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You get a bad review from a customer who only half understood it.

Take this situation apart. Each piece goes in one box: yours, or not yours. There is no third box, and almost nothing falls in one piece.

Yours
  • Your reply, your tone, and your explanation up front.Whether you respond and how, that is yours. And look at the signal inside the unfair part: if this customer misunderstood it, the next one probably will too. Then the review is not an attack but free information about your explanation.
  • The hours you spend on this one customer in your head.One review from one customer who misunderstood can collect a week of rent in your thoughts if you allow it. A hundred satisfied customers wrote nothing; do not give this one the office they never asked for.
Not yours
  • The review, the stars, and who reads it.What it says, it says, and the public reads without your footnotes. This customer’s half understanding was not your choice either.
The reasoning. The stars are fixed; the explanation the next customer gets is still open.
Practise this situation

Nearby situations

In a meeting your idea is credited to someone else.Criticism and insultIn your performance review you get a criticism you disagree with.Criticism and insultSomeone is spreading a story about you that is demonstrably untrue.Criticism and insult

More on this topic: Criticism and insult

Yours, Not Yours · A Stoic practice ground · All cases · Questions or suggestions