We here at Shugarman’s Bath have had the privilege of helping homeowners in San Diego County and Orange County. From installing someone’s dream bath setup to making showers safer for older customers, we always strive to deliver quality workmanship. We always want our customers to have the best experience and not worry about their project from start to finish.
That said, we’ll be the first to say it: we’ve had times where we messed up. As we like to say, “human happens,” meaning our team is human. We don’t get everything perfect. Even as we improve and learn from our past mistakes, those negative experiences aren’t undone.
We’d rather tell you the truth. We make mistakes from time to time. As hard as it is to admit that we’ve messed up at times, we still choose to own our mistakes and take accountability to make things right.
In this article, we’ll go into why reviews matter, how Shugarman’s Bath handles negative reviews, how they’ve helped our business, and what to look for when reviewing companies.
Every Review Matters. Yes, Even the Negative Ones.
Reviews have high importance to us. It lets us know how we’re performing as a company.
More than that, they are, of course, important to you, too. After all, they are the equivalent of community advice. Reviews help homeowners decide who they can trust and who they should avoid like the plague.
Without reviews, a company loses credibility. The same goes for unresolved negative reviews.
Reviews should also show whether a company can back up its claims, meaning they either reinforce or challenge what is marketed.
Common Reasons Behind Negative Reviews
The bad reviews Shugarman’s Bath has received are legitimate. These are real frustrations homeowners have experienced during their bathtub or shower remodeling process. Human happens.
Based on past feedback, concerns included:
- Project delays
- Missed or unclear communication
- Complications during installation
- Scheduling challenges
- Mistakes that should have been caught earlier
These patterns help the team identify where expectations may have been broken down and where future communication, planning, or consistency can be strengthened.
So, How Does Shugarman’s Bath View Negative Reviews?
Everything below five stars or a stellar review is something we need to fix and learn from. Whether they are public reviews, direct phone calls, or a post-install survey, we treat them all equally seriously.
Less-than-stellar reviews are treated as an urgent matter. The reviews are forwarded to relevant department managers and leadership. From there, the team begins an investigation to find out exactly what happened.
The team evaluates the negative reviews as opportunities to evaluate communication, installation, processes, timelines, and policy consistency.
What Happens at Shugarman’s Bath Internally When A Bad Review Arrives
With many companies, you see the usual, “I’m sorry that happened,” without saying much more or doing anything to fix the issue. We take our reviews very seriously. Here’s what we do:
1. Immediate Review and Internal Investigation
The process begins as soon as the review is posted.
- If it involves the scheduling team, the team pulls out all the notes and recorded calls.
- If the issue comes from production, the production manager examines project photos, internal communication, scheduling, and installation details.
The managers then put together a point-by-point summary comparing the customer’s review with internal documentation. Joy Jewell, General Manager at Shugarman’s Bath, refers to this as “conducting an autopsy,” meaning they analyze the situation carefully to understand how the customer’s experience unfolded.
2. Determining the Root Cause
From there, the team determines what the issue is:
- A one-time mistake
- A communication breakdown
- A missed deadline
- An installation error
- A gap in the company’s processes or policy
We don’t want to place blame on anyone or get anyone in trouble. The intent is to understand where improvements can or need to happen.
After an investigation, how is feedback shared with a team?
- If the issue was a one-off mistake, the manager discusses it privately with the specific employee.
- If the issue suggests an inconsistency, it becomes a topic in the next team meeting, possibly leading to updated policies.
Starting with Private Outreach
We’re not going to reply publicly without first understanding the reviewer's perspective and fixing what we did wrong. The team first reaches out to the customer directly. This is to prioritize understanding and address the issue one-on-one before replying publicly.
Speaking with the reviewer offers an opportunity to reach a resolution or obtain additional clarification. Once those steps are complete, the team prepares a public response that reflects what was learned and the actions taken.
Responding to negative feedback does take a little longer. The focus is on resolving the concern privately before summarizing the outcome online.
Note: We publicly respond to all reviews, whether they are positive or negative.
How Public Responses Are Written
A trick for knowing whether a company is professional is to see how they respond publicly to a review. We’re sure you’ve gotten the ick when you see a company that doesn't respond well to feedback.
We don’t want to argue, shift blame, or get defensive. From our point of view, a public response is to:
- Acknowledge the customer’s experience
- Communicate that the issue was investigated
- Accept responsibility where appropriate
- Fix the issue to prevent it from happening again
- Reflect genuine care and professionalism toward a customer we disappointed.
When all is said and done, we prioritize empathy and accountability in every response.
An Example of How One Review Changed a Company Policy
We’re not proud of this happening, but it did. One homeowner said they wanted to keep their old shower doors. Unfortunately, one of our installers hauled them away. Installers typically asked homeowners this question, but it was never an official company-wide policy.
Because Joy couldn’t confidently say the process was consistent with all installers, this review exposed a gap in policy.
As a result, Shugarman’s Bath created a new company standard: Every installer must ask homeowners what they want to keep before any demolition begins. This is now part of the installer’s formal introduction process.
How Negative Reviews Connect to Values at Shugarman’s Bath
Negative reviews tie back to two of our four company values:
1. Growth
Feedback is how Shugarman’s Bath knows what we are doing correctly and what needs improvement.
2. Heart
Negative reviews aren’t something to be brushed off. Employees at every level care about customer service and satisfaction. And when names are mentioned in a review, those people are affected by it. They care about making things right.
What to Look For When Reading Negative Reviews
Of course, take the review on itself for what it’s worth. More than that, look at how the company responds. As we said before, if they give you the ick, listen to that gut feeling.
Here’s what to look for in a contractor:
- They take responsibility
- They avoid putting blame on the customer
- They explain how the issue was addressed
- Their tone is empathetic and professional
And if you see a company being dismissive in their replies or they keep shifting responsibility to the homeowner, take that as a red flag.
Take note of the timeline of reviews
There have been instances of companies that consistently had terrible reviews for some years. However, they consistently had more five-star reviews over the span of a few years to today.
What does this mean? This means a company took their feedback seriously and had to do some serious introspection to get better. It’s sort of like they went to therapy (finally).
Some Contractors Reply to Reviews for Show
With some contractors, you might see a lazy reply that reads something like:
“Hi. We’re sorry this happened to you. At [Insert Contractor Name], we always want you to have a positive experience. Please, email us at [insert contractor customer satisfaction email].”
On its face, this response looks fine, right? Well, this response is kind of dodging the issue. It’s a contractor posting a reply to show they’ve replied. They haven’t shown they’ve been investigating on their end or are actively doing anything to fix the situation.
Taking Accountability and Fixing Our Mistakes
It’s uncomfortable putting ourselves on blast for negative reviews. We’ve made mistakes. Human happens. Thankfully, we’ve learned to turn the bad experiences around and understand how to make things right for our customers. It’s why we still respond to each bad review with an internal investigation, direct communication with the customer, and respond with accountability and care.
When comparing other bathtub and shower remodeling companies, this is why we tell homeowners to look at how a company responds to negative reviews on public platforms. How they react to a negative review says a lot about a business.
It’s why we encourage you to look at Shugarman’s Bath Google and Yelp reviews to see how we respond to bad reviews. Have a first-hand look at how we handle discontented clients.
Next, take a look at our article on how we turned a one-star review into a five-star review.
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