5 Reasons Negative Reviews Can Be a Good Thing
Last Updated on 5 August, 2025
(Yes, You Read That Right!)
No owner wants to see a negative review about their business. You work hard day in and day out to build a studio or store or office you’re proud of, and seeing someone slam it online? Definitely not a good feeling. But believe it are not, there are some pretty important reasons why negative reviews can be a good thing.
Don’t believe us? Let us convince you:
#1: You Can Resolve the Problem
If a client walked away from your business upset without saying anything, there’s a pretty good chance you’d lose that client. But, if they share that experience in a review, you have the opportunity to make things right with them. In fact, when a business responded to a negative online review, that reviewer was 70% more likely to return to the business. So if you do get a negative review about your business, do your best to respond and resolve any issues with that client.
An easy way to stay on top of incoming reviews is with a software like WellnessLiving. We prompt your clients to leave reviews through our Achieve Client App and Review Widget. Before those reviews are pushed to major review platforms like Google, you get a chance to see them, approve them to go live, and respond to them.
#2: You Can Build Trust
As important as online reviews have become in today’s marketplace, the fact of the matter is: You can’t trust every single online review. Businesses have been caught red-handed buying or faking positive reviews for their business to boost revenue.
And consumers have caught onto this. Oftentimes, a page with only positive reviews leaves a potential client wary. There’s no way everyone has had a perfect experience here, they might think. These reviews must be fake. 68% of consumers are actually more likely to trust a business that has both positive and negative reviews online. By having the reviews that highlight what makes your business amazing next to reviews that point out some areas you can improve will show potential clients you have nothing to hide.
#3: You Can Learn
A few negative reviews might feel like the end of the world, but they’re not. With 1 and 2 star reviews making up only about 22% of online reviews, you can rest assured more people want to sing your praises than tear you down. So when you do get a negative review about your business, take the time to really understand what your team could have done better.
A recent study by Yotpo found the most commonly used word in negative online reviews (by an overwhelming margin) was “disappointed” or “disappointment.” That means more than anything else, people didn’t feel their expectations were met when they wrote a negative review — it’s not that they think your product or service is bad. Try to understand where the expectations were wrongly set or the bar was missed, and use that data to continually improve.
With a software like WellnessLiving, you can make sure you’ve always got eyes on incoming feedback and quickly adjust your classes, schedule, or business structure as needed. Let’s say you’re getting feedback through reviews that you don’t have enough morning classes. With our software, modifying class schedules is as easy as a few clicks!
#4: You Can Find the Right People
Your product or service might not be for everyone. And that’s okay! Honest online reviews allow potential clients to see the pros and cons of your office, studio, business, etc. before paying you a visit and decide if it’s going to be a good fit.
Imagine someone leaves a one-star review of your functional fitness gym saying the workout pushed them way out of their comfort zone and that the other people in the class giving them pointers or pointing out poor form made them uncomfortable. Well, another reviewer might read that and think, A Fitness class that challenges me, and a supportive group that helps each other out? Sign me up! Honest perspectives on your business – both good and bad – will get more of the right people in the door the first time.
#5: You Can Stop the Conversation In Its Tracks
In some cases – though thankfully, not the majority of cases – negative reviews are just plain false or personally damaging. Maybe a reviewer has your business mistaken for another studio down the road with a similar name, or perhaps a reviewer is sharing personal contact information about a trainer of yours they didn’t gel with. If that disgruntled client were saying those negative things in-person to other potential clients, there would be nothing you could do. But, on online review platforms, you can petition to have the review removed.
With WellnessLiving, every review that comes through our software goes through our internal review process prior to being pushed live to review sites. So in cases where it’s best to resolve the complaint one-on-one or if there’s incorrect/inaccurate information in the review, the review will not be published. And most major review sites like Google and Yelp also have content guidelines that prohibit certain types of reviews. So if you think a review written outside of WellnessLiving’s software violates one of those guidelines, you can flag it for removal.
Nothing beats the elation of seeing a positive review come through about your business, but remember: if there’s a negative review or two sprinkled in there, that’s not always a bad thing. Learn what you can from this feedback, work to resolve the problem, and offer your side of the story.
With millions of reviews already live on review sites (and millions more being written each year!), it can be difficult to consistently encourage reviews and pay attention to incoming ones. That’s where WellnessLiving comes in! Get your free demo today to see how we can get more conversations started about your business and allow you to easily monitor your online presence.
