How to Handle Listener Feedback – Episode 103

[MUSIC IN – GHOSTHOOD FEATURING SARA AZRIEL “LET’S GO” BEGINS]

MARY: Feedback. In the podcasting world, it’s actually quite hard to get feedback from your listeners. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard a podcaster say, feedback? What feedback? That doesn’t exist. But when you really think about it, there is feedback that you can get. It is scattered all over the Internet.

You know, there’s reviews on podcast apps that people listen to. There are also new things like comments on Spotify. There’s also the dreaded comments on YouTube because I feel like they’re mostly full of trolls. But it also is feedback whether you like it or not. And I think the best kind of feedback is the type you get from a listener email. Those ones are the best because usually those are like, I really love this. And here’s a piece of critical feedback that I think you can improve on. Those are usually the best because those are your hardcore listeners. They actually do the hard work of finding your email address and emailing you. You know, that’s multiple, multiple steps and something easy like reviews on an app or a comment on an app that they’re already using. Right?

However, it’s that negative feedback that we also get from, like, the trolls, the comments that are easily part of social media, right? It’s easy to just type in a comment, whether good or bad, because you can hide behind your screen. So when, as a podcaster, we do get that negative feedback, we start to second guess ourselves. Oh, no, they hate the show. They don’t like how I sound as a host. They don’t get what the show is actually all about. Like, what am I doing with this thing? Ugh, the imposter syndrome really comes through.

Not all feedback is negative. It can also be about your audio quality that you can actually do something about. There could also be chemistry with your guests. Maybe you guys run on too many tangents. And in fact, one review could say the show is great, and then the next review could also say the show is crap. So reviews are so subjective.

But I want a little reset here to reclaim some of this feedback that you’re getting. What if we took a step back to evaluate what is really being said behind that feedback and use it to amplify and improve our show? What if bad feedback actually matters? Let’s turn this fear of judgment into a collaborative advantage.

This is episode number 103 on the Podcaster’s Guide to a Visible Voice.

<< WOMAN SINGS: So so so so let’s go >>

MARY: I’m not on Reddit too often. I don’t actually have an account. I just like peruse and one of those Reddit lurkers in the background.

[INTRO MUSIC ENDS]

What I love about it is that it’s such a great resource for checking in on very specific and niche topics like podcasting. You know, what is the collective Internet hive mind thinking about podcasting? And one such subreddit that I easily go down the rabbit hole is what is the best and worst feedback you’ve received from your podcast audience?

When I was reading it, it made me feel part of the podcast creator community, right? Like oh, yeah, we hear this all the time. Yes, we get something similar to that too, you know. We ask for those ratings and reviews, yet we don’t like to read the bad ones. I mean, honestly, who does, right?

In the subreddit, Danny Brown Captivate, says worst I don’t understand a word because of your stupid accent. Oh, harsh. Another example, bastard of young, they host a true crime podcast with his wife. And so the worst review was, the husband has zero personality. It would be better if it was just the wife. Ouch. So, yeah, we ask for the ratings and reviews. Yet sometimes we get that stuff, which isn’t nice. It’s not nice to read, but we ask for them.

But why do we even ask for them? Apple Podcasts was the one that started all of this ratings and reviews stuff. And even on their website for Apple Podcasts for Creators, it says that ratings and reviews do not influence charts or search. So when everybody’s saying, please rate and review, it does great things for the algorithm. Eh, eh, eh. [NO NO NO TYPE NOISE] It actually does not.

And I always say to podcasters, yes, it’s nice to get a rating, review and things like that, but when you’re starting your show, don’t do it. Don’t ask them to rate and review. It’s a waste of audio real estate. When you’re an independent show, you’re just beginning. What you want to do at this very beginning stages, is work on the show itself. Fine tune it, figure out what you’re really doing, and how you show up behind the microphone, the format of your show, how you present something. And once you get that flow going and you know what’s going on, you can start asking for ratings and reviews because you’ve learned a lot since episode one. Now you’re like, okay, I’m in my groove. I would love to hear your feedback on how I can improve my show, right? Eventually you can throw this in, but really, the ratings and reviews is for the credibility of your show, to grow the show. Right, where other listeners can see these quality reviews as they explore new shows to listen to and understand the community of committed fans that you have on your show.

But when you’re just starting out, growing your show isn’t your number one priority. It’s doing the work and learning from each episode that you create. Podcasting is a long game. So you want to fine-tune your show before you start asking for reviews. Because I’m gonna be honest, the first episode is never the greatest episode when you are doing this, especially all by yourself as an independent show.

But I get it. It is so nice to actually see a review. I mean, I’m not an Apple user, but I do go on Apple Podcasts on the web version every now and then to look for other things. And then I was like, oh, yeah, I’ve got my show. Maybe I should click on that. [LAUGHTS] Leave me a rating and review if you want. I click on that. I’m like, oh, yeah, okay. Still the same. Okay, yeah, this is good. I’ve got one or two bad ones. Like they all do. They can’t all be five stars. I don’t want to tell you to rate five stars just because that’s what everybody does. I want you to have an honest review if you are going review my show. So thank you in advance if you plan on reviewing on Apple Podcasts.

However, like I was saying, it is nice to also, not just credibility of your show when you have quality reviews, but also that it fuels you to continue to do what you do because you are getting that positive feedback loop right. So it is, it is nice to see. I get it.

You know, in the last episode, episode 102, with my former voice instructors from radio school, Kat Stewart and Kevin Ribble, we talked a lot about judgment and the fear around it, and how it impacts your voice and your podcast. You know, as hosts, when we read those random reviews or comments that aren’t providing the love that we hope we’d get, we start second-guessing ourselves, questioning everything and our choices. Should I edit that part? Maybe I should lower my voice so that I sound more professional. What if I say this, will it ruin the show? Will they even like the story that I want to share? Right, like all of these things starts ruminating in your mind. So how do we process that judgment, that fear, and how do we use it to our advantage?

[MUSIC IN]

Let’s reframe some of these reviews and feedback as collaboration. If it’s from an email, that’s a win for you. Like I said off the top, they went through a lot of steps to actually email you. They really wanted you to know this information. so you have a direct access of a dialogue, a two-way conversation about what they thought about the show.

You know, ask about their train of thought. If they didn’t mention a specific episode, ask which one and at which point in the episode were they listening to when they thought of this comment that they left you, this feedback. so you can pinpoint and actually make reference to certain parts and listen to that part of the episode yourself for that feedback, and how it affects how you created that episode.

So ask, what were you thinking at that point in the episode? It might not just be a surface complaint, and they can actually give you some really good critical feedback behind that comment, and you’ll understand why they thought that.

But most of the time, the reviews and the comments that you do get, they aren’t open for discussion, right? It’s a one-way thing. They post a comment, they hit enter, and it’s done. Either way, start tracking your feedback, especially particular negative feedback. If you start seeing or hearing some of the same things, not over and over again, but maybe two or three times, it could mean that they’re onto something across all of your listeners. But these are the only people that have said something to you. Definitely signals that you’ll need to take a look at that.

You’ll also want to identify any positives. Yes, that might sound like oh, positive vibes and yay, yay and all that. And always looking on the bright side. So let me just say though, you can still feel the feelings of the bad review. Like yes, sometimes it just stings. So yes, acknowledge that you got a bad review. This sucks. But let’s get back to using this as a collaboration point. That positive side of things, what did they like that you can repeat for future episodes? You might have to read a little bit between the lines. Or maybe it was a one liner comment that was just bad. Right, like the early ones I mentioned. And that’s fine, take that for what it’s worth. And if there’s no positives, move on.

And as I said earlier, a lot of this feedback is subjective. They don’t like the sound of the music. Well, you know what, music is subjective. But if the feedback is more concrete, like for example, everything goes quiet around the 23 minute mark and then it comes back really loud again. That’s annoying! When you read, that’s annoying, yeah, but the positive part of that feedback is that you can actually do something about this. This is just a technical problem that you can fix in the mix. You know that, hey, for some reason the volume dropped here. Why did that happen? How can I fix it? And what could I then do next time for my episode that I do not repeat that happening again?

[MUSIC OUT]

Earlier I also mentioned tracking feedback, but I didn’t actually touch on how to do that. So when you do track feedback, make sure it’s in a place that you can categorize and filter. So like a Google Doc or maybe a email folder, maybe a spreadsheet with all the comments in there. Whatever it is, make sure you can tag or filter them so that this is part of the tracking system.

For example, you want to tag or filter for the positive reviews, so you can repeat these things or just give yourself a jolt of energy when you need it.

Another label you can use is constructive. So this is something that you want to take action on. Like that example of, oh yeah, everything goes quiet around the 23 minute mark. So these are the things that you can evaluate and improve for your show.

Another tag or filter is unclear, especially if you’re able to have some open dialogue with the listener. You can tag the comment this way because then you can reply to the email, or the Spotify comment, and you can follow up to make sure you fully understand what they meant by that feedback.

So having a place to track everything can help you with these steps, right? It doesn’t have to be the full comment or if it is highlight or bold, the sections that you actually mean to filter and tag for that positive, constructive or unclear feedback.

And once you have it all filtered in that triage, is to prioritize what are the next steps, what do you need to respond to? So, like that constructive tag, you can actually do something about that feedback and change it for your next episode, right? For that positive feedback, maybe you want to thank that listener, or maybe it is part of the unclear and you want them to explain their train of thought and invite that open dialogue. So make sure there’s some next steps that you can do to follow up with any of the feedback that you receive.

[MUSIC IN]

So here’s the challenge. On your next episode, the next time you’re recording or editing a show or publishing and putting it out there, I challenge you to gather any recent feedback that you received. And you might think you don’t have any, as I said at the top of the show. But yes, even comments from social posts count. Heck, even if you’re in the early stages, family and friends count too. But take those with a grain of salt, as some critiques get real personal, right? That’s not your regular listener. This is family or friends that know you so, so well. So gather that feedback and then triage it. Right, go through the process from earlier, track it, review it, look for that collaborative feedback that you can use and respond to it if you need to. So even a thank you goes a long way to maintaining a long time listener.

So let me know how that process goes for you. Or what I would actually love is for you to share some of your negative feedback that you’ve gotten. Have you gotten any negative feedback? I have one Apple Podcast review right after I posted my trailer, which I know is not a legitimate review because I told nobody about this trailer that I posted and there were no episodes to follow and they just said, oh, this person doesn’t sound authentic. And that was a gut, like stabbed to the gut, stabbed to the heart when I first read it. And then I was like, no, no, no, wait a minute, why are they reviewing my trailer? I don’t even have any episodes out. They’re just randomly commenting on shows. So. [HEAVY EXHALE] Right, acknowledge your feelings, mmm. And then move on. Because to me, that was not a legit critical feedback review.

But please share some of your negative feedback with me. I’d love to hear it. It’s nice to hear how others are doing in this creative space of podcasting to share our fears and our judgments of the reviews that we get. And then hearing, of course, how you’re overcoming them to make your podcast better.

So share your stories through a voice note on my website, visiblevoicepodcast.com, there’s a purple send voicemail button. Or email is great too. Like I said, if you actually email, I know that you went through lots of steps to send me your thoughts and I would love to read some of those too. visiblevoicepodcast@gmail.com.

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On the next episode, we journey with another first-time podcaster as they rope in a broadcasting professional as their podcast wingman of sorts to create their own show. Brilliant plan. So we’ll hear all about their fears as well as they came up with the concept and started recording for their podcast.

I’ll have Jamie Weiss and Darren Dukes, two of the three co-hosts of Island Miles, a running podcast which is very local to where I live, and I used to work with Jamie. So we’re gonna hear about how Darren wanted this podcast. He had no idea how to create one, but he knew Jamie had a broadcasting background, and a podcast was born. I love it.

So we’re going to hear what their challenges are and what can a broadcaster really do to help support a newbie podcaster, and hopefully you’ll get some tips from that as well. You’ll find out on the next episode, so we’ll talk to you then.

[OUTRO MUSIC IN – SHOW CLOSE]

<< GHOSTHOOD FEATURING SARA AZRIEL “LET’S GO” BEGINS >>

MARY: Thank you so much for listening to the Podcaster’s Guide to a Visible Voice. If you enjoyed this episode, I’d love it if you shared it with a podcasting friend. And to reveal more voicing and podcasting tips, click on over to visiblevoicepodcast.com.

<< WOMAN SINGS: Let’s go >>

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