Member-only story
Ecommerce, Mental Health
My First Bad Review™
Here’s how I handled my first bad review in my shop as a disabled business owner
One of the hard truths I have been mentally preparing myself for when I started my online e-commerce career was that first bad review. We’ve all seen them. They can range from reasonable and level-headed to incoherent and silly.
In fact, I’m sure there are hilarious compilations of the off-the-wall reviews somewhere on YouTube. Look that up if you need to kill an afternoon!
When you’re vulnerable to the entire digital world, you don’t know what you’re going to get. That’s a little scary. You really don’t know if the latest customer is going to be more trouble than they’re worth or not.
(Hint for Etsy sellers, there’s a website called “Karen Checker” that’s good to have in your bookmarks).
Not to pat myself on the back, but one lousy review two years in can’t be too bad. Still, I was afraid of the sting I thought would inevitably come. As someone with diagnosed PTSD, I tend to take hurtful things fine at first but give me a day or two, the sting finally hits. It’s like the delayed hot spice that waits a moment for you to think, “this isn’t very spicy” before it knocks you off your butt.
