INSIDE THE SHOP SOCIALS #1: Ratings & Reviews - Episode 47

OK guys I’m just doing a quick little episode here to talk about ratings and reviews. Good intentions thoughts on what you should do and what you shouldn’t do and just to make 
 aware.

#BeKind #GoodIntentions #Ratings #Reviews #Whatnot #KarriKennedy #LiveSales #EntrepreneurLife 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Hey there guys. I hope everybody is doing really, really well. I have decided to change things up. I know you're like, what? Carrie change things up? I I know it's crazy. But I just started a new series called Inside the Shop, a new series. And then I realized I was gonna do it like one per week and make it all organized. But then I'm like, why? I don't need to do that. I don't need to do that. We can just do it like I have, off the cuff, whenever, and you know, make it happen. And that works better with my lifestyle and um, yeah, just the way that the world works. And um, the reason I'm saying that is because right after I did inside the shop a new series, you know, the grand opening where I talked about it, I think it was just the next day. Yeah, that was on Monday. Then on Tuesday, I dropped snapshot number one, which snapshot is where I do live, you know, browsing and talk about the different people and what they're doing right and what they might need to improve and what I like and don't like and all that. Just very real snapshot of people. And then today I'm coming to you with an inside the shop socials episode. That's where I talk about things that people are saying across social media, questions, debates, rumors, misinformation, you know, etc. And uh, so the reason I'm bringing that one to you is because um, really, in a nutshell, guys, I have heard the same thing about ratings and reviews for two years now. I mean, really, I didn't pay attention to as much stuff in the beginning because I was learning. Um, but this happens all the time, all the time. And I'm just hoping that if you're a newbie and you're listening, or if you're just somebody who's buying or just coming in, it'll it'll give you time to pause and think because that's what I want to talk about. So this is an episode where basically we're gonna be doing talking about inside the shop socials and you know what's what people are saying, and it's really about ratings and reviews. I'm gonna try to keep it to that. We'll we'll see how that goes. You guys are like, yeah, no, Carrie is a talker. Um, okay, so here's my thoughts. Um, no script as usual. Um, okay, the ratings and review thing is really, really hard. Um, you know, I do consults for people, just$20 for 30 minutes. And I remember one of my consults, gosh, this has to have been like eight months ago or something. It's been a while. Um, yeah, because I think if she was one of my first. I started doing this like seven, eight months ago. And um, she had her rating go down to like 4.7, and she was really upset. And I was like, no, actually, it was 4.9. Now I remember it was 4.9 because she was really upset, and I thought, it's not that big of a deal, it's only one point. And she couldn't figure out how it happened, how to get it back up, what that looked like. Now, I will say I have never gone below five. That's just never happened to me. If you go back and you look at my reviews, they're really good. And this is another reason I'm bringing this on, not just because of socials, but because something happened to me. And you're welcome to go look at my reviews and you can see what I'll actually read it out to you when I get to that point. Um, but anyways, she was really upset, and I think it happened because somebody gave her a one-star review, which honestly, I just think is horrible. I'm you guys, this is my opinion, my advice, my suggestion, my best practices. You don't have to agree with me. If you want to be a jerk and just give somebody a one-star, that's fine. I mean, that really truly is fine. Maybe they deserve it. I don't know. I happen to be a Christian, and I definitely think that there is not a love, enough support, enough grace, enough compassion. I think we're living in a very cynical, very evil, very end times world where, you know, people don't give a shit about other people like they should. And that's one of the reasons I actually do this podcast, to be quite honest. Um, I'm not here to get rich. In fact, I pay$100 of my money,$99 to be exact, of my money every month to run this podcast. But I'll tell you just this morning. In fact, hold on, let me go back. I know I'm I'm all over the place. Let me go into my whatnot so I can read what somebody wrote to me just this morning in the messages. Let me find her. Okay, here it is. Here's what she said. Um, I have talked to her, and she's I'm I'm gonna tell you who it is actually. It's her name is H-E-D-W-E-N-D-Y. I'm gonna have to let her know that I'm talking about her in the podcast. She said, Um, thank you so much for joining my show. It was her first show. I was out to eat with my husband, but I knew it was her first show, so I tried to get in. And I wasn't there for long, five minutes, but I showed up. So she said, Thank you so much for joining my show. I'm so flattered that you were there. Your support means so much to me. You were a blessing to many people. Thank you, Carrie. And I said, honestly, I was out to eat with my husband. I didn't know if you saw or heard me. Her daughter did. She said, I didn't know, but my daughter told me after the show, I was so nervous and I just appreciate you so much. I said, You were doing awesome, which she totally was. Um, anyways, she said, Thank you so much. I was so nervous. Sierra told me Carrie came into my show and I was like, wow. And I was like, uh, hello, girl. I'm just a reseller like you, no big deal. Next time um you go on again, I'll come in again. She said, Oh, I know. I've purchased pretty stuff from you. You are just great at it and have helped so many people. Um, she it's you know, we text, so I'm trying to clear it up. She said, Mine and my daughter's friend, Kennedy's creations, we all have learned so much from you and continue to learn. I think it's amazing what you do, and God bless you for it. And then um, she said, Thank you so much for your support. And then I said, That's awesome. Here's my phone number, whatever. That's why I do this, guys. That truly is. I mean, that makes me so happy that somebody felt supported, cared about, you know, thrilled to have some support. Really, that's it. And I I wish there was more of that going around. I I I mean, to be quite honest, I feel like a lot of people who do the talk shows, they just want you to buy their thing or bless their chat so they can get their$25 or their$50 or whatever. Honestly, I've tried the bless the chat thing, never did it work. Um, it was trying to get the community thing, and so I just I just gave it up. You know, I think you have to have, you know, 200, 300 people in your room to get to that point. But even then, it's you're not supposed to drop your shows. You can only, you know, I I I don't want this ever to, and I don't think it ever will be a get rich scheme. Um, but I'm doing it because I really truly care. Okay, that's in a nutshell. Okay, so I want you just to really think about what it means when you're giving somebody a review. Because now that I've just showed you why I'm doing this and told you about her, her name's H-E-D-W-E-N-D on here. Now I'm going to go back to my reviews. Here I go. Into my reviews. Now, most of the time I get great reviews, okay? I I you can go look five star reviews. They say how great the packing is, how great the shipping is, how they love the freeze-dry candy, how they had fun in the show, etc. etc. Okay. I'm not saying this, I'm telling you. Five stars. I mean, you can count how many. Well, some girl, Melissa Seals, gave me a 4.2 star and it said one vase was broken. Okay, and here's where I have the problem. M-E-L-I-S-S-A seals, S-E-A-L-S. And I think she's bought from me before. I don't know. I could get wrong because there's a lot of Melissa's out there. But either way, she wrote, quote, one vase was broken. Okay, now, number one, did she reach out to me so I can make the problem right? No, she never messaged me. If she would have, I always, always, always take care of my customers. Always. Like, I there's nobody on this platform can say that I never tried to reach out and help you. In fact, a duck was broken recently. And I can go to my messages here real quick. I'm gonna tell you the messages. A duck was broken in shipping. She showed me the picture and she said, This poor duck lost its head along the trap, you know, travels. And I was like, Oh no, I'm so sad that happened. That's terrible. Um, I'll tell you who this was. Her name is Nick Nack83, N-I-K-K-N-A-C-K 83. She sent me a picture. It says, Hi, Carrie, I just got home and opened my packages, and this ceramic duck is broken. I felt awful because it was a freaking awesome duck. And I said, Oh my gosh, I'm heartbroken. I can't believe that. And I'm so, so, so sad and upset. Of course, I will give you either credit or pay you via Venmo, PayPal, or Zill. Oh, I loved that. And I wonder if um you can still keep him and just glue his head on. Of course, I'll still pay you, but I'm wondering if he can be salvaged. Um, we really do try our best to make sure everything is safe and secure, and this rarely happens. She wrote back, yes, it was wrapped so well, and I was shocked. I was so excited to get him. I might can glue him back together. Um, I would be fine with either method. A credit is okay too. I am sure that you have more than I am gonna want. L O L. And um, and this cat. Oh my goodness. I don't remember what cat I sent her, but I guess I sent her a cat too. She said, she's so freaking cute. I said, I'm actually going in on three minutes, blah, blah, blah. Come in and I tell her about some other stuff. We go back and forth. I'm supposed to pay pal her, she gave me her name$24.80. I am going to pay her$24.80. So why am I bringing all this up? Because I really believe that Melissa should have messaged me. And why shouldn't Melissa have messaged me? Well, to give me a chance to make things right. And I think everybody should have a chance to make it right. Now my rating is still five star because uh, you know, the way it works, I've got like 1,500 five stars. So I mean, it would take a little bit more than her 4.2 to really come crashing it. And if there's some really um mean, bitter, you know, people in the world out there that want to come and destroy me for whatever reason, you know, that could happen. I mean, it totally could because people can do that. I am just telling you, I I've given you what Wendy said. Oh, see, she just messaged me back. Oh, she said she's her daughter's friend. Okay. Um, so I've got one person who's really thankful for me, my work, my time, and my support, right? And she's messaging me and that works. It works wonderful in the world. Communication, it's a great thing. Anybody who's quiet and not going to give, you know, a chance to the seller to make things right or talk to them or show them a picture or tell them the problem, they can't do it. Okay. So if you automatically just go to whatnot and say, this is broken, you know, whatever, and without going to the seller first, I feel like that's just wrong. Because number one, let's just say I owned an H E B. It's a grocery store here in Texas. If I owned an H E B and I got bad strawberries that had like mold or something on the bottom, I'm not calling the 1-800 number H E B and asking them for my money back. I'm taking my moldy strawberries right back up to where I bought them and saying, hey, can you make this right? And do they? Yes, they give me my money right then and right there. Same thing. If I go out to a restaurant and there's something wrong with my food or something, then I get my money back right there. I don't call the corporate head headquarters. And so, you guys, when you're giving these reviews, think about that, okay? Because I did not deserve a 4.2 because I do a kick-ass job hacking. I don't know how it got broken. I do have a new helper. Maybe she didn't put enough cushion on the bottom. I'm not trying to throw Sarah under the bus. Maybe it was Hayden, maybe it was me. I'm just saying accidents happen. My intentions were good. I would totally, if Melissa had messaged me, I would have made it right. And I'm just saying, as a seller, I think you should always try to do your best and go above and beyond and make it right. And I think as a buyer, you should give the seller the opportunity. Am I making myself clear on that? I think so. I think I've I've done it. Okay, so that's number one. Number two, when you do have somebody and they're a jerk because this has happened to me, and they do not respond to you, you you ask them, hey, this happened, whatever, you know, they can either say, go, you know, oh, you know, I did this recently with somebody. Her, I'm paying her the$28 because I know I packed it really well, and I don't know how that happened. It was a decent item. Sometimes it's it's something and it's definitely the post office or whatever. I've done that before too, where I've said, it's okay, you can contact whatnot to get your money back because it was a high dollar item and I did my best shipping it, right? So as a seller, you get the choice. You can make it right and give them their money back, or you can have whatnot refund their money, okay? Either way, the person's getting her money back. That girl is getting her money back. If she ended up with a vase that's broken, you can contact whatnot to get a refund. They are extremely good about that. Although I will say, I'm gonna do an episode on scammers soon. And there's a lot of people who are supposedly, I haven't actually talked to somebody who's done this and seen this. Um, it's just chatter that you could take a picture with your phone and make chat GTP or one of the AI type things, uh, take a picture of like a bowl and then show it cracked. But I think the the thing is, I don't think that they're really believing that because you would have to show actual shards of the piece. Things don't really know usually break like the AI is making them break. But I think if you're that terrible of a human being that you're faking and scamming, I I just I I pray for you guys. I just it makes me so sad that we live in a world where people are scamming people. And so I'm gonna have to do a whole episode on scammers or just you know, one at a time because it's getting so, so bad. Um, but there is no reason anybody should ever get an item that is broken, dirty, uh, isn't fitting the description, whatever, and tolerate it. You know, if if I bought something, you know, like let's just hypothetically say, because I don't I don't do this, but let's hypothetically say I bought like a really pretty purse or something, and I found out either A, it was a fake, or B, it was really gross inside and and she lied about it, or she didn't open one of the parts and disclose it or something. You you get the point. There's no way I'm gonna pay the 150 or however much money it is and not get my money back. And whatnot is extremely, extremely good about paying their sellers if something has happened. Now, if you are a person who is not on the up and up and you're trying to get free stuff and you're like, ooh, I just heard that they'll give me. No, you have to show pictures, you have to have evidence. You know, I've heard some people say that whatnot is getting tighter on that. I have never had a problem. Um, so that's just my thought on that. You know, number one, be kind, think about your rating before you do it. Number two, contact the seller first. And then number three, if you ever have anything that is damaged and the seller won't respond, then you can go to whatnot and you can get your money back. Okay, so we've got all that. This is another thing that I actually learned from another seller on here who I don't talk to anymore. Um, but she told me about it. And I think it's only on certain, you know, places. Each one of the different categories has different feel, different vibe, different people. So I think this is only in certain categories in certain places. Um, but she told me that there's like groups of people, especially when they get higher up and they start becoming friends and going to the big, you know, conferences or doing raid trains that are on the high level and whatever, that they kind of form like a clique, a little friendship, all just their own, and they kind of look out for each other. I I know this is gonna sound bad, but it kind of makes me think of, you know, um, Jersey, you know, like the mentality of that's my family, don't mess with me, you know, get get out, or somebody who's really, really uh like in the mob, you know, you don't mess, you don't mess with the family, that type of thing. And I've heard it said, and I'm not saying this is true for me or anybody else besides my friend that I'm telling you about, but she said if you give a bad rating to certain people, they will actually come back to you and a whole bunch of people will buy stuff from you just so they can come in and give you a bad rating. Now, I'm not saying this happens all the time. I'm not saying it's a big category, I'm not saying you have to worry about it, but I do know firsthand through somebody that that actually happens. And I think it's horrible. And I actually have seen this is totally true. It's it was like a year ago, probably, two grown men in one category like fighting with each other. Like totally they had some kind of whatever, and each one of them would talk bad about the other guy. They were saying, This guy's lying about me, and this guy's lying about me. And it was just like drama, drama, drama. But it was like a divorce almost. Some people went to hang out with this guy and they talked bad about the other guy and said, Oh, don't go to him to everybody knew who was coming in, and vice versa. It was just, and I thought, oh my gosh, the the drama, like really, do we have to have that? I mean, uh, and I guess at the end of the day, we do because we're dealing with humans and we are faulty, we are sinful. It's the world we live in, all right? It's a fallen world. I get that. But guys, if you're listening to my voice, please stay out of this. Please stay out of the drama. Please don't ever, you know, go, oh, well, my sister got a bad rating from this girl, so we're gonna go and follow this girl and we're gonna give her a bad rating now. I mean, that would be like me tracking down this Melissa girl. I don't even know if she's a seller or not, and tracking her down and going, okay, you know, you I'm gonna buy something from you and give you a 3.8. I mean, it's absurd. It's absurd, guys. We don't do that. And the only reason I'm okay saying her name and whatever is she put it in my reviews. You can go look at my reviews. The second you guys make this stuff, you know, public, it's there for anybody to see. And honestly, if you do stuff in a show, other people are gonna see it. Um, the whole spamming people. Um, I I hear here recently that a lot of people are going into shows, and I heard a lady, I was not there, but I heard her talking about it after it happened, that somebody came into her show and said, Hey guys, so-and-so is on, and they're doing so-and-so, literally pulling people from one show to another. That's absurd. I mean, just ridiculous behavior. So I you guys just stop and think a minute about what your actions are, what your words are, what you're doing. I mean, honestly, I said something the other day and I was just joking, but some people don't know my personality. Thank goodness this girl who came in was super awesome and she was like, You're my people, I get you, I'm fine. But for a hot second there, I thought I had offended somebody. You know, it's easy to offend some people, it's not as easy to offend others. Everybody's got their different level of capacity and uh, you know, handling different things, right? Um, but I was worried. It was, it was only maybe a minute before she texted back at max, probably it felt like even longer to me that I thought I had said something that was not as kind as it probably should have been. I was joking around, but I was worried about hurting her feelings because that's never my intentions. It's never my intention to send a nice base and have it broken. I have good positive intentions. And I think everybody should, if we were in a better world, have good positive intentions. But my whole point with this whole thing and thinking about this is guys, before you do this, realize you can really, really upset somebody and hurt somebody. And if you don't go to them, and I wish I could find it where it is in the Bible, but it says if you have a problem with another person, you go directly to that person, and that's your first thing. And then if they don't listen to you, then you go back with somebody else, right? Like there's this whole method, and I I realized that if you're Hindu or Buddhist, you don't care about the Christian thing, but somewhere in yours, it's there too. But it's just it's kind behavior, it's giving people a chance. I really I really wish Melissa had given me a chance so I could have made things better. I don't, I did not deserve a 4.2. I I I 100%, I mean, she can agree that I did, and she she can stand by that, and that's fine. We can agree to disagree, but I pack everything with care. I use tissue, I use paper, I use bubble wrap, I use extra tissue, I don't even use comic paper. I spend hundreds of dollars just on paper alone, fancy paper, guys. I put thank you cards in there, Skittles, chocolate, uh, little candy bags. I write handwritten cards to everybody right now. I'm probably gonna change that. But I go above and beyond what a lot of other people do. And to get a 4.2 because something got broken by mistake, you know, accidents happen, that's just um that's just not very kind and wonderful. It won't hurt me because, like I said, you have to have a certain, you know, I think it's probably working on percentages, you know, if I only had five, five stars and then I started getting a bunch of four stars. You guys could totally, whoever's listening to my voice, somebody could hate my guts and just want to destroy me. And it could easily happen because there's there's there's no preventing it, you know what I mean? Anybody can give a bad review. People can go in and give a one-star review, and I'm seeing this happen time and time again. So, I mean, what do you do? I you just keep doing the best you can. You pray for these people, you you pray that you get an opportunity, you pray that you can communicate and and work it out. But people are writing whatnot and they're writing in Facebook groups all the time saying, Oh my gosh, you know, this girl gave me a rating and review of one and I don't deserve it, and da-da-da-da-da. You can't really, I don't think you can really fight it. I don't think whatnot has like a little department where they're like, eh, you know, yeah. I mean, this isn't Judge Judy. If they choose to do it, they choose to do it, you know. And even me doing a a show about this and being honest, I'm like, well, I'm opening myself up for it because somebody might not like what I'm saying and they might come at, you know, start buying stuff from me to get one star so they can get me off the platform. I don't know. I mean, it's a sad world, but I mean, I I'm 54 years old. I've lived long enough to no heartache, to no suffering, to I've got total devastation in my life. You guys just hear about whatnot. You you're not hearing about my public, my my life. And so I deal with suffering and pain and heartbreak every day, every day. So I get it. If you are one of the people who have gotten these bad ratings, these bad reviews, had people be not honest, had people not give you a chance, had people talk bad about you, I get it. My issue isn't with whatnot community. That hasn't happened with me, but it does make me sad that this happened. I've had a couple reviews I'd have to go through. It's very rare that this happens. I think, you know, maybe three or four that I can count in in two years that have been bad. And it's because they didn't reach out to me. So, anyways, okay, I think I talked too long on this, but you know, it's just something to think about, guys. And I really hope just do your best with the packing and the shipping. Just do your best, and that's all any of us can do. You know, we do our best, we try our best, we have good intentions, we pray for people to make right choices and right decisions and have good intentions. That's all we can do, I guess, you know. So, anyways, that all being said, I hope you guys have a great day. And uh yeah, um, thank you so much again for listening to these podcasts. Um, I'm working on trying to get up to 7,500, is my next uh, I don't know, goal uh of downloads. And if you need to get a hold of me, it's K-A-R-R-I-Kennedy K-E-N-N-E-D-Y. And you can find me and my phone number on there. I also have a QR code. I'm gonna start sending out with my thank yous where you can get to a shop and you can buy the things I that I recommend, whether it's the printer or whether it's, you know, boxes or even my lipstick, whatever. It's all in there. So if you need that, you can message me and I can text that to you as well. Actually, I'll put it in the shop. I I don't know why I say that. It's it's there in the notes right at the top. I'll put it in the top of the notes. And uh yeah, that's it. So this was my social series inside the shop. Uh, the first one, and I'm gonna try to keep up with these, but I'm not gonna just do one a week. There's way too much stuff always going on and too many thoughts. So, all right, you guys, have a great day. Take care and uh yeah, keep showing up and doing the best you can. That's all you got. All right, have a great day.