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Welcome to design for the creative mind, a podcast for interior designers and creative entrepreneurs to run their business with purpose, efficiency and passion. Because, well, every design is different, the process should remain the same. Prepare yourself for some good conversations with amazing guests, a dash of Jesus and a touch of the woowoo. And probably a swear word or two. If you're ready to stop trading your time for money, and enjoy your interior design business, you are in the right place. I'm your host, Michelle Lynn.
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I really wanted to share an experience with you and not necessarily wait to put it anywhere else. It's top of mind. So what I want to talk about today is reviews. And what brings them well, there's a backstory. But let me first tell you that I was talking to an industry colleague a couple of weeks ago, and she was getting run over by a client who could not be pleased, the client could not be pleased. And this particular designer was doing everything in her power as a badass designer to to remedy the client's perception and asked, Well, why why are you bending over backwards and losing money at this point and losing sleep because this client is just so bitter and placeable? I don't know what the word is. But I asked her and she said, Well, I don't want to get a bad review. And I was like, Oh, dude, I get it. Okay, but there's a way to go about running your business without living in fear of a bad review. Okay, so that's, that's my first point. Second point is this morning, I get a message on Instagram from a another woman owned business here in Dallas, saying, Hey, I was on the next door app and saw somebody saying, giving you a negative review. I was like, Oh, my God, I can't think of anybody recently. Who's Who's been pissed off with me. Well, there's one but we have we have not finished the resolution. I think everything will come out happily ever after. But anyway, my point is, is that I headed over to the next door app cruise on over there. And I read the review. And it's it was disparaging, of course. I mean, that's what she was on there for. But y'all, I worked with her in 2014. Can you do the math that was 10 years ago, her post was, hey, I worked with MLW interiors group in the past, and I just saw another advertisement for him. And I wanted to warn you guys to stay away. And then she went down a bunny trail. Okay, so first of all, I was like, Karen, and literally Her name is Karen. So she's totally a Karen, Karen. This was this was 10 years ago, like really? Okay, that was my first response. And then of course, I got pissed off. And then I was like, Oh, shit, you know, what's, what are she she posted this six days ago. So she had already had a bunch of responses, of course, like, go onto her website or go to the Google and put a bad review there and stop your credit card. And like, I can't believe that Lola. And I'm like, oh, man, six days worth of people reading this about my business. And then I took a drink of coffee and took a deep breath and thought, Okay, this is not that big of a deal. Let's just go ahead and proceed. Calmly, okay, and not in defense mode justification mode for me, like calling her the names that I really wanted to call her. Okay, so those are two separate stories, right? Let's go back. Nine years. Okay, let's go back nine years 2015. On the next door app, this same Karen had written a scathing review of the experience that she had 10 years ago. I want to I want to interject that 10 years ago, we resolved this offline and had a slightly amicable repair of the situation, y'all. If you hear what I'm saying this this client, she she could not be pleased and did not listen did not follow and this was before I had my processes in place. So I do take some of the responsibility. Some of the blame for the fact that this was not as smooth of a process as as the as the business we run now. I was not nearly as mature in my business and so forth. So yes, Did we have a look where we fully organized? Did we have all of our processes buttoned up? No, but we totally did not suck. Okay. So 10 years ago, she writes this scathing review, let me tell you how you overcome these situations, and preserve your integrity and your reputation. 10 years ago, she had written this or nine years ago, she had written a scathing review. And so my response to her was literally like, Hey, Karen, I'm sorry, that you're still feeling, you know, so hostile or whatever. I don't remember what I wrote. But it was more along the lines of, I'd really prefer to continue, you know, we've had this conversation offline, I was under the impression that we had it all resolved. And, you know, I'm more than happy to continue our conversation as needed, but would much prefer to have it in private versus on a public forum. So something along that line. So basically, it was just saying, you know, beg, why are you online, running my name through the mud when we've already had this had this result. And so what happened, and that's what I suggest you do. So if you get a review that is less than favorable, and you feel like you've done everything you possibly can to resolve the situation, and you have put your big girl panties on, and you actually addressed it with them in person, or on the phone, or whatever that looks like, personally, it needs to be done, not necessarily email where we hide behind our keyboard. Okay, that's my natural tendency, I get it. But I'm going to tell you right now that these situations have to be resolved, verbally, and not written communication, because that can obviously be misinterpreted. It can also be edited and used against you. So we have this conversation. And then I read, I make this response. Again, this is nine years ago. And what happens is, and this is awesome. There are people on the next door app who come and say, Karen, why are you bringing this here, this is a small business, and it appears to me like you guys already have this resolved, she's willing to continue this conversation. And so I think it was other small business owners that came out on in my defense, I firmly believe that when you take the high road and you do the right thing, and you're taking care of your clients, even if you screw up, you resolve it to the best of your ability. Now, you know, in a perfect world, you're a little bit pissed off and disappointed and the clients a little bit pissed off and disappointed at these situations. But it needs to be shared. Like nobody wins in these in these, basically unresolvable situations. But it's important that you step up and address it and not hide from the discomfort. So I know she was still a little bit pissed off about the situation, I was still a little bit pissed off about the situation. But you know, be a big girl and just roll with it. That was that's what we were doing tried to take the high road. So anyway, she had enough of those comments and enough people saw through her crazy, and she ended up deleting that post altogether. So that problem went away. Imagine trying to bake a cake without a recipe, you kind of know what the ingredients are, but you don't know how to put it all together. After lots of hard work and trying different combinations, all you are left with is a sticky situation and a stomachache behave. Running an interior design business can feel exactly that same way. That is why I created the interior design business bakery. This is a program that teaches you how to bake your interior design business cake and eat it too. If you don't want to figure out the hard way and you want guidance to follow a recipe that has already been vetted. Someone that has already been there and done it and will help you do it too. Then check out the year long mentorship and coaching program. The interior design business bakery. If your interior design business revenue is below 300,000. Or if you're struggling to make a profit and keep your sanity. This is the only program for you. You can find that information at designed for the creative mind.com forward slash business dash bakery. Check it out. You won't regret it
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My point is, y'all just take that high road and and turn it back around. That's what I did today. That's what I did this morning as I Karen, this was back in 2014. In fact, let me see if I can find this post and read it to you, shall we? Okay, let's go back over here Karen. K r e n. I'm not gonna mention her last name. Okay, ready? Here's, here's what it says. Okay, note this was six days ago. So I'm scrolling looking for it. Warning. If you're looking for an interior designer, be sure to steer clear of M L interiors group. I just saw them advertising again and thought I'd let my friends and neighbors now the last issue we had was with them was that they quit before they were finished. They were mad that we weren't ready for them to finish when we had our Jacuzzi tub sitting in our living room, because the general contractor wasn't done. So they walked out. Okay, that is part of the story. But of course, she's going to position it so that it is hers. Imagine this, you're doing a furniture installation, tell her to have everything out of the front, and they've got a Jacuzzi in there. That's just part of the entire project. Okay. But then she said, and yet they still charged her credit card for work that was not completed the list of problems we had with them. And the general contractor they aligned themselves with was extensive. If you want more detail, just message me. Okay, so the comments are, close that credit card as soon as possible. Oh, sorry, this happened to you. Be sure to add recommended good bad to their business listing page. Thanks for the alert. I've seen this issue a lot in the industry. Okay, so my response. And this is where I want to say your goal is to tell them to go to hell while looking forward to the trip. Okay, or basically like an iron fist in a velvet glove. But I want to call out her her craziness. And it says, Karen, this happened in 2014. And we had plenty of private conversations about why we parted ways at that time, I believed the issue to be resolved. The fact that 10 years have passed and you're posting negative comments about us because you saw an ad is befuddling and spiteful. If you wish to speak to me directly, again, I would be happy to schedule a visit or hop on a phone call. And I listed my phone number. So my point is, one, keep it short and sweet. Keep it short and sweet. So my response was very direct. Like I had to edit it a few times because I really wanted to justify my behavior was based on hers and whatnot. But all you need is the facts, just just the facts. And then I want people who read it to recognize that this was 10 freaking years ago, 10 years. Okay, oh, man, I just got my eyebrows. I'm getting, I'm getting all worked up. But my point is, is that do not live in fear or put up with clients bad behavior. The difference now is that what I teach in the interior design business bakery, is how to navigate projects in a more organized fashion. Because like I said, at the beginning of this episode, we weren't as organized as we are now. So I do take some responsibility in the situation, but not to the point where you tell them make sure because your furniture is being delivered, you have everything out of the front of your house. And she has a hot tub in the middle of the house. Okay. But that's just like, that's just like a minut portion. Like, I can tell you all sorts of fun stories. But if you guys have been listening, if you've been in business for any length of time, you know, the level of crazy some of these clients get to, I am wrapping up my workshop. Today. No, this next week, well, it doesn't matter. I'm not even sure when this is when this podcast is gonna go live. But I do teach a workshop that helps now it's based on the process that we follow. In order to avoid those nightmare clients. If you get the chance we're going to be holding another workshop, it won't be until August. So I would say instead just join the interior design business bakery because you get that workshop and everything else involved in it. I digress. Do not bend over backwards, live in fear. extend yourself where you start losing sleep, get sick, you know, lose money and all that type of stuff. Just because you are concerned of a negative review. At the end of the day, you go back and you respond professionally. And you put yourself back in that position of leadership of taking the high road of being willing to resolve being available to have a conversation and even if you're conversed out, I'll tell you 20 bucks, this chicks not going to call me. I'll bet you this particular post gets removed by the end of the weekend. Today's Friday when I'm recording this. I'm going to bet you by Monday. That's probably down because people are going to see it. They're going to see my response. And I won't have to think about it anymore. Is it a nuisance? Yes. It's a nuisance. Come on. Come on. This was 10 years ago. Don't you have anything better to do? Okay, so with that, y'all stay Look around. If you guys have any topics or content that you want these like, little, I'm putting on my makeup. It's easy. I just record this on the phone and have this conversation. You have any topics or any questions or anything that you want covered in the podcast, maybe these little mini episodes or a guest that has more extensive experience on something, please drop me a note. And you know what would be really appreciated? I need to get better at this asking you for reviews. So I sure would appreciate if we're ever speaking of reviews, I should be asking for the good ones. That's kind of ironic, is it not? I just thought that that's funny. But I would really appreciate if you dropped a review wherever you catch your favorite podcasts. I do appreciate those. I do read them. And let your friends know about the podcast if you're enjoying it. Unless, Mom, it's only you out there listening. Mom. Mom, is that you? Anyway, y'all have an awesome day. live abundantly and be great today. I love y'all. I appreciate you. Hey, y'all. If you love the show and find it useful, I would really appreciate it if you would share with your friends and followers. And if you like what you're hearing, want to put a face with a name and get even more business advice. Then join me in my Facebook group. The interior designers business Launchpad. Yeah, I know it's Facebook, but just come on in for the training and then leave without scrolling your feet. It's fine. I promise you'll enjoy it. And finally, I hear it's good for business to get ratings on your podcast. So please drop yours on whatever platform you use to listen to this. We're all about community over competition. So let's work on elevating our industry, one designer at a time. See you next time.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
