What should you do when you get a bad review?
I see time and time again – people like you and me who are doing readings and putting their hearts and souls into their work – feeling down in the dumps about a bad review or negative feedback.
Don’t worry, Sensitive Spiritual Entrepreneur! Bad reviews come with the territory.
You have to learn to use some of the negative feedback you get to up your game – and also to fully appreciate the fact that you won’t please or connect well with everyone. Some of the clients even lie about their situations and then get mad at us for pointing out that we see the truth!
Now, don’t think I am saying to ignore scores of bad reviews! If you are getting more bad reviews than good reviews, check your work. Are you giving your clients 100% of your attention or are you multitasking or having more than one conversation at a time? Are your kids making a lot of noise in the background? Is your connection clear and crisp, or do you need a new headset and microphone to chat on? Is your computer fast enough? Do you need to polish your psychic, communication, or typing skills? Are you staying logged in through the night, groggily answering chat requests when they wake you from a deep slumber? How’s your attitude?
If bad reviews aren’t a common thing for you, then your bad review or feedback might be due to one of the following things:
You don’t say what the client wants to hear
Many of our clients are lovesick souls who call in or chat with a tarot reader or psychic hoping to hear that the ex WILL come back or the married lover will leave the spouse. When the cards or Spirits say something different, the client gets mad (not at you, but at the Universe) and either leaves a bad review or clicks on that one-star review.
Learn to let these bad reviews roll off you. It’s not about you or your reading. It’s about something the client likely needs to know but doesn’t want to face.
Sadly, these people will usually visit as many psychics or tarot readers as it takes to find one to say what they want to hear. And then they’ll expect a refund when the ex doesn’t come back. Go figure.
You don’t connect with the person
No matter how in tune you are with your Spirit Guides or how you’ve mastered the cards, you are going to come across a client from time to time who you just don’t jive with. Everything you say will be met with either a negative response, silence or “that isn’t a message for me.”
When this happens, it’s OK to tell the person that you just aren’t connecting with him or her and to either offer a refund or give a referral to someone who might be better able to connect with the person – or both. (You might even want to take a moment to meditate, cleanse your deck, or take the afternoon off if you’ve been pushing yourself.)
You won’t connect with everyone. It is important, however, IMHO, to tell the client that you don’t feel that you are connecting and offer an alternative.
In these situations, you will often cringe while you wait for a bad review. Some people are nice enough to just move forward without dinging your reputation. Others leave a bad review.
You won’t connect with everyone you read for, and everyone you read for won’t be ready to hear what you have to say. That’s OK. Just refund their money, bless them, send them on their way—and DON’T take another appointment with them!
You don’t offer what the person is looking for
A client might reach out to a tarot reader when looking for a medium to connect with someone who has passed on or talk with an angelic healer when hoping for a shamanic experience. Some want medical advice or even Power Ball numbers!
These mistakes in direction happen simply because the general public doesn’t understand the distinctions between psychics, tarot readers, healers, and other modalities and what specific people can and can’t do.
When confronted with this issue, it might take a bit of time to figure out what the client really needs or is looking for – or it might be obvious right away. I’d recommend letting the client know what your services cover and don’t cover, offering a refund, and referring the client to someone who specializes in the service he or she is looking for.
I also joke that I wouldn’t be doing readings if I had the lotto numbers! I’d be winning multiple millions often and using that money to better society (and myself, honestly)!
Again, one would hope a client wouldn’t leave a bad review for a misunderstanding of services provided. Some will, though. And you have to learn to shake it off!
The client is lying
There are times when you will get a client who isn’t being wholly truthful about the question he or she is asking about. Some clients will flat-out lie about their situations.
When your Spirit Guides, your cards, or your deep listening skills pick up the contradictions, the client might exit stage left (and leave a bad review on his way out) or get kind of miffed that you figured them out and leave a single star for your review.
It always cracks me up in a way when people try to pull one over on their readers, because – well, many of us kind of just see or feel the dishonesty. That’s what we do. It’s the basis of our work.
If a person values the money he is putting into a reading and the advice being given, it would be wise to be totally honest so that the reader can properly advise. After all, we aren’t trying to judge our clients about their lives, but to help them!
Unscrupulous competitors and trolls
Last, but certainly not least, are the bad reviews left by unscrupulous competitors and/or trolls. Some readers contact new readers on the sites they work on, get a reading, and leave a poor review.
Most websites frown on this type of behavior and threaten termination in their T&Cs. Unfortunately, though, it might cost a new reader clients and money before the perpetrator is discovered.
Other times, people with far too much time and money on their hands will troll readers, getting readings about fake topics and leaving bad reviews.
If you think that you are being catfished and dinged by someone who works on the same site as you or a troll, make sure that you document reading times, dates, subjects, and reviews. And don’t be afraid to contact your rep to alert them to the issue.
Ultimately, I use bad reviews as an opportunity to grow. I know that there are some people who just won’t be pleased with me, the messages I have for them, or the extent of the services I offer. I fully expect to get a bad review from time to time and I don’t let them affect my confidence in my skills or my overall feelings about the work I do.
What do you think? Have you let a bad review get to you or do you use them for learning opportunities?
Feel free to comment below!
Right on thoughts and I agree. I don’t get mad at bad reviews, I use all feedback as just that…feedback. Ego can get us into trouble, causing us to rely on evry good comment and hating the “bad ” ones. We ard learning when we make a mistake, and it hones our skills to see it for what it is…feedback and nothing more.
Amen! Especially, “it hones our skills.” I see feedback as my client’s opinion of the interaction we had. Mostly. 😉
Great reminder about (one of many!) not so nice traits of these human minds we inhabit.
I’ve been in/around sales and service industry my entire life. These behaviors are very, very common and transcend industry, even cultural, boundaries.
It is almost impossible to escape it. Something I’m pouring effort into understanding, the reality is, we are ALL the heroes, and victims, of our own stories. A large part of my personal growth/healing is being able to remember this truth BEFORE I am angry or sad.
We, humans, lie to doctors and therapists, then are angry we don’t heal.
We lie to our friends and families, then become outraged when they behave the exact same way.
We claim we are trying to be happy and healthy while eating fast food and screaming at our children.
And on some level or another all of us are guilty of the same.
Ego, the gift and curse that just keeps on gifting and cursing.
Thank you for this reminder to keep our focus, and sanity, while in the middle of so many that are so lost, hurt, afraid and bewildered. So much so that they cannot help but lash out at others, including those that only want to help.
Much love to you
Hi Teresa,
YES! Thank you for so eloquently pointing this tendency out! I love this: “we are ALL the heroes, and victims, of our own stories.” So. True.
In gratitude,
Sue