It is important to emphasize that negative comments are not a threat, however they are an opportunity to convert unsatisfied users/clients into loyal users/clients.
Dealing with negative comments on social media is different than dealing with “regular” complaints received by phone, chat or email and it is too easy to turn a social media complaint into a whole disaster. It is important that your business understands a couple things about how to handle negative comments on social media.
- Never ignore or delete a negative comment
Social media is public. Every time someone writes a bad comment about your product or services, the whole social media audience can see it. People will judge you based on how quickly you responded, what was your reaction, and the solution you offered.
You might think that no one will notice a negative review, but internet users are specially interested on those. If you don’t react, they will draw the conclusion, that you don’t care about your customers.
I know, you might be tempted to remove them, but you should never, ever do that.
If you remove a real comment from an upset customer, you can be sure they will come back: louder, angrier and more frustrated. Deleting a bad comment will show that you are not a true and honest brand.
- Respond calmly and politely.
We all know that it’s hard not to take it personal when someone leaves a bad comment or a review. It gets even harder when you’ve been doing your best to satisfy your customers and make your business awesome.
Of course, you won’t be able to satisfy everyone, but there’s one thing you need to remember. Among negative comments, you will find both: your dissatisfied customers and Internet trolls. And while you should try to make things right with your customers, you need to address negative reviewers as soon as possible. Remember to keep calm in every circumstance. if you let yourself vent in public, you will be judged by your behavior and that’s the last thing you want!
What you should do when you’re talking with an angry customer or troll? Try the following suggestions:
- thank them for their opinion: something like a short “thanks for reaching us” should be good.
- apologize for any inconvenience: Express how sorry you feel for the inconvenience, like“sorry to hear that you’re having problems with…” and ask how you can help them.
- encourage them to send you a private message: It’s important that people see that you respond and you’re interested in your customer’s opinions. Moreover, is not to discuss your problems in public! Deal with it behind curtains.
- Respond as soon as possible.
You should respond at your earliest convenience. Try to aim for responding within 15 minutes to make a good impression, but if you’re not able to do that, try to respond in an hour.
According to some research, 42% of your customers will expect a 60 minutes response time and 32% of them expect a response within 30 minutes! Most of the customers or users expect a response time at night and on weekends as during normal business hours.
The faster you respond, the better you’ll look, remember that in the eyes of the social media, there is no mercy, no excuse!
An adequate strategy at the moment to handle negative comments will allow you to identify the problems of your brand, business or organization, and solve them efficiently. As a result you will give more efficient answers and will be prepared for similar situations in the future.
Have you faced similar situations? What strategies have you followed to resolve the situation? Share with us in the comments.
Also, if you or any business in your organization needs help getting more positive reviews and isolating negative ones before they reach review stage, check out ProsperWalk’s review management tool. Click here for more info.