How do you deal with hate comments about your product?
As someone who manages social media, I also have to manage what happens in the comments section.
Sometimes it's constructive criticism. Other times it's pure hate.
People often say that once your product starts becoming successful, more people notice it, and some will criticise it simply out of jealousy.
This is my POV on how I handle that:
On social media, we (or I) remove abusive or hateful comments immediately for two reasons:
They can put your account at risk of moderation or platform restrictions.
They create a bandwagon effect – once one person starts insulting your product, others often join in, and one community manager can't keep up.
We encourage constructive criticism to go through our customer support email instead. There, we can properly understand the issue, help the customer, and resolve it internally.
The toughest situation is dealing with negative reviews on platforms you don't fully control, such as G2 or Trustpilot. Those reviews are much harder to manage and have a longer-lasting impact.
In general, we remove non-constructive hate because it often comes from people who are simply looking for attention online. (Probably they are bored on the internet.) 🙂
Constructive criticism is different – we respond, educate, and use it to improve the product.
How does your company handle negative comments and reviews?
Replies
Lancepilot
@busmark_w_nika 😂 Very Common Thing i see almost regularly!
Haters Gonna hate, They Hate us, Because they ain't Us 😁😎🔥
To the Haters >😘😘
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@istiakahmad I wish to have this care-free approach towards them :D
the G2/Trustpilot point is the one that actually stings, on your own social you at least have moderation tools, but a bad review sitting on a third party site becomes the first thing a prospect sees before they even talk to you. we've found the only real counter is just outnumbering it with real reviews over time rather than trying to get any one review removed.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@omri_ben_shoham1 AppSumo is the same. But you would be surprised on how many people fake comments there also in the favour of companies :D
Over time, I’ve noticed that some profiles specialize in posting hateful comments.
I imagine these are people for whom this is the only way to feel relevant.
So, when I receive a hateful comment (which, like many others, has happened to me), I check who it’s from—looking at other comments they’ve posted, and so on.
If the criticism is justified, I reply without trying to defend myself, simply explaining the situation; however, all too often, the criticism is pointless and baseless. The best approach is to ignore it and focus on replying to relevant comments (whether positive or negative).
In fact, I’ve often started a reply to a negative—or even very negative—comment by saying, "You’re right, but..." and then explaining my point of view or the reasons behind a particular decision or action; sometimes, this leads to a more constructive discussion.
As for those who only want to get noticed by posting unjustified hateful comments—ignore them. Generally speaking, these people will find another target and vent their hate elsewhere. Replying to them just gives them a thrill :)
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@franckolv_dev Have you experienced hate comments also here, on Product Hunt?
Running several small products solo, the filter I use is whether the comment contains a testable claim. If someone says the product is rubbish, that is noise and I let it go. If someone says the export breaks on large files, that is a bug report wearing an angry costume, and those have been some of my most useful reports. Answering it calmly in public also does more for trust than any marketing copy, because prospects read the reply, not the insult.
On reviews you cannot remove, the reply is really written for the next reader, not the reviewer. Acknowledge the specific issue, say what changed, and date it. A page of polite, specific replies under harsh reviews reads better than a wall of five stars.
One habit I would add: never reply the same day if it stung. The draft you write angry is always the wrong one.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@oshylabs The last point is very useful, I usually tend to be very prompt, but it is a fact that the comment is highly influenced by emotions.
@busmark_w_nika Yeah, the emotion part is the trap. When a comment stings, the instinct is to fire back and defend, which reads worse in public than a slower, plain reply. What helps me is writing the public response for everyone else reading it, not the angry person, and moving the actual fix to email. Glad it was useful.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@oshylabs Good point – other people see your responsiveness, but anyway, I would be careful with that because the crowd effect can work with bad comments too (people just join the hater)
Maybe ive just hardened to people like that just focus on the good and not the bad negative energy consumes you, you have people on this thread that support you.
As a small team, we've started looking at comments a little differently. Instead of asking whether they're positive or negative, we ask whether there's something we can learn from them.
Sometimes people don't express their frustration in the best way, but there's still a real pain point underneath. If multiple people are confused by the same thing, that's usually a signal that we need to improve the product or our messaging.
Of course, abusive comments are a different story. But honest criticism, even when it's uncomfortable, has probably taught us more than praise ever has.
The bit I'd add is about who actually volunteers. Angry people write reviews without being asked. Happy people almost never do. So a review page isn't a sample of your customers, it's a sample of the ones you upset, and moderation can't fix that because the problem isn't what's on there, it's what's missing.
Which is why the volume point a few comments up is right but harder than it sounds. You don't get volume by waiting for it. The happy ones are genuinely never coming on their own, so you have to go ask them, one at a time, usually right after something good just happened to them.
On G2 and Trustpilot, I'd stop trying to win on ground you don't own. You can't outrank them there and arguing in the thread makes it worse. What you can do is have enough of your own customer stories on your own site that anyone who googles you finds those as well. Right now that angry review is the only thing about you with any detail in it, so it wins by default. Not because it's true. Because it's the only thing there.
Silence kills products faster than critics do... The trap is treating every angry comment as noise when some of your loudest haters are just frustrated users who'd stay if you fixed one thing.
@Nika ha, fair point, fake reviews cut both ways. I guess the honest answer is there's no clean fix either direction, just steady real engagement so a handful of bad-faith reviews don't define the picture.