What to do when you get a 1-star Google Review

You know the feeling. You open your laptop, see that little notification, and your stomach drops before you've even read the words… a one-star review. Your hands go sweaty, your mind starts spiralling, and suddenly all the beautiful work you do feels invisible. Andy and Jacinta have both been there, and in this episode they're walking you through exactly what to do when it happens, why it stings so much, and the reframe that turns your first critic into proof you're doing something right.

In This Episode:

• Discover the "judgment tax" reframe, and why the more people you serve, the more opinions and criticism come with the territory (it's the price of visibility, not a sign you're failing)
• Hear Jacinta's raw story of getting her very first critic after her first live event, and the phone call with her mentor that changed how she sees negative feedback forever
• Learn the peach analogy that gives you full permission to stop trying to be liked by everyone
• Get the exact first move to make when a bad review lands (hint: it's not replying straight away)
• Find out the one question to ask yourself before you respond, and why even 5% of truth is worth listening to
• Learn how to write a response that actually wins over future clients, using conscious communication, kindness, and zero defensiveness
• Understand when to report a fake or unfair review to Google and get it taken down
• Discover how to "bury the bad boy" with a simple five-star review drive in your practice
• Try the Seven Levels Deep exercise to reconnect with your big why so no review can shake you

Key Quotes: "You can be the juiciest, ripest peach and not everyone likes peaches. It's not that you have to change what type of peach you are." - Jacinta

"Congratulations, you have your first critic. For you to have someone not like what you did, it means you were big enough and polarising enough to stand for something." - the advice that changed everything for Jacinta

Mentioned in this episode:

• The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz (a short, powerful read on not taking things personally)
• The Seven Levels Deep exercise (learned from Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi) for reconnecting with your why
• Schedule your FREE Practice Plan Call

If this episode lit something up in you and you're ready to build a business that supports your life instead of consuming it, book a free Practice Plan call and let's map out your next chapter together.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I was on such a hype. Went to bed, like job done. Yes, success. And the next day, I got up, received this email, and it was a lady that said to me, Welcome back to another episode of the Wealthy Women's Business Podcast. Today we are talking about a juicy topic, and that is what to do when you get a one-star Google review. I know that some of you who've had maybe a one-star Google review before, this might make your hands really sweaty. It's never nice. It's never nice, but it does happen in business. So by the end of this episode, you're going to know exactly what to do when you get that one-star review. And also you're going to understand that it is just part of being a practice owner.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

And it's just, it's just real life, right? Before we were, we started filming, we mentioned that look, if a business doesn't have a poor review, like a one, two-star review, then you're thinking it's not actually a legit business. They've paid for all of their five-star reviews. Or it's their friends and family. Yeah. That have just come in there. When it boils down to it, people have different biases and different perspectives. And it doesn't matter how much of a phenomenal job that you've done, people will come in on a bad day and decide to dump all of their shit into a bad Google review. And often it has absolutely nothing to do with you or your service. That's just human nature.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Exactly. So part of the reason why we wanted to film this episode is recently we had two of our Academy members quite upset because they had just received a one-star Google review.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Yeah. Actually, it was a two-star. How are we talking about it? You know, yeah. Um, and yeah, like, and I have to preface that these women, they are leaders in their industries. They do an amazing job. And so definitely, like, when they received that review, it really caught them by surprise because they had even good relationships with the clients that left these reviews. Long story short, when it all boiled down, the review wasn't even about the actual service. Um, it was a massage business. It was about the communication and missed appointment policy procedure, all of that, which didn't uh actually happen because of um the systems in her business. It was because of miscommunication between a referral partner. So obviously really upset. Um, so we helped her navigate and and even gave her some prompts to answer that response. And that's another that's the first key takeaway is that if you do get a poor review, you want to address it as quickly as possible. Number one, if it has absolutely nothing to do with your business, if it's fake, then report it. Report it to Google. You can get it revoked, you can get it taken down. However, if it is legit, um, then reply to it because as you know, I'm sure that you read comments, everybody reads comments. If somebody is seriously looking at joining your practice, they'll read the comment, they'll understand the circumstance, and they'll decide to become a client anyway, most likely. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

Yeah, and I've actually gone to businesses, restaurants, cafes. I actually really like to search out, especially if they're good people good um operators. I like to read their one-star reviews. I find it quite entertaining. And I specifically like to read what the business has responded with. Because that often tells me more about the values of that business and how they operate than the one-star review does. So absolutely, we're going to go through more towards the end of this episode, the exact step-by-step things that we would recommend that you do if you do get a poor review. But I wanted to really talk into the reason why this does shake us up so much. And I think that look, if you're getting a lot of one-star reviews, then probably something to look at. There are bad businesses out there. There is absolutely no denying it. However, the people in our world, they're five-star. Not you guys listening to the podcast. Yeah. You guys are five-star. We know that. Yeah. And but these one-star reviews, they do happen. I call it the judgment tax. So no matter what, you have to pay this tax when it comes to business. If you are serving the public and serving people, the more people you serve, the more judgment, the more opinions, the more stuff, the more judgment tax. And you don't avoid the judgment tax, you have to pay it. And receiving that judgment is what you pay. Yeah. You're you have to navigate internally being okay with people not liking you. And it reminds me of uh I've got a couple of stories. The first is I had to really overcome my own fear of being judged. About four years ago, I had one of our associates, so practitioner chiropractors, she came up at the end of shift to me and she said, she just kind of was laughing and she said, Oh, I just needed to let you know this. But I have a client that has requested that she uses the private room. For anyone who doesn't know, we open plan. But this client requested to use the private room. And when I asked her why it was that she requested the private room, our associate said, It's because she can't stand the sound of your voice.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

Your voice is actually pretty loud. I'm joking.

unknown 6:29

I'm joking.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

That's why we have it's good because we can turn my voice on and off on the podcast. It's hilarious. And it's like, okay, that's kind of at the when I heard it initially, I was like, oh, that kind of stings. Like that hurt a little bit. But then I was like, you know what? Like you just can't please everyone. Some people love, you know, my energy, other people don't like it. You're never gonna please everyone. It's like that typical analogy of you can be the juiciest, rifest peach, and not everyone likes peaches. Yeah, it's not that you have to change what type of peach you are, it's just that not everyone likes peaches, and that's cool. And the one that really I remember distinctly when I had to go through a process of really overcoming this, and this was in my second year out in practice. I was working with a mentor at the time, and I was, I had just put on and I was just about to host my first event. It was part of a marketing strategy that I was working with this mentor on doing. And part of that strategy was getting a lot of people in a room, doing a wellness talk, and then pitching at the end my services. I was so nervous to do this because one of my biggest fears at the time was actually public speaking. You would never guess that now.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Yeah, can't get her to shut up now. Can't get me to shut up.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Give me a camera, give me a microphone. I want to be in front of it.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

But I was really scared. I was up nights and nights on end, like sweaty palms, stressed to the max, couldn't sleep, huge anxiety through the night, got through the night, did an excellent job from all accounts. Was on such a big high afterwards, right? I remember going out to dinner and I was like a later, I'd overcome this massive fear that I had had. I was getting so much great praise from everyone that was there. I had an 80% conversion in the room whereby 80% of the clients that uh the people that were listening actually booked in for an initial consultation with me. So my books exploded. And I was on such a high. Went to bed, like job done. Yes, success. And the next day I got up, opened my emails, and I had an email waiting for me first thing in the morning. And it was someone who had come to the event, and she, I'm not sure if you even know this story. Maybe not.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

I think I've got some.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

A vague memory of like, because you were around. Yeah, it's like 10 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Yeah, yeah. No, you you smashed that. And I do have a memory of this. However, you know, a couple of children later, baby brain. Or the it changed. Oh, it just has fallen out of your brain.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

Yeah. Um, so I opened my laptop, received this email, and it was a lady that said to me, I had been looking forward to your event for weeks and weeks. Me and my daughter, we are strapped for money, and we had saved up to come to your event, and this was something special that we did together, and we haven't been out together for ages, and we're really looking forward to it. We came to your event full of excitement to learn from you, and you just sold the whole time and pitched, and it was a complete waste of our time and money, and I want my money back. Even as I'm saying this now, I'm actually shocked at I'm almost going back there now. I was like, oh, that poor little Jay. Like when I read that and I was so scared I'd overcome this big scary thing, and then receiving that, man, I spiraled so hard afterwards. I felt really embarrassed. I was, I felt a lot of shame. I was like, I never want to do this again. I'm never putting myself out there again. That is way too painful to have someone call me out like that. Because also I didn't want to come across as salesy. That was also a fear that I had. But it's so interesting how the fears that you have and the things that you don't want to happen are often what is reflected back to you for you to grow. And I know now that after I straight away, I was on the phone to my mentor, and I was like, this is really like this is happening, this is horrible. And he just paused and he said, Jacinta, congratulations, you have your first critic. And I said, What do you mean? He goes, You did an amazing job. For you to have someone not like what you did, it means that you were big enough and polarizing enough and vivacious enough to have an opinion and to stand for something. Because if you never get poor feedback, quite often it's because you're standing for nothing. So I was like, okay, cool, great. Obviously, it took me a little bit to move through that. But now when we receive things like bad reviews, knowing that there's so many five-star reviews around it, when we receive bad feedback in a sea of amazing feedback, I think, okay, cool, great. We are shaking the status quo. And if in actual fact, on things like Instagram posts or even podcast episodes that we do, if we're not getting enough from the public of like disagreeing with us, then I start to think we're doing something wrong. Yeah. You want to have that polarity in your community. So congratulations for those of you who have had a one-star review. You have your critics, and that's a really, really good thing.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember, I remember that story. And I know we've spoken spoken about this in the past. Um, that not wanting to be salesy and the fear of letting someone down, all of those things are shadow aspects, and that's just a golden opportunity, a window for it was a window for you to learn to love and accept fully that aspect of yourself. Yeah. So whenever you're feeling that uh discomfort within or feeling triggered or upset, I'm speaking to you guys listening, see that as an opportunity for that next level of growth. Just staying open and breathing through that discomfort and understanding that this is for your own good. The I wanted to share the piece of one of the pieces of advice that I actually gave our client with this poll review. And one of it was um to read a book. So for all of you out there who haven't read this book, go get it in Audible, get it from the library. It's a really short read, The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruitz. Hopefully, I have a hastenized Tuesday. Um it's it's about fulfillment, ultimate freedom, Toltec wisdom. And there are obviously four agreements, and one of the top ones is not to take things personally. So even if someone says, just enter, you're shit at what you do, you're a terrible chiropractor, you have the the most annoying voice in the world, even if they actually say it to you, it's stupid to take it personally because they have grown up with their own biases, their own programming, and yes, that may be their opinion, however, it's not actually truth. So yes, that was the first one, not to take it personally. Um, I've got the other ones written down. Be impeccable with your words, so only speak truth. Don't make assumptions. Assumptions make an arse out of you and me. And always do your best. So I think if you can live by those agreements, then you're gonna have a pretty fulfilling life. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

We don't need to read the book because we've just got the synopsis right there. Okay, so now you understand that it's not such a bad thing if you get a one-star review. But it's still there, right? So what can we do about it when it does come? Because there is definitely things that you should be addressing if it is to be that you are getting a bad review or bad feedback in general, right? So the first is just to simply not freak out, okay? Sleep on it. Do not respond when you are activated and triggered. Especially do not respond with defensiveness. When I we started this episode, I spoke about I like to see how the business reacts when there's a poor review because it tells me what I need to know about the business. The ones that are defending to the cows come home and say, well, you were late, and you were this and you were that. It leaves such a bad taste in the mouth of the of the person reading that. Versus someone who's coming at it in a mature, neutral way, addressing respectful. It's like, cool, these are proper operators. They know what they're doing. So don't freak out, don't get defensive, take a breath, go through whatever process you need to go through to overcome whatever the uncomfortable feeling is around this. And then the second step is to ask yourself the one question of is there actually any truth in this? Even if it's just 5%. Because feedback is good. Even negative negative feedback is quite often more impactful than positive feedback because it can show you where you could tighten up a few strings. And even if the review itself is blown out of proportion or there it's not true, there could be a scary of truth in it. And so you don't want to just dismiss reviews and feedback as like that person was having a bad day. You want to really look at whether or not there's something that you need to change and be big enough to implement that and own that if that was to be the case. Yeah. And so we had a couple of reviews around people having to leave the appointment and being really annoyed because people were running late. And look, this person that left a review should they were um obviously, you know, not having a good day and they they blew it out of proportion. But there was a bit of truth in that because yeah, like sometimes we were running late a little. And so we actually had a meeting around that and made sure that we did everything that we can to stay on time from there on in. Because you you do want to address those things. But do it without the emotion in it, I think is is the um the key there.

SPEAKER_00 17:21

And um what I what I like to do is obviously respond as soon as possible. I like to write a response and then I put it through Chat GPT, our best friend, um, and like make it in like a warmer tone or and just get ideas and run it through that filter as well. Kind of like my husband, um, he is he is like very set in his ways in some instances and very protective and uh can be hot-headed. We love him. We love him, we love him so much. Um, but I'm his chat GPT, I'm his filter. Um I actually he actually uses Chat GPT now to soften. He uses he uses me. So before like any legal um response or contract thing, if there's a dispute, um he'll forward me the email and ask, oh Andy, can you just check this or soften it? Make sure I don't put people offside here. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So so do that as well. Yeah. If you if you if you feel like you need to.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

Yeah, and that leads me to the third step here, which is respond to respond to the review, but respond with the intention also of having future clients read that. And so make sure you're validating whatever they're saying. It's like conscious communication, right? Validate what they're saying, um, be neutral, kill with kindness. I mean, that goes such a long way. Saying things like, we understand that this may be disappointing for you, we understand, however, that our methods may not be for everyone, and we're hoping that, you know, you do find somewhere that has the care that you're looking for. Something like that, if they've, you know, complained about the type of service that they've got. You know, we've had people say that they're annoyed that we did an assessment initially and didn't give them treatment on the first visit. But most of our clients say that that's the thing that they love the most about what we do because we're so thorough. So, you know, it's just because you're not for everyone. So just address that with kindness and yeah, kill them with kindness.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

And then and and I know that this goes without saying. Goes without saying. No gaslighting, no passive aggressiveness, right? Like you just make sure none of that sneaks in. Yeah, you might be thinking it, just don't write it.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

Yes, absolutely. Good point. And then finally, you want to bury that bad boy. So you do not want the first review on your Google review page to be a one-star. You want it to be five stars. And so do a Google review drive in your practice. Make sure that you're, you know, you're asking people for Google reviews. Maybe you do some sort of Google review competition in-house. We've done that before, whereby you ask people for a five-star Google review and then they they get a coffee voucher for that. Get your friends and family involved, whatever you need to do to bury that bad boy deep, deep down into the abyss of the five stars.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, one thing that just popped into my head because um at the beginning of the episode, we were talking about resilience and and uh letting letting that poor review not affect you, right? Is that judgment tax of visibility of of growth? Um, one exercise that can really help with the resilience is understanding like who you are, like why you actually started this business in the first place. So, this is actually a um exercise that we learned from um Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi when we were mentoring with them. And it's called uh Seven Levels Deep. And so what you do essentially is when you think about your business, you write down, well, why? Like ask yourself, why did I start this business? You write down your answer, and then you ask why again for whatever answer you've written, and you do that seven times until you get to the truth. And that's your big why. That is that should, and for our academy members, when they do this, it's like tears in your eyes because you've hit your heart and your soul, and your like you can move mountains as long as you're aligned with this why. And so I encourage you to do that exercise and and tap into that why whenever you're shaken by a poor review or anything else, anything else negative in in the business.

SPEAKER_01 22:17

Beautiful. What a beautiful way to close the episode. So, look, we like five star reviews. And we can five-star review this podcast too. So that's that is my closing message for you. Yeah. Next week.