The Worst Kind of One Star Product Review You Can Get

Haters Gonna Hate (but some people have genuine problems with your product, and then your brand.)

Haters. Even the best brands in the world have them.
Take Apple for example. For all the love and brand loyalty built over the years, some consumers simply choose to go the alternate route. To not be one of the flock. Price and trust issues (like the recent battery saga) also drive customers away.
Moving beyond “haters gonna hate”, there are going to be some consumers with genuine problems with your product. Regardless of your loyalty or previous track record, it’s bound to happen. Reality did not match their vision of the experience with your product… in a variety of ways: fit, quality, set up time, value for the money, battery life, appearance, etc.
These unhappy folks have essentially two choices to detail their dissatisfaction to you.

1. Contact customer service.
2. Rate the product and brand experience online.

Most brands hope that number 1 comes before number 2, so that they can remedy the situation before the customer “goes public”.

Yes, A One Star Product Review Can Get Worse

The worst case scenario is when the complaint does not get heard by customer service. Whether support is literally unreachable or they simply aren’t understanding and solving the issue, on top of product problems, trust us, this will make it into the review text, detailed for all to see. And this is the worst type of negative review you can get.
Check out this 1-star review from Skechers Performance Men’s Go Golf Shoes. You can see how hard the customer tried to reach support. If you were uncertain whether the product was right for you, reading that the company is unlikely to be responsive to any issues will most certainly sway you away from this purchase.

I cannot believe all the positive reviews for these shoes. Our experience with Skechers has been a nightmare. If you do not have any quality/leaking issues with the shoes they are probably a great buy at this price point, but if you have to deal with any warranty issues then “forget about it”.
Purchased two pair of these shoes and received them on August 31, 2017. Fit felt good and they felt comfortable and did not need any breaking in period. I play golf at least three times per week and walk the course. T-Time is 9:00 a.m. so there is usually a bit of dew on the ground. These shoes leak like a sieve! You could literally wring the water out of my socks. Contacted (or at least tried to) Skechers using warranty info on card in box with shoes. Waterproof warrant is supposedly good for two years – and I was only at the 1 month point. Warranty says you need an authorization number prior to returning .. ok. Tried calling the 800 number on several occasions and after holding for over 20 minutes each time would hang up to try another day. Completely unsuccessful in speaking with anyone so tried the email notice method that was listed on the warranty card. Emailed on October 9 and by October 16 was still awaiting response. Am getting a little peeved by this time. Today bit the bullet, called again and stayed on hold approximately 36 minutes before I got a “live” person. Told the CSR I needed a return authorization number for two pair of golf shoes – she tells me “you don’t need one, just mail them back”. I told her the warranty card stated they would not be accepted w/o an authorization number. She again said nope, just send them in. This did not instill a great deal of confidence in me so I send another email to yet another email address at Skechers […]

The moral of the story? Bad product performance + bad customer service = worse than 1 star. Good customer service is good for overall sales and solves a lot of potential problems for your brand.