No business is immune to criticism, regardless of industry, size or experience. With reviews, social media and other online channels making customer feedback more visible than ever, even a relatively limited complaint can quickly attract a much wider audience.
How a company responds can shape how customers, employees and other stakeholders view both the immediate issue and the business behind it. Here, members of Forbes Business Council discuss common mistakes businesses make when responding to public criticism that can turn a small concern into a much larger trust problem.
1. Apologizing Too Broadly
One mistake is apologizing for more than what happened. A broad, sweeping response implies the problem is broader than the complaint. This will cause readers to scale their concern to match your language. Name the specific failure, the specific fix and stop. Vagueness reads as concealment even when nothing is being concealed. – Meghna Deshraj, Bullzeye Global Growth Partners
2. Building A Response On Incomplete Information
If this is the first time you’ve heard the criticism, don’t respond. Instead, state that you’re on another call and you’ll call them straight back. If you’ve had time to prepare, get all the facts. The biggest mistake you can make is building a position on a poor foundation. Demand all the bad news, then decide whether to defend or take the hit. Subsequent revelations or cover-ups will turn a molehill into a mountain. – Mike Ashby, Level 10 Leaders
3. Treating Criticism As A Reputation Problem
One mistake is treating criticism as a reputation problem before understanding whether it is a trust problem. In humanitarian work, I’ve learned that people forgive imperfection far more readily than they forgive defensiveness, silence or worse, spin. When organizations rush to control the narrative instead of listening, acknowledging what is true and explaining what happens next, they often make a contained issue feel like evidence of something much bigger. – Colleen Kelly, Concern Worldwide U.S.
4. Responding With A Legal Defense
One mistake is treating the response like a legal defense instead of a trust moment. Companies often overoptimize to say the safest possible thing and end up sounding evasive or inhuman. Be clear about what happened, what you know, what you don’t know yet and what you’re doing next. Trust is usually damaged more by ambiguity than by imperfection. – Kobi Nissan, Mine
5. Avoiding The Issue
Businesses and individuals who find themselves facing criticism may initially want to avoid making a forward-facing statement or acknowledging the existence of an issue. In a tech-first world where algorithms fill in the story for curious searchers if you don’t, avoidance leads to potentially one-sided reporting of a fuller picture that deserves to see the light of day. – Darius Fisher, Status Labs
6. Arguing With The Critic
I answer reviews of my studios myself, and the reply is never really for the critic—it’s for the next thousand people deciding whether to trust us. If we got it wrong, we own it and fix it fast. If we got it right, we still state the actual events objectively without ever criticizing the customer. The facts can defend you, but an argument never will. – David Cozzens, Train with Dave
7. Minimizing The Concern
A small issue can spiral into a trust problem when you minimize concerns or respond before you understand what happened. Your response in a crisis matters. Acknowledge concerns and keep the focus on how you are addressing the issue. When you get defensive, the narrative shifts to whether you can be trusted. Also, if you get mentioned in a story that isn’t really about you, the best response can often be no response. – Emily Baker, Portman Square Group
8. Rushing To Defend The Business
The biggest mistake is getting defensive too quickly. A small issue can become a trust problem when a company focuses on proving it is right instead of understanding what happened and communicating clearly. A calm, factual response with accountability where needed usually protects the brand better than trying to win the argument. – Jeffery Khoury, KŌZĒ Stays
9. Questioning The Customer’s Account
Avoid treating the customer as if they can’t be trusted to remember what happened. Denying the incident or moving to an offensive posture converts a complaint about a product into a statement about character—and that’s much harder to walk back. We advise clients to respond publicly and name the error plainly. A visible admission usually costs less than a scrubbed record. Google now displays how many reviews a business has had removed, so quiet cleanup leaves a signature, too. – Mykola Lukashuk, Marketing Link LLC
10. Rushing Out A Statement
Avoid answering too fast, before the full picture is clear. A rushed statement often contradicts itself once more facts surface, and that contradiction becomes the real story rather than the original issue. People forgive a company that takes a beat to get it right far more than one that has to walk back its own words. Speed feels safe in the moment, but accuracy is what actually protects trust. – Victoria Marshall, Erase.com
11. Treating Criticism As A PR Problem
The mistake is treating it like a PR problem instead of a data problem. You get defensive or you go quiet while legal drafts something safe, and both read as guilt. I’d rather be real and always transparent. We say what we know, what we don’t know yet and when we’ll come back with the rest. Customers forgive mistakes, but they don’t forgive being managed. – Laura Jayne Waters, Solar Buddies Ltd
12. Prioritizing The Audience Over The Customer
It’s a mistake to answer the crowd instead of the customer. The need to be liked makes brands write polished statements aimed at everyone watching while the person actually affected waits. But audiences judge the repair, not the press release. If you fix it for the one, visibly and specifically, the many will draw their own conclusion. A statement without a change is just content. – Cynthia Ferngren, cynthiaferngren.com
13. Hiding Behind Corporate Speak
Deploying a heavily sanitized, legally approved non-apology destroys trust instantly. When a business hides behind corporate-speak statements like, “We regret any inconvenience,” it signals cowardice and a lack of accountability. People respect absolute ownership of a failure. Issuing a defensive, overpolished PR statement just proves the company prioritizes its ego over the actual customer. – Elie Y. Katz, National Retail Solutions (NRS)
14. Shifting The Blame
Blaming someone else or another team is a mistake. Even if you feel (or know) the blame lies elsewhere, deal with the issue head-on, taking full responsibility for addressing it. If you point the finger somewhere else, eventually it will come back to you in the form of a major trust problem. – Angel Vina, Denodo
15. Treating Criticism As An Attack
The biggest mistake is treating criticism as an attack to defeat rather than a signal to understand. Becoming defensive or dismissive or trying to silence the conversation can turn a limited issue into a question of integrity. Address the facts, acknowledge what is valid, correct what is wrong and show what comes next. People can forgive mistakes, but they struggle to forgive a business that refuses to listen. – Alaa Kamaz, AKGROUP LTD
16. Defending Intent Instead Of Owning Impact
It’s a mistake to defend your intent instead of acknowledging your impact. When a company responds with corporate double-speak or tries to justify why something happened before taking responsibility, it signals fragile pride. People don’t expect perfection, but they do demand accountability. Own the outcome immediately, fix the problem publicly and leave the defensive explanations out of it. – Adam Povlitz, Anago Cleaning Systems
17. Getting Defensive Before Getting Curious
When a business responds to criticism by protecting its image rather than genuinely engaging with the concern, it signals to everyone watching that the feedback does not matter. A measured, honest response that acknowledges the issue and explains what you are doing about it almost always deescalates any situation. Defensiveness does the opposite, turning a limited problem into a visible and lasting one. – Mark Berookim, High Rise Financial LLC
18. Forgetting The Wider Audience
It’s a mistake to respond to the critic instead of the audience. A public reply is never really a conversation with one unhappy person; it is a performance read by hundreds of potential customers deciding if you can be trusted. The critic rarely changes their mind, but the silent readers do. Write for them. Focus on staying calm, owning what is fair, fixing what is wrong and letting the critic have the last word if they want it. – Thomas Despin, Reconnect
19. Responding To Every Criticism
Not every criticism deserves a response. Respond when an accusation concerns something important and verifiable, such as numbers, documents or specific company actions, not tone, pricing or subjective opinions. Responding to everything is as risky as silence. It scatters the audience’s attention and turns minor personal opinions into reasons for official statements they never deserved. – Alona Karpinska, Karpinska PR Group
