don’t be too hard on yourself, it’s not the end of the world. Try to adjust by ensuring you take deliberate steps to avoid it repeating itself in the future. Also, when submitting proposals, apply for jobs, you can do with little or no corrections.

  • Leave feedback to the review 

What if you’re not guilty of the allegations against you? Leave feedback to counter what the client said, telling your side of the story. Also, ensure that you properly explain what went wrong with the project deliverables in a polite way, to avoid any further escalations of the argument. You don’t want other clients to have a bad impression when they see a bad review from another client on your profile; you can leave feedback like “The client was unclear about the terms of the contract and next time, I’d ensure I fully ask and understand the deliverables of the project before the accepting the contract.” Doing this will help terminate the negative review of the client.

  • Hide it or request for a removal

On freelance platforms like Upwork, you can hide a client’s review, although this might make other clients wonder why you did it. On freelance sites like freelance.com, changing or removing reviews isn’t allowed. However, you can request for dispute resolution from the customer service, make sure you have genuine evidence that the allegation towards you is wrong. 

Whatever the case may be, don’t let it discourage you, square your shoulders and keep your head high, getting a bad review doesn’t signal the end of your freelance career. Learn from the feedback if you’re at fault, and if you’re not, it’s okay. You’d get other clients that will give five-star reviews. 

How did you react to a bad review if you’ve got one? Tell us how you bounced back in the comments section below.

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