First course and the first bad review

[DanKelly]

So I received my first bad review and it is painful to say the least. I responsed to the student's comments and kept it positive. Basically, said "Thanks for the feedback and I'm always growing and making better courses".

I find it odd that some one gave me a bad review when they never even message me and asked for help. i think this just drives me more to continue to grow and make better courses.

I'm not foolish enough to believe that I'm always going to get five stars, but this first one is painful.  Anyone else remember their first bad review?

[MichaelPog · Accepted solution]

Oh yeah. It hurts and especially when it's out of the blue, when you never received a single question from the student.

I tried to follow up etc but it honestly never helped.

Just take in the feedback if there's any, reply politely and move on

[Jorge Guera Pires, PhD]

Moreover, the pain never really goes away; even after more than 10 courses, seeing your rating destroyed by a bad review is hurtful. 

[RonErez]

Actually I addressed certain students' complaint and messaged them directly. Some ignored but after I updated my videos in response to their constructive criticism two students updated there review and it seems like a third is on his way.

Definitely a bummer to get a bad review though. I had a couple of weeks of really bad reviews followed by amazing reviews.

Try to pinpoint the issue on your side if there is any issue. In my case it turns out that my course is not absolute beginner friendly and in addition I overdid it with the zoom in.

Of course if someone gives a bad review with no constructive criticism then it's absolutely useless. You could message them directly though and ask how you can help them.

Good luck !

[RonErez]

Hi Dan,

I respond to the student and in addition I message them directly and ask them if there is anyway I can help, etc. Obviously if they don't leave any comments then it's much harder to address the issue. I did actually have around 3-4 students the later updated the review due to my changes. But these were usually students that actually wrote something or at least responded to my message. My course has been out for a year. Started around 5 stars. After several months in a two week period I received several bad reviews taking it down to a 3.9. Sales drop for the next two months. Suddenly the course rating went back up to 4.8 for two reasons I think. People left good reviews again. Oddly enough there were some days that no one left a review but that rating went up so maybe old reviews expire depending on engagement of the reviewer? Still haven't figure that out. Now my course is down to 4.4. Towards the end of last month two students left bad reviews and immediately sales dropped.

The worst case when a student left a really bad review and when I tried to contact the student he was no longer part of the course. I asked Udemy to remove the review since I have no way to remedy the issue since the student is gone. Udemy was not willing to remove the review.

Hopefully you'll get better reviews and I hope the bad review will go away. It's definitely significant when the course is new.

Just a tip. There was a review that I responded to in detail but no matter how I phrased it one could feel my anger. So I asked chatgpt to rephrase my response in a friendly manner. Pretty amazing.

Good luck and I hope you get better reviews

[Jorge Guera Pires, PhD]

"Oddly enough there were some days that no one left a review but that rating went up so maybe old reviews expire depending on engagement of the reviewer" indeed, it is very strange, also happens to me.

You summarized all, and very well.

It also happened to me someone left a bad review and left the course.

My feeling is that we have too much false positive: the course is badly reviewed, but it is not true. 

Sadly, it seems Udemy is not willing to value the instructor.

They seem like Elon Musk, that sees X as a war field. When I am teaching on Udemy, I feel that I could be attacked from anywhere. One person left a bad review because I have forgotten to close the browser window, which I have closed during the course, with a jazz music. I have tried to find the place, I was unable. I know he must be right since I like to listen that music. I have have forgotten and closed very fast, and it was enough for the person to make a big deal of it. 

[RonErez]

In that case I ask them in which lecture was the issue. For instance someone asked a valid question in the review. I responded and recommended they post questions in the Q&A instead of the review. Another student complained that the course is shallow. I asked in what sense, which topic, if they feel something is missing they can just ask and I can see what I can do.

The majority of reviews are very good and it's easy to focus on the bad reviews.

I think it's cool that you have some Jazz music in the background. They could have simply wrote to you in the Q&A of that specific lecture.

Best to focus on the positive.

[Jorge Guera Pires, PhD]

The person left! 

[RonErez]

Oh, I see.

I actually wrote to Udemy that I'm worried about the whereabouts of my missing student.

I don't know how one can take seriously a review from a student that is no longer with us.

[KevinBurns301]

I find it tough too. Four courses in, few sales recently and a lot of sweat and red eyes looking at the computer screen while making courses.  I guess we pull our sleeves up and struggle on?  I remember reading a post by a female instructor, who had thought about giving up, but didn't.  She continued on and made her tenth course, which took off.  She was finally making an income every month.  That is what I hope for me and for all of us here. My fifth course will be finished soon.  I try to ignore the negative reviews unless I can reply and say something positive.  I try to learn from them if there is anything valuable to learn.  Let's be honest too, some people simply need to complain.